Phil,

thanks for that

most of the cars seem to have the basic Bolero. so not sure if that has voice control on it (I suspect not) Not a huge problem so long as I can access the phone contacts. It would be nice if they were accessible from the steering wheel or stalk rather than the stereo unit itself.

I will have a look into the petrol to be honest I reckon I do between 10-20k a year depending on how much I use the bike

The TDI is roughly £2k more than the TSI new prices so you're gonna see about £1,500 difference pre-loved, which is a lot of fuel even at 20k miles p.a.  I only do 12K miles p.a. and I think it was something like 8 years to payback not using discounted cash flows so, I reckon discounted you gotta be thinking 5 years at least but, do your own math and see for yourself.  It might just bring the Elegance into your price range.

 

I'll try streaming some music later but, I know phone contacts work well on mine.

 

Regards

T

If you are used to how the ford's drive and handle and this is a key influence then stay with the ford's. The octavias handling compared to the mondeo is very soft thus tends to roll and wallow in and out of corners unlike the directness of the ford. No multi link rear on the octavia just a torsion beam.

Sonys stereo system beats the skodas pound for pound in terms of audio quality if it's the Sony system.

Unless the finance deal is a no brainer then I would go for a ford anyday.

My old Mondeo certainly handled better than my Octavia does but the main advantage is that I am driving a brand new car now, which is something that I've never had before, O% PCP deals are a good way to get people to switch to Skoda from other brands. If Ford had been sensible they would have been offering similar deals on high spec models of the recently replaced Mondeo, along with big discounts to offset the fact that they were selling a completely obsolete model replaced in every single part of the world except Europe! If the price and deal had been good enough I would have stayed with Ford. My old car had black alcantara leather seats with a nice bit of wood on the top of the steering wheel, which brightened up the front of the car a lot and was very tactile, maybe I am old fashioned but I do not like the gloomy interiors which many new Fords seem to have these days.

I hope the new model of the Mondeo has a better clutch than my old 2.2 TD Ghia X did, it was so stiff and heavy that it was actually painful to drive that car in stop start town traffic. Obviously designed by masochists that particular car, a very strange combination of wolf in sheeps clothing performance hidden inside a sedate looking Estate car which everybody else seriously underestimated. A car that on a good day out in the countryside was an absolute joy to drive but hell on earth about town! The Octavia is a much easier car to drive than that car was but not as good in the way that it handles.

i went from a Passat estate to an Octavia and in every important way the Skoda is better. Ride, noise, quality, handling are all better. The seats are not quite as good and the hifi is not as good but thats all.

I wouldn't rave much about the colour maxi dot either. Looks fine in isolation and is adequate but comparing it to the current ford multi coloured dash display its a case of BBC micro versus PlayStation 4.

Have to agree with others if only doing 7k or so a year a TSi would probably be a better bet. If you are considering a 1.6 TDi the 1.2 TSi would be fine.....its actually a bit quicker than the diesel and still v frugal given its output/size. It also has a 6 speed box and is available in SE spec.

By the way dont quote me on it but fairly sure later build MY 2014 SE spec cars come with cruise and a front armrest/rear climate vents so be worth looking for one of these. An SE Business spec car would be even better as these also come with Amundsen Nav and a multi function wheel.

I wouldn't rave much about the colour maxi dot either. Looks fine in isolation and is adequate but comparing it to the current ford multi coloured dash display its a case of BBC micro versus PlayStation 4.

I'm sure the all LCD dashboard will trickle down from the VW Passat to Skoda eventually.

Edited 6 January, 201511 yr by kallekilponen