Leaving skoda after 4 cars

[Gerrycan]

The Outback sounds ideal for your needs then. 

The Subaru CVT is considered amongst the best of its type. I'm pretty sure it is an in-house design and they did not release it into production until they were happy it had better reliability and performance than some of the early adopters.

The last review I read of an Outback even forgot to criticise the CVT and also said they had very useful suspension upgrades for improved handling and ride.

 

The modern SUV has a higher centre of gravity than high riding estates like the Outback or Scout so are usually fitted with relatively stiff springs to improve on-road cornering performance. It means when these SUV actually go off road they don't handle the bumps and corrugations as well as you would expect of the type.

My old Mk2 Octavia estate was only a FWD but with its 15 inch alloy wheels and multi-link suspension it handled dry dirt roads a whole lot better than the two Korean AWD SUV I have owned.

Edited 29 September, 2016 by Gerrycan

[Niall]

Boom, and the change is done! A new experience after 12 years with one brand.

Sold the Octy privately so washed its face enough to get set up with Winter Wheels for the Subaru with the 'equity'............

 

I may be back some day,

 

Niall

[Gerrycan]

Your Outback looks good.

The styling of the roof rails appears more conventional (and stylish) than those fitted here in Australia which are solid black castellated looking and give it a top-heavy appearance for me. But that is my only criticism.

They have a reputation for reliability here and that seems well founded if my son's experience with his current old Gen 4 Outback is anything to go by.

Wishing you good experiences with it..

[mikey vrs]

well have decided not to get another skoda after having 4 in row, must admit my Mark 3 octavia has been the worse lots of problems. But really want a change and a new octavia is just the same as I have, the superb is to big and to much like the octavia inside, the rapid is just horrible don't like suv's. So that's it time to look somewhere else. looking at a Volvo v40 redesign lux 2.0 diesel and a Mazda 3 sport nav 2.2 diesel cannot make my mind up between the 2 as anyone out there had any experience of either of these ?

I recently traded my 2nd skoda,a mk2 octavia vrs in for a 2013 Volvo V60 r-design,id looked at the V40 as well but i just didnt like how the rear of the car looked so once i saw a V60 i decided that was the car for me,im very impressed with the volvo,very well built,seats are great & its very well equipped,i love it,the r-design spec does give you firmer suspension,bigger wheels etc,ive come from the vrs so its fine for me but if your used to lots of comfort then id suggest trying one to see if your happy with the ride on not so great roads. 

[mikey vrs]

Tried a V40, hated it, the roof seemed too low and dark and the top of the windscreen seemed to get in my vision line at times. Maybe the seat was too high, but I'm only 5' 11" about same as salesman who brought it around.

Haven't tried the Mazda.

The one car I really liked was a BMW 2 series active tourer petrol auto. Nearly got one, but was annoyed that they were offering better deal on the longer grand tourer so felt I was subsidising someone's else's deal, so walked away.

Im 5ft' 11' & i have none of these issues with my V60 so i suspect the seat was far to high as id tried a couple of V40's & had no issues. 

[jthyssen]

I recently traded my 2nd skoda,a mk2 octavia vrs in for a 2013 Volvo V60 r-design,id looked at the V40 as well but i just didnt like how the rear of the car looked so once i saw a V60 i decided that was the car for me,im very impressed with the volvo,very well built,seats are great & its very well equipped,i love it,the r-design spec does give you firmer suspension,bigger wheels etc,ive come from the vrs so its fine for me but if your used to lots of comfort then id suggest trying one to see if your happy with the ride on not so great roads. 

 

I recently test drove the V60 R-design and agree that it is a very nice car and the comfort is very good. However, there is too little legroom on the rear seat for my family. I imagine V40 is even worse, and V90 is above my pay grade

[Timoctav]

I've only had the one Skoda, Octavia Mk.3 2.0TDI Elegance which I part exchanged six months ago for a Volvo V40 D4 R Design. I found the Skoda ok, very obviously a budget brand by the quality of some of the plastics, did 60k miles in 3 years. It did it's job as a basically reliable commuting device, nothing sporting at all about it - but it doesn't pretend to be. I find the Volvo a much better car to drive, far more comfortable admittedly not as roomy but more than adequate. The worst aspect of Skoda ownership for me was the appalling service from Sparshatts Skoda, everything seemed to be too difficult for their service department and got so fed up with the aggro it was the main reason I changed.

[fabdavrav]

I changed back to VW as the Skoda dealer (only one in 100miles) is now Arnold shark......

 

MK7 Golf estate is very nice & more "refined/lux" than the Oct MK3 IMHO...

[gullyg]

Well the vRS is away, in favour of a BMW F25 lci X3 20d msport.

Not really fair to compare the two cars as the list price of the BMW with options is literally twice the list price of the Octavia we spec'd.

One thing I'll be glad to get away from is Skoda UK. The local dealer (West end Skoda) were fantastic, SUK not so much. Of course we're yet to see if BMW are any better.

[sworrall]

Nice car that. I was looking at the X3 but decided the F31 was big enough for us plus I like estates

 

Cant fault the move to BMW at the moment.  Im really enjoying the car.

 

Well the vRS is away, in favour of a BMW F25 lci X3 20d msport.

Not really fair to compare the two cars as the list price of the BMW with options is literally twice the list price of the Octavia we spec'd.

One thing I'll be glad to get away from is Skoda UK. The local dealer (West end Skoda) were fantastic, SUK not so much. Of course we're yet to see if BMW are any better.

[gullyg]

Nice car that. I was looking at the X3 but decided the F31 was big enough for us plus I like estates

Cant fault the move to BMW at the moment. Im really enjoying the car.

Yeah I was tempted by the 3 series touring, could have got a 335d for the money we spent on the X3 but they don't do auxiliary heating on the 3 and no x-drive on the 5.

The aux heating (webasto style diesel burner) is awesome by the way, can turn it on by timer, connected app or a remote and warms up the car and engine so you're getting straight into a toasty car with a warm engine. Last night was quite frosty - went out this morning to find the neighbours scraping the windscreens and no a patch of ice on ours.

[Gromle]

Yeah I was tempted by the 3 series touring, could have got a 335d for the money we spent on the X3 but they don't do auxiliary heating on the 3 and no x-drive on the 5.

The aux heating (webasto style diesel burner) is awesome by the way, can turn it on by timer, connected app or a remote and warms up the car and engine so you're getting straight into a toasty car with a warm engine. Last night was quite frosty - went out this morning to find the neighbours scraping the windscreens and no a patch of ice on ours.

Just be sure to always let Webasto run through its cycle. Never stop it manually. They can clog up with soot if you do.

[gullyg]

Just be sure to always let Webasto run through its cycle. Never stop it manually. They can clog up with soot if you do.

Ah that's really useful cheers.

[Gromle]

Ah that's really useful cheers.

But dont panic, it took almost 10 years before it started to clog up on my old Mondeo.