I've never though of it as "terrible". There can be noise, but mostly down to the terrible state of the roads. Get on a decent stretch of Porus Asphalt and not how quiet it is.

Nope, can't agree. I came from a basic diesel Fiesta to a new Octavia and by comparison, the tyre noise is indeed "terrible". I think the fact my new 1.4TSI engine is so quiet is part of the problem.

Shame.

I've never though of it as "terrible". There can be noise, but mostly down to the terrible state of the roads. Get on a decent stretch of Porus Asphalt and not how quiet it is.

noise intensity certainly varies dramatically according to the road surface. sometimes it can be almost unnoticeable, then deafening as the car crosses a clearly different surface. the point is that IME other cars can handle coarse tarmac much better. i'd say the firm suspension is at least partly responsible, transmitting vibes into the bodyshell.

one thing i've noticed is, that if i move my head into the centre of the car while driving over noisy roads, noise becomes much less noticeable. back in line with the seat, and back it comes. pity it's not the other way round.

you have crap tyres. Dunlops or Bridgestones. Do some handbrake turns and stuff to get rid of them and buy some proper ones.

i just got my new car with Continental 16" tires and i do have a terrible road noise , i really need to get red of it :S

The water in the boot thing annoys me! I have a boot full of school stuff as my current job means I teach across all of the secondary schools in our region, the kids folders often get wet.

Apart from that very happy - so much so i've ordered a new one!

I've had my pre facelift about 2 months now and I am very happy with it. I don't find many of the faults you have. However, I really do have to agree about the sound quality of the stereo.

I'm baffled about the road noise, I don't really have any from mine. I get some tyre hum on a could of select roads and certain speeds, but thats it.

I really like the suspension and ride. I have to admit at certain speeds on some B roads I have noticed the top ride being a touch busy. Although I can take that all day, because when the speed is increased the quality of the dampening shines. I think the VRS handles really well. Its not the quickest car in the world to change direction, but mid to high speed corners it can carry some impressive speed. The car (and mine is a diesel) corners very flat. If anything the rear lifts a bit more than it needs to. I hear you can get an upgraded rear ARB which makes a good difference.

Ticket holder has never even crossed my mind, neither has the A pillar.I just assumed ever car has one and it never even featured.

I'm also a bit selfish about the xenon's. I'm happy to take the extra field of vision for the little inconvience it gives to the other road user for 5 seconds. lol

After 3 months now not found very much at all to dislike

but I guess these would be the ones

1. The water going into the boot when opening after its been raining as mentioned earlier.

2. The MDI could be better - it is slow when you have a lot of tracks on the Ipod

3. Some annoying squeaks from the rear seat area and where the drivers seat meets the console and seat belt holder.

4. Auto wipers - not convinced by these!

The good bits massively outweigh these niggles

Tyres definitely seem to be main problem with noise but re: motorways I find that when they bother to put a decent surface on them my car is nearly silent. The road surface seems to be the biggest variable. This newish stuff with ground-up tyres in it is like magic. Perhaps we should hand over all our noisy tyres to make better roads from them?

Anyone remember the new 'bypass' bit of the A27 going west towards Portsmouth, when they first opened it? The concrete surface?

Edited 24 May, 201016 yr by ednmra

Rythmic clunk-clunk-clunk..... lol!

Tyres definitely seem to be main problem with noise but re: motorways I find that when they bother to put a decent surface on them ny car is nearly silent. The road surface seems to be the biggest variable. This newish stuff with ground-up tyres in it is like magic. Perhaps we should hand over all our noisy tyres to make better roads from them?

Anyone remember the new 'bypass' bit of the A27 going west towards Portsmouth, when they first opened it? The concrete surface?

what is that newish ground up tyres?

what is that newish ground up tyres?

Apparently that newer type of motorway surface (looks like ordinary tarmac) contains ground-up old tyre rubber. The article I read said that although it is dearer initially, it lasts better, makes your tyres wear less, is better in the rain, and above all is dead quiet. When you run on to a section of it, from older type surfaces, it is as if someone just turned off your engine.

Two of the problems are easily sorted

Road noise...as already said get rid of the tyres you have and fit some real ones

Water in the boot....is very easy to solve ...buy the combi/estate version...100% cured

Every time we go out, ie at least twice a day, SWMBO tells me how she hates this car and wishes we had never bought it. She complains about the ride and the way it bounces as I shimmy around the biggest potholes. I complain to myself about the way I have to drop into first to avoid stalling the engine while creeping along trying not to bounce. I hear her sighs juddering as we bounce along. My own breathing also judders in and out. I try not to sigh.

