rap1

It is covered by warranty, obviously depending on what the problem is, as I had my vRS Octavia compressor and condenser replaced at 27000miles without having to quibble at all.

Good luck with the Ford. I'm missing my vRS TSI already!

My Facelift 2011 on 18in Zeniths as standard had the best handling of any car I've owned. Yes very slightly noisier from the rear space but not by much

Sorry to hear yours has failed too. Mine went (became noisy) last spring, even though I always turned it on for at least 20 minutes a couple of times a week even in winter as VW group and other makes recommend, just to keep the compressor lubricated and the gas stirred. Took mine to dealer as was in warranty period and when I collected it later that day they told me they'd replaced the condenser and compressor and re-gassed due to it having leaked out causing the failure!! Doesn't seem to be a robust system at all and if they're failing like so many of them are, surely Skoda or VAG Group should be footing the bill for everything as that seems a totally unreasonable durability in my opinion. Thankfully mine was till in warranty!!!

Definitely need to go for Sunset. Had it on my black estate and it added a much more elegant look to the car. Not too dark at all but great in hot sun in the back.

FAIL !!

For anyone interested, the car is now up for sale for £13,000 at Sinclair Skoda, Swansea. A seriously great buy for someone who wants a very well maintained car with ALL the toys.

The switches were on the rear centre console below the air vents

The rear heated seats weren't a UK option but the dealership had the many options fitted to this Car for demo purposes so Skoda agreed to fit at their build stage. Next car is on my drive already and is a brand new VW CC Tdi GT with some more extras including rear view camera and folding mirrors. The car came with so many features fitted as standard. It better be as good as the Octavia was. What a car.

Up-date: Car is now sold

Decided to sell my beloved 2011 facelift TSi Estate with almost every possible optional extra fitted at a cost of over £7,300 making this an almost unique specimen! The car is in showroom condition with no dents, scratches or blemishes and totally un-scuffed 18 inch Neptune alloy wheels with four near new Continental Sport Contact 5 tyres. With 36,000 miles on the clock, full main dealer Skoda service history and the next major service (40,000mls) already paid for in the service plan there is nothing to pay for the next owner. At new owner cost the car's warranty can be extended if desired to 4 or 5 years as it is under 3 yrs old (will be in Mar 2014). It has never been 'chipped' or raced and is totally original in every respect. A totally superb-looking car with the following optional extras fitted: Black Magic Pearl paint, silver roof rails, sunset glass from B pillars back, full leather vRS upholstery,(no sagging or cracks/ marks) heated front AND rear seats (rare option). Columbus DVD Sat Nav with large screen, Maxi-Dot computer display, DSG and full multi-function steering wheel, Bluetooth, Adaptive (cornering) Xenon headlights with auto function, Front & Rear parking sensors with optical display screen, Curtain airbags, Jumbo storage box. As standard the car has heated adjustable door mirrors and cruise control and all the usual equipment. Reason for sale?? I just get bored with cars and need a change, even though this car has been one of, if not THE best and most versatile I've ever owned. The car is totally HP free as was bought outright by me from my local dealership (receipt available for viewing). Selling for a bargain price of £13,500 ovno. Only Serious bidders message me if interested but no time-wasters please. (I'm having issues posting my pics but can e-mail them to anyone who needs them)

Excellent. Thanks for posting the gallery

Love the white with black pack. Saw one in dealers yesterday and together with sunset glass looked really good. I'm on the verge of buying one and I think white it'll be! Thanks for sharing

Looks a bit bad there with the black pillar. Love the standard all silver though..

I'm in total agreement with Leon-y-k 's post above as this is what I'm getting on my daily commute 14 miles each way to work on a 50/60 mph A road which means I'm usually in a line of traffic doing between 45 to 55mph. And yes, the petrol is very good for that occasional spectacular overtake!!

Mine does the change down also but not from 6th to 3rd, depends on the length of time I press the brake on the downhill and it also seems to know if a very steep gradient so will go from 6th to 5th then 4th and if I have slowed speed down enough but still press on brake it will continue changing down appropriately. What I now do is to anticipate this on familiar roads and use my flappy paddle to downshift manually one gear which prevents the auto downshift into sometimes unnecessarily low gears which cause high revving.

Nice balanced opinions in this thread. I also love the DSG box in my vRS TSi...so smooth and calm in most situations with gear changes almost undetectable. Yet use of either the paddles or a heavy right foot can turn the car into a raging beast with massive speeds on the clock in no time at all, still with ultra quick and smooth changes. A very relaxing car to drive normally though over great distances. Mine's almost done 30,000mls from new so reliability ok so far. This is the 6 speed 'wet' box as opposed to the 7 spd 'dry' unit that seems so troublesome.

Yes all cured and discs bedded in nicely now, still looking great

I see, thanks for the explanation. You're right, we do tend only to hear about the bad news on forums but I do find that there are trends to be aware of and these are helpful to keep in mind for when things do go wrong.

Does anyone on here know if these air-con units they're fitting to Octavias nowadays are either not fit for purpose or at least are slightly suspect? I only ask this as I've read a few posts in various places now about some issues with these and only last week to my amazement my own vRS had its complete condenser unit replaced, thankfully under warranty and without a quibble, during its 29,000mls service after I'd mentioned at the check-in time that there was a slight whining sound from the air-con pump which developed over a month or so, even though the unit still kept the car very cool. I mean, my daughter's VW 1.6 SE Golf has 157,000 mls on the clock and all its air-con's had is a service/ re-gas 2yrs ago and on some previous services throughout its life!! How come the difference??

See my posts on this very subject. My Dealer garage replaced my rears and pads at 25000 miles because they got to a terrible state but I'd been complaining about them since before 10,000 miles when they started to look like yours. If you let them go you will probably fail the first MOT on them at 3yrs so start mentioning it to your service manager a.s.a.p. is my humble advice.

Up-date: Due to this problem recurring and getting much worse on both rear discs between 13000 and 25000 miles, Skoda garage (Sinclair Swansea)replaced both plus their pads for free under their customer care scheme. All Skoda workshop tests showed that the car's braking was within MOT tolerances with no unevenness so Skoda UK deemed themselves unable to pay fully for replacement. However, due to their unsightly rusty, scored appearance together with nasty pulsing feeling when braking the garage management, after representations on my behalf by the service manager (Simeon) agreed to contribute to costs under 'Customer Care' reasoning with Skoda UK funding the rest. Good result due to patient persistence.

Up-date: Due to this problem recurring and abnd getting much worse on both rear discs between 13000 and 25000 miles, Skoda garage (Sinclair Swansea)replaced both plus their pads for free under their customer care scheme. All Skoda workshop tests showed that the car's braking was within MOT tolerances with no unevenness so Skoda UK deemed themselves unable to pay fully for replacement. However, due to their unsightly rusty, scored appearance together with nasty pulsing feeling when braking the garage management, after representations on my behalf by the service manager (Simeon) agreed to contribute to costs under 'Customer Care' reasoning with Skoda UK funding the rest. Good result due to patient persistence.

I have seen this happen a couple of years ago on VW group discs on a Mk4 Golf we own not long after fitting brand new OEM discs and pads on the front. One disc went badly rusted and scored within 18 mths which really was annoyingngiven how well we try to look after our cars here. I replaced them with non OEM, better quality, discs for less money and these are still un-marked with no rust at all. Why?? OEM Just Not made from quality materials any more.

Very bad rust and scoring on braking surface of both the back discs