........ But the car isn't about razor sharp steering, it's a comfortable cruiser.

 

The torsion beam rear doesn't help at all.  A Golf GT or Leon FR handle well and communicate much better through the steering wheel.

Exactly. You can't make an Octavia into a sports car. As you say it's a very competent comfortable cruiser.

I understand is not going to be a sporty run around (should have stuck with the MINI for that), what I should have said that the steering is not as sloppy and I can feel when the front wheels are losing traction when pushed into a bend to hard.

 

From my understAnding the steering element on the Leon FR and Golf GT is exactly the same as the Octy, like you say just the rear beam is improved; but then again only for the 140+bhp on the FR/GT. The handling is more down to the slightly different wheelbase.

Nope it's not available...

I pointed out this inconsistency in the Octavia manual to the dealer I ordered my 1.2 TSi from. Page 17 says that "Driving Mode Selection is standard from SE...." without any caveats. Page 21 states that the SE has "Driving Mode Selection**". The note at the bottom of page 20 states "Not available on 1.2 TSi". He agreed that it was not good. He agreed to split the difference to upgrade to 1.4 TSi. Good gesture I thought as well as insuring he retained a sale and a loyal customer, I suppose. Still I was impressed by that.