thoughts about 2.0 TDI Elegance estate one week on

[pipsyp]

Frankly its a belting car.

Biggest impression so far is how well it goes. Its seriously rapid for a 150hp diesel car. Smooth, punchy...bar being a little gruff when cold or really extended its a pleasure to rev out and sounds nice for a diesel. Not just saying it but its IMO definitely quicker than a MK2 vRS TDi 170 CR. Being a regular (fairly humdrum looking) Octavia without any engine tech badging its definitely a bit of a Q car.

Ride and handling on the standard (non sports) suspension and 17" wheels is extremely well resolved; it doesnt roll a great deal and feels ultra stable at speed. It floats a little more at speed than my old car due to its softer springs and greater travel but not in a disconcerting way and its a price worth paying for a considerably more compliant ride. Dont personally understand all the criticism ive read about the standard torsion beam rear set-up.

The manual gearbox is lovely and adds to the enjoyment of punting the thing along at pace. Dont miss my DSG hardly at all.

All the tech is nice and some of it is very useful. The high beam assist whilst not quite as sharp as the best human hand works well....do get the occasional flash from people on the odd occasion its slow to react however.

Only annoyances so far.....

The lower dash and door plastics are extremely hard and cheap. Within the course of its first week being treated with kid goves its picked up a scuff on the drivers door card and this weekend a 2-3" scratch down the glovebox lid and I cant recall when either could have happened. There is also a dink in the white b pillar plastic where the seatbelt buckle has blatantly retracted fast and clouted it at some point and definitely wasnt me. Annoying and wondering whats going to be next.

The headlight washers whilst a useful feature drain the washer fluid reservoir like nobodies business. Ive filled it twice so far and can see that getting a bit old before too long. Also when they fire off you lose light intensity for a few seconds each time they spray, they are so powerful they cake the other cars around you in spray and Im not convinced that they are that effective in keeping the headlights clean. Theres quite a bit of road film on them already. The washer fluid warning is bloody useful though.

Im also not 100% sold on the infotainment system yet. Its not by any means bad but some of the functionality just seems a bit convoluted. For instance when you take a phone call, when you hang up both the infotainment screen and maxidot computer remain on phone mode (unless im missing something; you then have to change the mode back on the infotainment unit and then go back into the maxidot menu to go back to your previous view; be nice if it just went back to its previous view. The Amundsen nav also has not recognised properly a single postcode i've put into it so far. In some respects the Amundsen + and maxidot in my old car worked better and was easier to use.

The front doors are uber light and seem to get v easily caught by wind. Also they need a good push to shut properly, otherwise their lack of weight just leads to them clicking part onto the catch.

Generally whilst perceived quality has improved Im not convinced its constructed a great deal better if any better than my Mk2; not an insult as the Mk2 was well put together and felt sold but not sure its really significantly moved the build quality game on.

Its early days but so far no faults or error messages and other than the very minor bugbares its a deeply impressive motor and dont one bit regret ordering it as a MK2 vRS replacement.

[aixlad]

A good unbiased review from a real world user, thanks for your helpful comments.

[Mence]

Nice one, thank you for sharing.

[Spudey]

Thanks.

I think there is a VCDS fix to reduce the frequency of the headlight washers so they fire less often with the windscreen washers.

[pipsyp]

Thanks.

I think there is a VCDS fix to reduce the frequency of the headlight washers so they fire less often with the windscreen washers.

Cheers for that, thought there was but its not as annoying as ive made out.

I tend to give my washers little blasts rather than longer single blasts so every five pulls it does its business. Changing to infrequent longer pulls reduces how often it happens which is fine by me.

Also noticed they dont spray when the lights are off, also they deactivate (sensibly) as soon as the fluid warning appears.

[Sheldon.Cooper]

No problems with shutting any doors (none need any extra oomph to close), maybe your driver door needs a slight adjustment.

 

Only problem is the boot on mine needs a bit of help to close first time or else it doesn't catch properly.. that needs adjusting but I'll wait till service time for that.

 

Headlight washers are a nightmare, as you stated they don't clean the headlights but drink the juice like no ones business.  I normally have the headlights on auto but if I need to wash my screen in daylight I've taken to switching the headlights off first so they don't wash... then put it back to auto afterwards.

 

Glad you like it.

[pjp123]

Hi

 

Had my estate Elegance for about 3 months now. Bought it for work to replace jeep Grand Cherokee. Its great, 44 to 48 mpg with work gear loaded all the time. Looks good with 18 inch wheels and sports suspension. 

 

Definitely the best value for money at the moment. looked at lots of options and this was the best value, looks, performance package.

 

Road tax £30 per year. Insurance with every option available £285.00 

 

I am surprised how fast the TDi is, only about 0.5 sec slower than a VRS

 

I will get the headlamp washer altered in the vcds, uses water like a water cannon !!!. Also auto dim on the lights could work at a lower speed. I believe this too can be adjusted.

[pipsyp]

Still continuing to impress is just such a good all-rounder. The engine is just fantastic; VAG have hit the nail on the head with the latest gen CR motors, i think youve really got to be quite anti-diesel to not choose a 1.6/2.0 TDi over the equivalent TSi's; just IMHO the perfect blend of performance and efficiency.

