Nearly a year ago, I purchased a car (Megane Cabriolet) on a whim. That's a story for another time. That car though was starting to feel tired so thought I should maybe start looking at potential replacements.

 

A couple of friends suggest I really should take a look at Skoda, especially the Octavia. As it happens, I've experienced these from the back seat a lot recently having been working in Helsinki during the week where they are a pretty common taxi. I've never owned a Skoda. My Dad has a small one many years ago and liked it, and my Father-in-law bought a Yeti recently and spoke highly of it.

 

Long story short, I now have a 2009 (November) Octavia 1.4 TSI Elegance DSG 5 door estate with around 47k on the clock from a franchise dealer in Telford.

 

My wife and I had nothing to do last Saturday morning, so I suggested we go look for a Skoda dealer. Found one just 20 minutes away (that's handy), wandered around the lot for a while then spoke to one of the salesmen. I was minded to go with an Octavia as we had had several estates before including a modern Mondeo and a BMW 5 Series Tourer. Was missing the space. As I often drive in very busy places, I was keen to return to an automatic or CVT system as well.

 

So, far from trying a range of cars of various makes over a couple of months or so, I was surprised to discover I really liked the Skoda. So much so that we did a deal and I swapped cars later that day. (Dealer had a bit of a rush on to get a new tax disc, but he managed it.) Car looked clean enough to me, so agreed that they owed me a full valet at some future point.

 

I really like the car. Clearly. Don't like the manual much. I thought Elegance was top of the range, but there are a lot of unused switch positions, and lots of stuff in the manual does not seem to apply. I don't think the information display is the matrix type (find it hard to tell which is which from the manual though) - the rocker switch certainly does not bring up a menu of settings, just goes through some standard info.

 

Disappointed that the Bolero system does not include bluetooth. More astounded at cost of getting it added (was quoted £450 for a Fiscon + ... I think that's right)). I've ordered a bluetooth aux unit for now. I am not a DIY kind of guy, so whatever I do, will have to find an auto-sparky to do the fitting.

 

Well, i've done it now, and here I am. Looks like there are lots of topics to follow up on this forum.

 

Hopefully somewhere will tell me exactly which model I really have in terms of facelifts, features, etc.

 

Anything in particular I should look out for?

Congratulations on your purchase

I wouldnt let the Dealer 'Valet' it though

Congratulations on your purchase

I wouldnt let the Dealer 'Valet' it though

Thanks. What's wrong with a valet from them?