Hi all. I was wondering if someone can answer a question regarding the sports suspension as I'm getting conflicting information from dealers and skoda customer services.

Q. Is the sports suspension just a firmer ride or is it a firmer ride AND lowered suspension. I've ordered a white 1.4 elegance with the 18" Golus wheels. I'm aware the ride will be stiffer but I'm looking for the lower look, as not keen on those wheel arch gaps!! Can anyone confirm and help. I still have time to change the order at the moment but I suspect not for long.

Many thanks!!

From what I've been told the Sports suspension lowers the car 30mm as well as providing a more controlled (and as a result more firm) ride. You'll get what you see in the brochure pictures - a nice car with great wheels and hardly any arch to speak of!

Got to be done! Get down the dealers and order sports suspension today! A snip at the price compared to Eibach's plus fitting. No warranty issues either!

Got to be done! Get down the dealers and order sports suspension today! A snip at the price compared to Eibach's plus fitting. No warranty issues either!

Can't make my mind up! Kill the ride quality or go for the looks???? Got until mid next week to decice as build is w/c 22/4, thinking at mo to stick with 18s on standard suspension as the extra metal will hopefully give impresion of a fuller arch even though no overall difference with less rubber!

The one dealer I spoke to didn't seem to know if the sports suspension was the multilink setup from the VRS or just different springs/dampers for the standard one.

That's a good question. Eibach springs offered as OEM dealer accessory were available for the FL Mk2 but not sure if factory fit sports suspension was available too. It's the first option I would go for as I can't live with that wheel arch gap.

I assume it'd be like the mk2?

Just back from my local dealers and they have suggested its a spring and damper change that stiffens and lowers it 15mm. Whether they were speaking fact or not I don't know but one guy seemed pretty sure.

I can believe that...whether or not the 15mm will make any difference in terms of wheel arch filling is one thing...ride quality another...someone will have to take the plunge and report back

Thanks for replies. I'm torn between the ride or looks. On you tube there is a car buyer review of red octavia 3 it is a 7 minutes long review, and is about the best review I've seen do far. It shows lots of shots of car at different angles with 18"Golus wheels. It looks like it is on standard setup (to me!), actually looks quite good. So now I'm even more confused!!!

One of the cars I test drove this morning was on 18" Golus alloys - those arches certainly are big as they didn't look like 18s to me! I'd be ordering the sports suspension with the 18" Golus alloys. I thought the ride comfort was fine as it was and could allow for a little more firmness without being considered uncomfortable.

Just back from my local dealers and they have suggested its a spring and damper change that stiffens and lowers it 15mm. Whether they were speaking fact or not I don't know but one guy seemed pretty sure.

are they confusing with the dealer fitted kit or is the factory kit not so low anymore?

Ok, so more investigation with the sports suspension appears to be revealing that the ride height is "probably" NOT different just the suspension is firmer. I cannot find any dealer that will confirm it is lower. The brochure appears to back that theory up as it does not show different dimensions, i.e "with sports suspension". So are we all being sucked in to the airbrushed pictures in the brochure to something that is not true? The configurator on skoda website, when a octavia is specced with sports suspension, the car graphics physically show the car being lower than with standard suspension. It really is quite poor show that no dealer (or skoda uk) can 100% confirm if the car IS lower or not. Looks like someone is going to have to order it with the option to find out. Guinea pig anyone?!!?

It's a 15mm drop according to the Czech configurator.

IIRC previous brochures haven't shown different dimensions for sports suspension equipped cars, so not sure that's definitive. I would be surprised if sports suspension didn't involve some lowering but agree that it's pretty pants that Skoda UK/ dealers don't know or can't at least find out.

Sarge.

Previous sports suspension packs on older Octavias always dropped it by 15mm.

My parents had a mk2 pre fl Octavia elegance with sports suspension and sat next to a non sports suspension it looked a lot better. Handled quite nicely too.

It's a 15mm drop according to the Czech configurator.

Id say its going to be the same then (and also backs up my dealers comments).

Id say its going to be the same then (and also backs up my dealers comments).

It's a shame you can't have lowered suspension with adjustable dampers like Golf, Audi, BMW 3-series...

Previous sports suspension packs on older Octavias always dropped it by 15mm.

My parents had a mk2 pre fl Octavia elegance with sports suspension and sat next to a non sports suspension it looked a lot better. Handled quite nicely too.

The Pre-FL was 30mm. Certainly ours is lower than a VRS by quite a lot, and has been since I picker it up with 8 miles on the clock.

I'm on a mission to get an answer with this suspension fiasco. So customer services told me that there is no vehicle height change. Retail support (the dealers contact with skoda) have said 15mm lower than standard. The dealer relayed this information on the phone to then during the conversation revoke the 15mm as there senior technician had done his own research and disagreed with retail support. I'm going to ring customer services again and give them all the information I have found out. I will inform them of the inconsistency between dealers and even there own headquarters. Lets see where that gets me. I need an answer as I'm running out of time to change my options on the car as its build date is rapidly approaching.

I'm on a mission to get an answer with this suspension fiasco. So customer services told me that there is no vehicle height change. Retail support (the dealers contact with skoda) have said 15mm lower than standard. The dealer relayed this information on the phone to then during the conversation revoke the 15mm as there senior technician had done his own research and disagreed with retail support. I'm going to ring customer services again and give them all the information I have found out. I will inform them of the inconsistency between dealers and even there own headquarters. Lets see where that gets me. I need an answer as I'm running out of time to change my options on the car as its build date is rapidly approaching.

If there is no reduction in height, how on earth are they achieving those tight under-the-wheelarch gaps in the brochure photos?? I had been assuming it was just by speccing the sports suspension for the photo cars, but maybe they have just filled the footwells with lead :think:

Edited 17 April, 201313 yr by Juniperz

If there is no reduction in height, how on earth are they achieving those tight under-the-wheelarch gaps in the brochure photos?? I had been assuming it was just by speccing the sports suspension for the photo cars, but maybe they have just filled the footwells with lead :think:

Photoshop is the "lead in footwells" you are looking for.

However the sports suspension is 15mm drop from standard, that info is on almost all Skoda websites that I have looked at.

Photoshop is the "lead in footwells" you are looking for.

However the sports suspension is 15mm drop from standard, that info is on almost all Skoda websites that I have looked at.

You are probably right. I don't think that a 15mm drop would have closed up the gap you could see with the demo car I had at the weekend (can't find which thread so included again).

I'm not filling my footwells with lead, its way to expensive and would only get nicked like the lead off my garage roof . Concrete is a much cheaper option

I've rang customer services, given them all the information and emphasised I have rang before and getting some conflicting reports from dealers about what the sports suspension does involve for the uk spec cars.

Surely someone must know?

tick tock tick tock tick tock

OK, I have left the above as I wrote it while waiting for phone call back from customer services. I now have a different answer to what they gave me before

"The sports suspension option gives a 20mm ride reduction and a firmer ride". I asked to reconfirm where the information came from, which was skoda technical.

I asked was that 100% confirmed. I got told yes.

So at least i have a name, and a date and a time confirming the ride is 20mm lower, so if it does turn up looking like its on "stilts" as someone has said on another topic, I have at least some evidence to prove I was told otherwise.

After all the hassle I have had getting this information, do I 100% believe what I have just been told. No, not really. But do you blame me? :think:

It will still look like its on stilts even if it is 20mm lower!