Sorry it's been a while - babies, work, etc.

Just thought I'd let you know about the car and dealer experiences to date - vRS Estate March 03 bought from and serviced by White Dove Skoda in Cardiff.

It's all good news! Car now nearly two years old and still going strong. Had it's first service at around 19500 miles - cost about

From pictures the interior of the new octy looks so much better. is that right?the interior is one big thing that is tempting me to look at new octy diesel rather than wait for new vrs ..Is it a huge difference from the vrs?(ignoring the obvious petrol diesel rev range etc)although i love my octy vrs have had great fun in wife's fabia vrs(no smutty comments from anyone).The fabia vrs interior makes mine feel a bit low rent! cheers

From pictures the interior of the new octy looks so much better. is that right?the interior is one big thing that is tempting me to look at new octy diesel rather than wait for new vrs ..Is it a huge difference from the vrs?(ignoring the obvious petrol diesel rev range etc)although i love my octy vrs have had great fun in wife's fabia vrs(no smutty comments from anyone).The fabia vrs interior makes mine feel a bit low rent! cheers

The big difference between the new Octavia interior and the current one is that there is definitely more room - it's more spacious everywhere - legroom, width, etc. Having said that, however, it was a fairly basic spec car inside. The controls were nice and solid and there was a very large LCD display for the radio which looked good and was easy to use.

Personally I still prefer the look of the current Octavia vRS interior to the new interior of the TDI - I still get comments from friends & family about how good the interior looks with all the leather, silver bits and carbon-fibre style bits.

I don't really think its fair to compare the current vRS interior with the new non-vRS interior - the vRS interior is very different to the current non-vRS interior anyway. I think the only fair comparision would be between the current and new vRS interiors when it comes out.

As far as driving differences are concerned, the vRS obviously handles better, goes faster and stops quicker, which is as expected. When giving the TDI a 'proper' try out with my right foot I was initially impressed then somewhat disappointed - you get a good surge of power initially but it does tail off quite noticeably compared to the vRS engine.

Again, all this is to be expected when comparing a "normal" diesel car with a "performance" petrol car. Overall the new Octavia impressed me, but I'm such a fan of the current Octavia vRS that it would take a very good car to beat it.

The new Octy, even a 1.9TDI Ambiente (what I test drove) is both better equipped and handles better than the vRS old Octy. Not as powerful needless to say, but suspension is far superior and the brakes and head lights are streets ahead. Not the biggest fan of elements of the new interior but the quality is again far superior to any version of the original Octy.

Noted and comments appreciated! think i would regret it and I do love my current vrs .will be patient and see what the new vrs has to offer.it's just such a long wait until dec05!cheers