Took delivery of my new 1.6 Octavia company car on Thursday - I'm well impressed so far- especially with the heater !

The car fleet manager at work, who's a bit of a car snob, looked at the quality and said 'I don't know why they just don't put a VW badge on it'

Regrettably, I've only been able to drive it in the dark, in the snow, or in the snow in the dark so far, and we've already had one (very slow speed) introduction to the kerb - turning on a downhill slope on snow on top of ice, could have been a very embarassing return to work, especially as the last car the company bought (a few weeks ago) didn't survive its first weekend

Going through the documentation, I can't find any reference to any first year breakdown/recovery cover - I thought that was standard on all new cars these days, am I wrong ?

Took delivery of my new 1.6 Octavia company car on Thursday - I'm well impressed so far- especially with the heater !

The car fleet manager at work, who's a bit of a car snob, looked at the quality and said 'I don't know why they just don't put a VW badge on it'

Regrettably, I've only been able to drive it in the dark, in the snow, or in the snow in the dark so far, and we've already had one (very slow speed) introduction to the kerb - turning on a downhill slope on snow on top of ice, could have been a very embarassing return to work, especially as the last car the company bought (a few weeks ago) didn't survive its first weekend

Going through the documentation, I can't find any reference to any first year breakdown/recovery cover - I thought that was standard on all new cars these days, am I wrong ?

You should get 3 years Skoda Assist (which is actually the AA) - standard part of the Skoda package. My dealer just gave me a photcopied sheet with the callout numbers on it! No flashy card or anything.

Pleased for you, now get some pictures up

Yep, Skoda Assist (provided by the RAC) for 3 years:

http://www.skoda.co.uk/pdf/17569%20SkodaAssistHbk_v9.pdf

It's the vehicle that's covered, not the driver/owner.

Thank you, chaps - I'll get some photo's up when its warm enough to go outside :-)

I've just whiled away an hour (in the bath) reading the handbook - I've never come across so many words that communicated such little sense - what is my second speed and why should I care if its in miles or kilometres ? And what's the point of the almost-invisible dark red ink that makes the diagrams utterly undecipherable ? - Expect a lot of questions from me, I can't make head nor tail of the handbook.

The manuals do seem to be a bad example of Czenglish unfortunately :(... At least the cars are very good ...

Thank you, chaps - I'll get some photo's up when its warm enough to go outside :-)

I've just whiled away an hour (in the bath) reading the handbook - I've never come across so many words that communicated such little sense - what is my second speed and why should I care if its in miles or kilometres ? And what's the point of the almost-invisible dark red ink that makes the diagrams utterly undecipherable ? - Expect a lot of questions from me, I can't make head nor tail of the handbook.

I hope you didn't get it all soggy!

I hope you didn't get it all soggy!

Could have got it soaking for all the use it is !. What's ASR ? The brochure says the car has ASR. The dashboard has an ASR on/off button of which the manual makes no mention !

While I'm here can anybody recommend a cheap and reliable source of decent car mats - as its a company car and they wont pay for them, I want some as cheap as poss. as long as they are reasonable quality

ASR is anti-slip regulation traction control (it's in the glossary at the back of the brochure).

anti-slip......

so not something I want to be turning off in the current conditions then