We are still on the same battery which came with the car when we bought it back in March 2012. However, I am selling our other car (an old Modeo) and the battery in there is only six months old - Lion 100 70 AH 3 years guarantee - so would I be advised to swap them over, because the Octavia has been a bit sluggish on starting lately.

Thanks Mike, it now seems that the previous owner of my Octavia fitted a Type 027 battery with a cold cranking rate of 480 (no wonder it seems to struggle). So I am going to swap them over, as ECP recommend the battery which is in the Mondeo, as an alternative for the Skoda. The CCA of the Type 096 (which you mention) is 640 and the CCA of the Mondeo battery is 620, so I think that it should cope OK.

Had a similar battery  experience with my 2006  Octavia 1.9 TDi – last year I replaced the ailing battery with a Quantum 027 (same spec as original ) but even leaving the car on the driveway for a week and using the central locking a few times to get things out of the boot was enough to cause starting problems on cool days and when winter came it was jump leads time !!.

I  replaced the battery with an Exide Premium 096 ( 77 Ah and 760 CCA) and  it starts first time on the frostiest of mornings.