Taking a lead from DocOc except it's 2 weeks in not 2 days...

I've done 1000 miles and impressions so far:

• I still love it. It feels and looks good - which actually motivated me to polish it after week one even though it was still pretty clean.
  
• Feels like a light-weight small car but firmly grounded - this is great and this feeling is probably a combination of power and sports suspension as it is neither light nor small.
  
• Mem1 mpg on the commute of 90 miles round trip with approx 60% motorway, 25% main road twisties and 15% stop-start city roads is about 43.
  
• Mem2 mpg over the total 1000 miles is 37.9 (I was getting about 47 overall mpg in my old 130bhp Mondeo TDCI) - this is a little disappointing but I'll reserve judgement for now as I did a lot of short journeys with some 'enthusiastic' testing in the first few days.
  
• :'( Rear parking censor can't see protruding obstacles at the height of the vRS badge as I found to my cost reversing into fencing placed on top of a mulitistorey carpark to stop jumpers. Spoiling the near-perfect paintwork is disappointing and if the fencing hadn't been there I might have jumped (except it wouldn't have been there to reverse into so . . . ) but the first ding was bound to happen and it's sort of a relief not to be fearing it anymore.
  
• Cruising on recently re-surfaced smooth motorway (a rarity these days) is very smooth and effortless - it's especially great that when cruising at high speed in 6th there is still scope for accelerating if needed (of course all within the speed limits!) - but stop-start in town is somewhat hard work and jittery.
  
• Road noise (from wheels/tyres) is a bit annoying - it may be that different tyres and/or fiddling with the pressure might help. If there is anyone with a 2006/7 Octavia PD Hatchback vRS in North Staffs/South Cheshire who is up for a brief informal meet I'd be interested to compare rides to check on this road noise - is it a feature or does mine need some tweaking?
  
• Stream MP3 Radio is great - the speakers can cope with max volume without distorting. But radio reception fades out to silence for 1-2 seconds 4-5 times on my one-hour commute (but the radio in my old Mondeo did this too).
  
• I miss cruise control and steering wheel radio controls.

Edited 26 March, 201016 yr by jonjc

• I miss cruise control and steering wheel radio controls.

You still can retrofit those ones so no worries :-D

You still can retrofit those ones so no worries :-D

I've seen cruise control for about £66 (plus whatever labour is needed for the plumbing and computer work) but haven't seen anything on steering wheel controls for the radio.

Taking a lead from DocOc except it's 2 weeks in not 2 days...

I've done 1000 miles and impressions so far:

• I still love it. It feels and looks good - which actually motivated me to polish it after week one even though it was still pretty clean.
  
• Feels like a light-weight small car but firmly grounded - this is great and this feeling is probably a combination of power and sports suspension as it is neither light nor small.
  
• Mem1 mpg on the commute of 90 miles round trip with approx 60% motorway, 25% main road twisties and 15% stop-start city roads is about 43.
  
• Mem2 mpg over the total 1000 miles is 37.9 (I was getting about 47 overall mpg in my old 130bhp Mondeo TDCI) - this is a little disappointing but I'll reserve judgement for now as I did a lot of short journeys with some 'enthusiastic' testing in the first few days.
  
• :'( Rear parking censor can't see protruding obstacles at the height of the vRS badge as I found to my cost reversing into fencing placed on top of a mulitistorey carpark to stop jumpers. Spoiling the near-perfect paintwork is disappointing and if the fencing hadn't been there I might have jumped (except it wouldn't have been there to reverse into so . . . ) but the first ding was bound to happen and it's sort of a relief not to be fearing it anymore.
  
• Cruising on recently re-surfaced smooth motorway (a rarity these days) is very smooth and effortless - it's especially great that when cruising at high speed in 6th there is still scope for accelerating if needed (of course all within the speed limits!) - but stop-start in town is somewhat hard work and jittery.
  
• Road noise (from wheels/tyres) is a bit annoying - it may be that different tyres and/or fiddling with the pressure might help. If there is anyone with a 2006/7 Octavia PD Hatchback vRS in North Staffs/South Cheshire who is up for a brief informal meet I'd be interested to compare rides to check on this road noise - is it a feature or does mine need some tweaking?
  
• Stream MP3 Radio is great - the speakers can cope with max volume without distorting. But radio reception fades out to silence for 1-2 seconds 4-5 times on my one-hour commute (but the radio in my old Mondeo did this too).
  
• I miss cruise control and steering wheel radio controls.

Having been a 2003 Zetec S Mondeo TDCI 140BhP owner I agree with most of the comments. Although I've got a petrol VRS;

I miss the steering wheel controls for the radio, the cornering ability, a bit of the fuel economy. The slightly less road noise from the tyres. The lower servicing costs and most of all the heated front screen.

I don't miss, running out of puff trying to hold on to a gear to out accelerate another similar vehicle, the total absence of lack of acceleration below 50Mph in 5th/6th, the harder suspension.

Enjoy your new car, despite my comments above, as an overall performance and quality package, it's a great car for the price, especially comparing against the 1-3 series BMW which are now too common.