Popped into my local dealer at the weekend to get some engine oil for topping up and whilst waiting for the guy at the desk to serve me, had a quick look at the Octavia Elegance estate in the showroom. Was surprised to find that the armrest cappings are now hard shiny plastic as opposed to my 55 plates soft touch finish. Also found the lighting dial to be in hard plastic now as opposed to with soft touch.

Has anyone else noticed? I think it takes away a bit of the 'premium' feel of the Octavia's quality. Wonder if it's to cut costs or whether there are durability issues with the soft touch finish (peeling?).

I had a Volvo V40 once and all the controls surfaces and control knobs were soft touch, felt great but all started to peel off within 6 months, the dealer got fed up with changing them under warranty! Have no problems with my current octavia 2007 4X4 or my last one an elegance estate 2005 1.9.

Yeah, they did the same thing with the Mk1 Seat Leon door handles. We bought a 2nd hand Leon and the soft-touch handles were in a terrible state, so I ordered some replacements to smarten it up.

When they arrived, I was a bit disappointed to see they were now made in hard plastic. Having said that, they are completely unmarked now after 3 years, so obviously much more hard wearing.

Which part are the cappings?

Is that the bit at the top of the door card? that is notorious for wearing. Also, the A pillar trim where the seat belt adjuster lives is now hard plastic compared to that fabric-like crap they used before which frays badly and gets FILTHY!

Changes like this are purely for durability considering the effort Skoda have put into the other areas of the interior facelift.

I dont know exactly which part the OP was referring to, but I have also had a look around a facelift elegance and can confirm that the actual door pulls (the vertical part you grab to close the door) are now in the harder plastic - at least on the passenger side where I was sitting.

I would expect the same materials all round, including the differently-shaped pull on the driver's side that contains the elec. window switches etc.

I dont know exactly which part the OP was referring to, but I have also had a look around a facelift elegance and can confirm that the actual door pulls (the vertical part you grab to close the door) are now in the harder plastic - at least on the passenger side where I was sitting.

I would expect the same materials all round, including the differently-shaped pull on the driver's side that contains the elec. window switches etc.

Yes - that's the part I was referring to! Seems a shame as the soft touch feel in these areas looks and feels so much better than the shiney hard plastic.

I'd rather have the hard plastic. My elegance has the soft touchy feely plastic, and in the 3 1/2 years since the car was new it has not faired to well and has started to break up.

Volkswagen do the same - my first 04 MKV Golf and my first MKV 06 GTI had higher quality plastics in certain areas (drivers electric window switches - no sharp edges and climatronic dials rubberised outers) than my 57 Plate GTI. I was led to believe the changes were the result of cost cutting as the MKV was notoriously expensive to produce.

One thing that smacks of cheapness in my VRS is the lack of vanity lights for the mirrors housed in the sun visors.