Old and new cars side by side.  Poor picture quality as it was pouring with rain but I think the new Race Blue is darker (not just that the old car has faded in the sun). 

I felt a pang of sadness at leaving the old car - we've travelled over 100,000 miles together.  But 100yds down the road I'd forgotten all about the old car and I'm still grinning about the new one.  I haven't really settled down from the stress and anxiety of it all (not to mention writer's cramp from having to sign my name about 100 times before I could drive away).  I'll post again with some more considered thoughts once I've settled in and done a few miles - and better pics when/if it stops raining.  At the moment the main issue is trying not to crash it while I come to terms with not having a clutch and trying to resist the urge to fiddle with settings while I should be watching the road. 

 

 

PS anyone who didn't see my earlier thread this is the TDI order that got mixed up and was discovered only when the car rolled off the transporter to be a TSI.  I'm happy though after a bit of wrangling over the extra cost I will incur running the TSI compared to the TDI.

Edited 7 June, 201412 yr by jonjc

Congrats :-)

 

The MkIII really is so much nicer looking.

You won't be disappointed with the TSI, it really is a great engine and can be quite eco friendly when you want it to.

 

Now, come on, spill the beans, how good a discount did they end up giving you to keep the TSI?

Tel !!! thats a bit like asking a girl if she ****s on first date, we all wanna know but even I'm to polite to ask

Tel !!! thats a bit like asking a girl if she ****s on first date,

I think I know her.

++1 here, spill the beans, we all love a good bike story! Reminds me of an old village bike who could be had for the evening on less than a fivers worth of white wine spritzers and included a happy ending!

Out of interest does all the documentation confirm it's a TSI or is it an entire c***up and everything says it's a diesel? As I'd be making sure it's not going to cause you issues once you move on from the car. Looks lovely with the rain drips beside the old model.

 

My pet hate, leaving the wipers on the screen out of their parked position, hopefully the MkIII Octavia allows them to park even when the ignition is turned off mid-sweep 

 

The new vRS looks great, I too still have a soft spot for the pre-FL front end, both great cars!

 

Enjoy!

I picked mine up on Thursday and I thought the race blue was darker, as did the wife!

My pet hate, leaving the wipers on the screen out of their parked position, hopefully the MkIII Octavia allows them to park even when the ignition is turned off mid-sweep

The new vRS looks great, I too still have a soft spot for the pre-FL front end, both great cars!

Enjoy!

Can confirm they dont park mid sweep, find this annoying as they did on my mk5 and mk6 Golf.

Perhaps the Dealer should blame QWERTY for sticking "D" & "S" next to each other?

 

Still, you now have a much better engine within every department bar economy. I moved from diesel to petrol and love the added refinement, performance, and sound. For me petrol is well worth the premium.

I've a feeling there is a setting in the infotainment that allows them to be stopped on the screen. Not sure though.

Last word on this particular issue.  The TDI/TSI mistake was not down to SkodaUK or Skoda in the Czech Republic nor was it my mistake - draw your own conclusions.

The deal reduced my deposit and monthly payments to the point where I am happy - although it is difficult to work the maths out exactly because of differentials in residual value and it being unclear six months down the line what the cost of a TSI would have been from the outset.

 

But today I had a 62 mile round trip to Chester and enjoyed both the open road and the stop start of city traffic.

 

Some observations:

 

Engine is awesome but needs taming.  Far too tempting to floor it at every opportunity! 

Sport mode might be a bit tiring to have on all the time but I may use the individual settings to choose sport steering and normal everything else. And I can always dip the DSG stick to engage sport mode that way - I'll have to read the manual to be sure but I it feels as though this puts the gear changes and throttle response into the sport setting.

 

DSG is great. Still getting used to it but I'm sure I will be happy to just let it do it's thing while knowing that I can take over and force a gear change whenever I like.  In sport mode I think it leaves it too late to change gear for my liking but I'm too old to be a boy racer.

 

The car feels lighter (and more lightweight if that makes sense) than the old Mk2 TDI vRS - I know that part of this is that it is indeed lighter in absolute terms and the extra power of the 220PS makes lighter work of moving the car along.  It feels good and solid enough - but perhaps not quite as solid or robust as the old car.

 

The ride seems less hard than the old car but still firm and grounded.  Not sure if that is about the difference between shocks, springs and joints that have 117,000miles on them and ones that have 0-100miles on them.

 

It feels 'busier' in the cockpit - not just because of the extra gadgetry but more in the eye line (directly and in the mirrors).  Glancing to the left I keep 'noticing' the red trim of the passenger seat.  I'll get used to it but right now I keep thinking there is something there (over and above what actually is there!).

 

I like the stop-start but noticed that when I switched on the heated windscreen briefly (just to try it and because it was a bit misty with all the damp weather) the car started - I assume this is because of the power drain of the heated windscreen when the engine isn't running.  I like the way coming off the brake pedal turns the engine back on almost before your foot gets to the accelerator but my IAM training and for my test I was taught to engage neutral and handbrake when properly stopped at traffic lights etc (and it is discourteous to dazzle the person behind with unnecessary brake lights and indicators) - but taking my foot off the brake pedal starts the engine so little point in having stop-start in this scenario unless I change my practice and leave my foot on the brake.  Arriving at home, wanting to reverse into the driveway and making sure I properly stop before engaging reverse it seems a bit silly that stop-start stops the engine and starts it up again for the brief moment between rolling forward and starting to move backwards.

 

Cruise control works fine - but until I'm used to it I may accidentally indicate left when turning on and off or cancelling - but I might just leave it on.

 

Lane assist works fine - subtle and not intrusive - but I think it would nudge me back in line if I drifted on the motorway.

 

Infotainment (or infortainment, as the voice control tutorial pronounces it!) is a bit baffling.  I thought it would play my iPod via the USB connection but it doesn't (I can use the AUX socket though).  SD card and USB data stick work well.  Phone integration Samsung Galaxy S4 seems to work fine although I hate phones and will use it little.  Station icons loaded up to Bolero easily via SD card but seem a bit low res and small - I'll have to play around with higher res versions to see how it works out.

 

Overall - very happy.  Still grinning. 

Picked up on Saturday and it needs a good polish already!

Depending on your ipod, you might be able to use Bluetooth instead of hardwire for music?  I think all VAG can have 2 BT devices at a time - one phone, one for audio?

Using the DSG stick to put the gearbox in Sport mode doesn't alter the throttle response as far as I can tell.

Depending on your ipod, you might be able to use Bluetooth instead of hardwire for music?  I think all VAG can have 2 BT devices at a time - one phone, one for audio?

 

My iPod is a 1st generation version - probably made before Bluetooth was invented.  I did have a newer one (still not with bluetooth) but it died when I dropped it in a cup of coffee.

 

Using the DSG stick to put the gearbox in Sport mode doesn't alter the throttle response as far as I can tell.

 

Wasn't sure - so 'S' selected on the DSG stick means sports gear change (i.e. changes at higher revs) but nothing else covered by the Sport Mode.

Wasn't sure - so 'S' selected on the DSG stick means sports gear change (i.e. changes at higher revs) but nothing else covered by the Sport Mode.

 

 

 

That is my understanding. The xenons, throttle response, steering weight and A/C settings are only changed when selecting the Drive Mode in the infotainment.

Wow, theres a big difference between the x2 Blues.

Best of luck with it

I've been out polishing today :sun:   ...

The past one's a bit silly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab197/jonjc/car516062014.jpg