now then octy 1.9 pd tdi purchased a few weeks back is going very well, its a 2010 model and ive been reading on here that a few members have had faults appear with the octavia, im all for being pro active so would anyone be so kind as to indicate anything i need to do to prevent any kind of preventable stuff occurring , obviously there aint been a crystal ball made yet i know that but have read of stuff like water from rear washers playing havoc with electrics , can anyone give me a bit more to go on , what to check where to look , etc just trying to stay ahead of the game so to speak ! cheers for any help by the way !

Keep the tyre pressures correct.

Keep it clean, inc under the wheel arches. Keep a cloth and some QD in the boot for bird poo so you can remove it immediately.

Get a tube of general purpose grease from your local motor factors for £1 and splodge it over all exposed important metal bits in the wheel arches, i.e. brake pipe unions, also the bits at the bottom of the bleed nipples on the calipers (there's dust boots covering the tops already), exposed threads etc. etc. - stops them getting rusty, makes working on the car in 5 years time a doddle.

Check the fluid levels weekly.

Just stick to the basic common sense stuff and you'll be fine. They're pretty well made.

Keep the tyre pressures correct.

Keep it clean, inc under the wheel arches. Keep a cloth and some QD in the boot for bird poo so you can remove it immediately.

Get a tube of general purpose grease from your local motor factors for £1 and splodge it over all exposed important metal bits in the wheel arches, i.e. brake pipe unions, also the bits at the bottom of the bleed nipples on the calipers (there's dust boots covering the tops already), exposed threads etc. etc. - stops them getting rusty, makes working on the car in 5 years time a doddle.

Check the fluid levels weekly.

Just stick to the basic common sense stuff and you'll be fine. They're pretty well made.

cheers for that mate !! the last motor i had was a nightmare build quality wise ,so anything thats well built gets my vote! must admit i hammered the users satifaction surveysbefore i dived in and got one and the octy did really well in those so as long as i keep it tip top its going to be a long term realtionship!

To be honest i reckon you could neglect these and they'd still do you a decent service. The interior feels like it would withstand kids, even them walking over the leather in shoes wouldn't damage it. Carpets clean up easily although if you've got a spare £5 i'd recommend ordering Supagard carpet protection from fleabay, it's dead easy to apply, just spray it on, but it makes hoovering a doddle.

We were away camping this weekend and it was muddy as hell, but i let the mud dry on the road home, whipped out the hoover and there's no mud ingrained in the carpets, it's all stayed on top, so no need to wash them, just quick hoover and you're done. The other thing is when you're hoovering the nozzle doesn't drag on the carpet, it glides over like its teflon coated or something. Got to be good for the life of the carpet if you're not causing friction every time you hoover.

Exterior wise, the paint's hard so it wont scratch easily, however it can get stone chips. Just keep a distance from the car in front on motorways pretty much solves that problem.

Wax wise it depends how much effort you want to put in, but i tell you what, i haven't half been impressed by that Meguiars quik wax spray stuff. Still haven't got around to polishing & sealing the new car. Just been washing it and applying that quik wax every couple of weeks and to be honest it looks well cared for even though i've yet to break a sweat on it.

Fluids wise you need to be careful about which screen wash you use, the big gallon bottles out halfords are no use for fan jets like on these cars. Heard of problems with joins popping off in the boot with the wrong screenwash. Skoda screenwash from the dealers is around £3 / bottle, and you dilute it something like 6+ parts water : 1 part screen wash during summer so it lasts forever. Good quality too.

Use the right oil if you're ever topping it up, keep an eye open in Morrisons or Asda, both do vw507.00 oil every so often for around £8/litre topup.

nice one !! its good to know i have an excellent source of good advice and help now ive bought the car,feeling a bit daft really that i didnt discover these skodas before i spent silly money elsewhere! still never too late to learn i suppose , one thing i am quite suprised at is the dealer survey on the site now that is a good idea ! also love the fact that no matter how daft the question is or has been asked before you can still glean the info neccessary .