Hey...

Y'all know I gave my car in today for servicing plus fix-ups, so they kindly gave me the only car of theirs available...the TDi 4x4 Estate Octavia.

And now, for my review on it:

-The Interiors:-

Of this one, pretty boring. Dash is standard pretty much like all other Octavias, except it's missing the nice leathery bits that usually help finish off a mainly-plastic interior. Seat are comfort seats, and offer some amount of support, but nothing like the Fabia. Boot is huge though! And I like the boot light that comes on when you open it, looks real good.

-The Exterior:-

Pretty much Estate-y. Looks alright, the steel wheels are covered with nice looking caps and there are brand new Falken tyres engulfing them. It has projector-like fog lights and a roof rack, which looks pretty neat on the car. Nothing much more I can say about it, other than the fact it's silver.

-Performance:-

It's a rough, but comfortable car. Those soft dampers really do well as a comfort agent, but it's a rough car in general, being diesel. However, I'm happy I'm driving a car with a turbo. You feel it kick in at about 2500rpm and you hear the wheezing noise as well...really does kick, especially first gear. Drop the clutch at about 4000 rpm and the all-wheel drive car surges forward, and because of those new Falkens, no wheelspin Just a good standing start performance. Also, I like the fact that you don't really have to change gears in-town to get around, since 3rd gear can drop to 40km/h and go up till 80 nicely again. Then again, in a petrol car in-town you can stick to using 2nd gear for anything between 20km/h to 80km/h in comfort and you're fine.

But it all ends in 1st gear pretty much, and even that ain't so great. 90bhp is a pretty poor figure in comparison to the size of the car. Not saying it's dead slow, but I'm used to a smooth petrol car that really actually feels much more torquey than the 210Nm this car is giving out. With this figure I would have expected it to snap my head back a bit more than the 2 litre Fabia, since it has more torque, but it doesn't...not at all actually, the 2 litre feels much more torquey.

Goes to show how torque can be deceptive doesn't it? Power is important in performance figures no doubt, it ain't just about torque as someone we all know has said many times

Handling is pretty alright actually...then again, maybe it's coz of the tyres, but it seems to stick to the road, and is quite firm on corners and bends. I feel much more comfortable taking it on a turn at high speed than I would in my friend's 1.4 MPI Fabia...it seems more solid, honestly speaking..not so 'bouncy'.

I love the fact that it's a 4x4 too, because I took it for a micro-dune bash earlier...absolutely hilarious how it's the only Estate in the neighbour hood capable of going through soft sand in the area without getting stuck.

Overall, it's a neat car. Slow, but neat, and comfortable.

Goodnight all of you.

hmmm- was this the Octy 1 or Octy 2?

Wouldn't expect it to feel faster than yours though Mil. 90bhp, 4x4 transmission losses and a massive heavy estate. Diesels must be rubbish.

1. it aint going to wheel spin mil, my car is over 200bhp and hopefully nearly 250lbft and it doesn't wheel spin, just shoots forwards

2. Tom "massive heavy estate" is a bit wrong really mate, my 4x4 estate is only about 170Kg heavier than you lickle fabia so the 4x4 estate isn't exactly a "massive heavy estate"

It's not 90bhp , but 105.

That said it's never going to be a stunningly fast car

Tom "massive heavy estate" is a bit wrong really mate, my 4x4 estate is only about 170Kg heavier than you lickle fabia so the 4x4 estate isn't exactly a "massive heavy estate"

Ah - but yours isn't diesel!

And was a comparison to the 2.0 Fabia, which isn't as heavy. :P

Ah - but yours isn't diesel!

And was a comparison to the 2.0 Fabia' date=' which isn't as heavy. :P[/quote']

yes it is :P

Zoidy, it's 66KW, i.e. 90BHP, not 105BHP. I checked with the advisor before he gave it to me.

Colin, the Estate Octi 4x4 1.9TDi is almost 1450kgs kerb weight, while the 2.0 Fabia is 1190kgs. Quite a difference...unless of course you were playing with Bengie and James is gonna come along and laugh at me again for answering seriously...

It is definitely a heavy car, you can feel it is heavy, but it handles very well for a heavy car. Had the chance to do more with it this morning after dropping my sister off to school. Pretty solid suspension in my opinion.

And like Bengie said, it just f*ckin' surges forward with absolutely no wheelspin once you drop clutch at about 4krpm...had to stop and fill it up a little this morning, and I pulled over to the diesel pump...had onlookers with a puzzled look on their faces, and almost snickering too...so after I filled it up I dropped the clutch at 4krpm and took off...looked in rear-view and they had stopped laughing and kinda looked puzzled...again.

I've noticed that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear pull pretty well too. Taking off on bends is cool on 3rd, I guess that's what makes the 210Nm essential. It really does pull well.

I wouldn't be honest if I said I'm not impressed with the whole turbo-diesel issue. For one thing, compared to the diesels I've driven, this thing havin' a turbo really helps it move, and it does well overtaking. Again, being able to go down to 40km/h in 3rd, let alone 4th gear, and take off without much of a problem is pretty impressive. With 300Nm standard torque and 130bhp, I would imagine the Fabia vRS to be very impressive on the road, and I say this based on what I'm driving now. Gear changing on this car is pretty quick too, surprisingly.

Performance wise, it's pretty neat. Again said, not fast, but it most certainly pulls very very well indeed. But it's also a very rough car. The clutch is very heavy too, and vibrates like nothin' I've felt before except on trucks. I'm also not used to having to change gears so much to make maximum use of the power it has. Petrol cars are just, smooth, with longer gearing, and comfortable.

It's a nice car, this 4x4. As far as I'm concerned, I'm having fun, and it certainly beats driving the 1.4 Fabia I get once in a while, and is more fun than driving the 2.8 V6 Superb I usually get (but that's because the ones that come here are automatics ).

with the weight thing i was comparing it to the faia vRS which is 1315Kg