I think the stalling is due to the lack of flywheel mass or the way the dmf gets its springs out of sync and fights the engine. The clutch just feels horrible when the car is heavily loaded, which I think is the flywheel again. I've driven for almost 50 years, only partly in automatics, without stalling. I now stall about once a week and rev the engine like a learner to smooth out the gear changes.

On the motorway, she says "Isn't it noisy". I counter this by telling again how the rubber bush fell out of the front suspension on the old Omega and I was lucky there was no bus queue there when it suddenly turned left onto the pavement (I'd put it into the main agent and also to a major tyre and MOT place saying that it didn't feel right - in the end a little local garage found that bits had fallen off). With this noise I say there can be no rubber bits to fall out from underneath. I hope this is right!

But I have only ever replaced tyres when the air is showing through (thanks Hank Williams), and certainly can't afford to start paying for new tyres all round out of my meagre pension.

Why don't the heated mirrors come on with the heated rear window like in a proper car? Why doesn't the radio light up when I turn it on?

In real terms my old Discovery is probably noisier, but she never complains about that. I think its only partly because she can see into the neighbours gardens from that as we drive along laughing at the potholes.

I think there is definitely a market for a decent high load capacity, spacious, cheap diesel car. This isn't it.

Mustn't be negative, though. She likes the aircon and we haven't had to be recovered back to a garage 3 times in a year like we did in the Omega.

LOL! I enjoyed that. I am sure you can set your stereo to light up with the ignition and the mirrors to heat with the rear screen through the maxidot. I have to say I agree with the clutch comments and the poor second gear slow speed running.

LOL! I enjoyed that. I am sure you can set your stereo to light up with the ignition and the mirrors to heat with the rear screen through the maxidot. I have to say I agree with the clutch comments and the poor second gear slow speed running.

The heated mirrors have their own switch (on the door) so it's never going to be set up through maxidot to come on with the rear window heater, can't comment on the clutch issue as I'm an idle git and bought a DSG

I replaced the Dunlops on the front last week though and the Vredsteins I put on do seem quieter, shame I've ruined it all by jet washing the car which seems to have disturbed a window seal so the car now "screams" between about 55-75mph. Don't think that'll run as an excuse though when explaining why I'm doing 80

Just wish I could work out exactly where the noise was coming from though as 600 miles of motorway driving since then and I'm on the verge of insanity

Every time we go out, ie at least twice a day, SWMBO tells me how she hates this car and wishes we had never bought it. She complains about the ride and the way it bounces as I shimmy around the biggest potholes. I complain to myself about the way I have to drop into first to avoid stalling the engine while creeping along trying not to bounce. I hear her sighs juddering as we bounce along. My own breathing also judders in and out. I try not to sigh.

I think the stalling is due to the lack of flywheel mass or the way the dmf gets its springs out of sync and fights the engine. The clutch just feels horrible when the car is heavily loaded, which I think is the flywheel again. I've driven for almost 50 years, only partly in automatics, without stalling. I now stall about once a week and rev the engine like a learner to smooth out the gear changes.

On the motorway, she says "Isn't it noisy". I counter this by telling again how the rubber bush fell out of the front suspension on the old Omega and I was lucky there was no bus queue there when it suddenly turned left onto the pavement (I'd put it into the main agent and also to a major tyre and MOT place saying that it didn't feel right - in the end a little local garage found that bits had fallen off). With this noise I say there can be no rubber bits to fall out from underneath. I hope this is right!

But I have only ever replaced tyres when the air is showing through (thanks Hank Williams), and certainly can't afford to start paying for new tyres all round out of my meagre pension.

Why don't the heated mirrors come on with the heated rear window like in a proper car? Why doesn't the radio light up when I turn it on?

In real terms my old Discovery is probably noisier, but she never complains about that. I think its only partly because she can see into the neighbours gardens from that as we drive along laughing at the potholes.

I think there is definitely a market for a decent high load capacity, spacious, cheap diesel car. This isn't it.

Mustn't be negative, though. She likes the aircon and we haven't had to be recovered back to a garage 3 times in a year like we did in the Omega.

I can only suggest you get yourself along to a local meet, so that you compare if some of niggles on your car are worse than others.