Only things im not so sold on still....the infotainment system. Its very comprehensive but i still think its a bit laborious to operate and sometimes just to get the most straightforward thing done can take your attention away from the road....and before you ask Im only 33 and have worked in IT for 12 years so its not down to ineptitude...or at least I dont think it is!! :-)

Prime example....as far as I can tell its no longer possible to look up your phonebook in the maxidot display; only incoming, outgoing and missed calls. Its either then a case of relying on the voice control (which is not totally infaliable) or using the phone option on the main display to access this info. Maybe theres something im missing but i cant get into it on mine and is a bit of a backwards step from the MK2 Bluetooth system that lacked voice control but was v easy to use.

Also I think the small fuel tank is going to become a bit of a bind. Im getting v good MPG considering the very low mileage and short journeys but Im not getting much more than 420-440 miles from a tank; considering its bound to be more frugal than the last car the loss of 5l of fuel means its probably not going to better the old cars range very easily which is a shame.

I suppose at least each fill up is only £45-50 opposed to the £60-70 of old.

Great car though, loving the Elegance spec too, in 2.0 form is a bit of a Q car and the toys are nice.

[Keith64]

Nice write up.. :-)

 

I get mine on Saturday, 2.0 TDi Elegance Estate... does sound like a good choice !

[themanwithnoaim]

Enjoying the read, get mine Saturday too, 1.4 TSI DSG Elegance HB, really looking forward to it now.

Regards

T

[Ambrose1]

I agree with the comment about lower dash plastics feeling cheap and hard ! Ive a 150 tdi se loan car till my vrs turns up and have noticed how easy they are to scratch I was thinking about getting them vinyled to protect it a bit , that aside I do like my first skoda experience after changing from seat cupra r

[pipsyp]

Slight hiccup this morning, turned the key and the cars first attempt to turn over failed. It had to turn itself over again. Been fine since though.

A 120 mile journey, mix of quick motorway/A road driving and being stuck in a tailback on the M25 for about an hour....still managed nearly 47mpg combined.

Still marvelling at how quick it is for a 150hp car, punchy and effortless though a bit like a petrol it likes to be dropped a cog and revved hard (to just past 4k where the power fades off).

All the best to those picking up their 14 plates tomorrow!

[Eddie-NL]

Enjoy the car and a good review

[Timoctav]

Excellent review; 9 months and 14k miles on I have had no problems with my Elegance and certainly no regrets.

[pipsyp]

Quick update....approaching 1k miles noe and nothing has gone wrong or dropped off it as yet.

Only other things that ive noticed (and the first one is a bit disappointed as id hoped it'd be more of an improvement over the mk2) is that already the drivers seat base seems to have given a bit to the point where the alcantara panel sits a little proud of the foam base when getting out of the car. A quick pat with the hand lays it flat again but a little disappointing on a brand new car. The passengers seat is still fine but that doesnt get sat in half as often. However not experiencing any serious creasing of the leather bolsters or any premature wear of the "leatherette" as some have complained of. I'd bet there would be no such problems with cloth trimmed cars; and as nice as the alcantara/leather mix looks I suspect its not the most expensive set of materials in the world....Skoda have got to cut costs somewhere! In fairness the full leather drivers seat base in my MK2 after one year of driving looked a bit sorry for itself compared to the passenger seat; Skoda said they wear like that and not a warrantable fault be the same for these seats Im sure. Not that bothered really in any case but be interested if anyone else experiences the same in time.

Also noticed the other day a loud graunching when the mirrors were unfolding.....turned out although the car wasnt iced up that some standing water had frozen in between the mirror housing and where it connects to the car; the opening of the mirrors basically smashed through the ice to reveal a small ice cube! Starting to wonder if allowing the mirrors to fold in cold conditions is necessarily such a good idea as I wouldnt want to be paying for a new folding mirror!

Otherwise its absolutely brilliant; completely ordinary but all the better for it, lots of go and seemingly getting more economical all the time; hitting late 40's now on my mixed run 10 mile journey to work of a morning which I struggled to extract from my MK2 vRS TDI.

Only problem.....in one day saw two identical cars apart from colour....one at work and one parked outside a friends house just down the road reckon it wont be long before Im looking for the flash of indicators to identify mine in the local car parks haha

Edited 5 March, 2014 by pipsyp

[byclops]

Also noticed the other day a loud graunching when the mirrors were unfolding.....turned out although the car wasnt iced up that some standing water had frozen in between the mirror housing and where it connects to the car; the opening of the mirrors basically smashed through the ice to reveal a small ice cube! Starting to wonder if allowing the mirrors to fold in cold conditions is necessarily such a good idea as I wouldnt want to be paying for a new folding mirror!

 

It makes sense to disable the auto-folding mirrors in cold weather and dusty/dirty conditions, especially if the car sits outside. 

[Dr Zoidberg]

I did my first long journey today, and got about 56mpg on the way there and just over 60 indicated on the way back which isn't bad for a car that had only done 100 miles when I set off.

My 1.6 Bravo would probably have shown about 65 on the same run so I'm not so far off the mark already.