After one year of my ownership my now two year old 1.6TDi CRD Elegance has covered 20,000 miles and had its first service. I am pleased with several aspects but underwhelmed by some.

The tyre noise is the worst of any car I've ever owned (about 15 in 45 years) on grainy tarmac which is most common here. OK on smooth tarmac. Continental original tyres.

Engine noise is loud and "throaty" on acceleration and clonky and intrusive idling (It is my first diesel). My wife's 10 year old Nissan Micra petrol is quieter at all speeds up to about 65mph!

Overall fuel consumption is ok at 56 mpg but dropped drastically in the long cold winter which maybe a feature of diesels I guess. I was getting 63 regularly last summer and once got 73 mpg on a long trip when I was trying hard!

I'm still not keen on the imposed acceleration by the engine management system when it thinks I am going to stall. This makes for lots of unnecessary gear changes back and forth from 1st and second in traffic jams.

The aircon has developed a loud whining noise which I imagine I can get fixed under warranty.

I have also had a puncture (no fault of Skoda) and discovered the useless spray stuff. I have now got a proper spare wheel.

Also the windscreen cracked after a small stone chip on the edge but again, noone's to blame for that.

I've read about this DPF regeneration thing but how would I know if and when it is occuring - not noticed anything.

I love the reduced running costs with the 35% decrease in fuel consumption and the £30 road tax!

I like the comfort level (other than noise) and the boot is great.

Handles reasonably well but to be honest my previous Mazda 6 1.8TS knocked it into a **** hat in all areas other than fuel consumption really. To be fair though the now equivalent diesel model to the Octavia would have been a fair bit more expensive and this purchase was largely a cost saving exercise which has proved successful..

Edited 9 May, 201313 yr by dcweather

As far as the regen is concerned it's normal for you NOT to get any lights up on the dash. What you may notice is an increase in engine tickover to circa 1000 rpm, the exhaust note change slightly and it may feel different because of the tickover. The tickover will return to normal once the regen has finished. If you switch off the engine part way through the fans will come on loud. If you go to skodas website and do a search theres a pamphlet on the DPF which exlains it further

Pretty fair assessment of a 1.6 TDi Elegance. Sound deadening and road noise is not an Octavia strong point, but given youre ended up with a near Passat size car for less than Golf money that is more or less the reason why.

Again thats largely the reason for the intrusive engine noise, its not that its a noisy engine just that Skoda dont apply anywhere near the sound deadening materials to the engine bay of an Octavia as they do a MK6/MK7 Golf. A shame but true.

Handling wise an Octavia on standard suspension is competent enough but tall soft suspension on 205/55 section tyres is never going to set the world alight. I understand the Sports suspension and 17" Pallais alloy option on these transforms the drive. The vRS in petrol or diesel form has its own specific suspension and brakes and tranforms the car completely.

Fuel economy wise mid 50/60 mpgs is pretty good going; the trade off with the 1.6 is that you have a fairly low powered small capacity engine shifting what is quite a heavy car, also they only have a 5 speed box. A sensibly driven 140 CR could probably match a 1.6 fuel economy wise and offers much stronger performance.

DPF regens are generally v unobtrusive on the VAG CR engined cars, did 50k in 3 years in a MK6 2.0 TDi 140 Golf and never did the forced regen light come on. As others have said occasionally the idle will rise and it will run a little rougher with the cooling fans on, thats when its carrying out a maintenance regen. I found my Golf actually drove a bit better when doing a regen.

I've driven 3 different Skodas with the 1.6CR engine. 2 Fabias and 1 Roomster. The engines in both fabias were the worst diesels I have ever driven, gutless and noisy, the engine in the roomster was a peach (I almost made the dealer an offer for the car).

A collegue had terrible DPF problems with a new 1.6CR Fabia, so bad it the engine was shaking on idle, he ended up trading it in for a 1.9 Octavia.