I added over 110k to my mkI & I've done 61k in teo years in my mk2, I'm not saying they're perfect, but, overall they tick lots of boxes.

Every time I'm in something else, I'm always interogating the owner for faults, complaints, costs, satisifaction....

(There's a lot of unhappy motorists out there, mainly NOT in Octavias)

I'm pretty sure the radio has a menu for illumination on/off or dim /bright.

I think mine had been set to give the previous owner a tan!

(I've got an aftermarket satnav unit now so I can't fire mine up to check).

Mark ones had the mirror heaters linked to the rear window heater switch, however,

someone in Mlada Boleslav decided that a separate switch was a better idea.

I'm sure people with wet dogs, probably don't need to demist their mirrors as often as the back window,

however, I liked the timed off feature, as it's too easy to leave it on, wasting electricity.

maybe it's the shape of the mkII mirrors, but I don't think I've needed to use the heaters that often compared to the mkI

(expects lots of comments to the contrary)

There's a good thread about sound insulation kits, after all you could have paid several thousand more,

to have a similar car with different badges that would have had that fitted at the factory.

I'd also say, tyre choice makes a difference too,

I run Avons which are quieter than the Continentals that were on it when I got it.

I'm assuming you've recently bought the car, is it new or used, does it have a warranty?

As I'm sure "Britiain's most popular minicab" doesn't stall anymore than any other car.

Certainly the engines, flywheels, clutches and gearboxes are used across a whole range of other VAG models.

I really would suggest getting along to a meet though, if it's practical for you to do so,

as it's amazing what the salesmen don't know, about how to adjust stuff, that might be easily solved.

Plus at most meets I've been too, there's nearly always been one person needing to have a ride out,

to compare similar cars back to back.

All the reviews i've read have been positive, positive to a fault -- they forgot to mention the negatives for a balanced review.

So here's Mute's "The Bad Bits" review of an Octavia MK2 Facelift Vrs This isn't a bah humbug review, the Octavia's pro's massively outweigh its cons. This is just to restore some balance to all these rose tinted reviews. Every car has faults, i just want to know what they are before i buy.

The Exterior

The lower sides and the entire rear of the car are mud magnets. After only 100 miles in rainy conditions my car has visible muck all along the bottom of the doors coming to half way up the door at the front and at the rear the muck seems to focus on the sides. This must be because there's no mudflaps.

The Interior

Road Noise. Absolutely deafening on the motorway. This car is almost silent while sitting at idle, it's a fantastic place to be, even about town it has acceptable noise levels -- it's certainly not loud. On the motorway, you need earplugs. The noise clearly comes from the rear of the car. The popular prescription of decent quality sound blanket material under the rear bench seat and under the load bay in the rear should hopefully cure this.

The stereo. I've not found the equaliser on mine yet (Bolero) but i'm hoping i can fix 70% of the problem here with the equaliser. The stereo sounds very tinny at low volume and then at higher volume there is bass that appears after around 20% volume, but still missing the lower mid range. Very disappointing as it comes from the factory.

The A Pillar. It's just in the road when going round a roundabout. It's very thick, can't imagine it being much thicker. I can subconsciously work round it the rest of the time, but on roundabouts, it's a pain.

The ticket holder is on the wrong side. Skoda provide a small clear plastic ticket holder on the windscreen. Unfortunately it's on the drivers side. This should hopefully just be an unclip and re-clip on the other side job, although the A-pillar trim will have to come off.

The Drive

Slightly busy ride over very uneven surfaces. I feel slightly disloyal mentioning this one, on account of the fact that the car rides better than a 15" rim'd VW Golf and this is on 18" rims with sports suspension. The Octavia does somehow manage to give a very good ride, much better than expected, but it does feel busy over uneven surfaces.

The Xenon headlights are too high and there's no adjustment. I don't need the beam that high and i can see the pattern shining over oncoming traffic's drivers eyes as i go over any bumps or undulations on the road. That's annoying for them and frustrating for me.

The Conclusion

Buy one

The good bits i didn't mention but the other reviews did, far out weigh any issues this car has. Just budget for some sound deadening material

Two of the problems are easily sorted

Road noise...as already said get rid of the tyres you have and fit some real ones

Water in the boot....is very easy to solve ...buy the combi/estate version...100% cured

Our Octavia estate has tailgate leaks !

The top part of the tailgate seal doesn't make contact with the tailgate. Only leaks when in car wash or with hose ( because of angle of seal)