Well for a couple of days at least,

My fabia is in getting a new seatbelt fitted and rear door seals fixed, when the service manager said, I'll just get you the keys for a courtesy car, I insisted that it wasn’t a 1.2 or the likes, not being ar$ey, but my journey to work would be hellish. So she gives me the keys to a spanking new 1.9 TDi Ambient in stone grey.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised when I first got in, nice driving position, seemed quite comfortable, The 1.9 seemed quite pokey around town. It was only 5 miles to my house from the dealers through traffic so never got a real feeling of how it drove.

Jumped in it this morning to take it to work on the 60 miles of back roads and initially I found that the steering seemed nice, almost felt like it was progressively tightening up on the sharper bends, the 1.9 seemed fine for tootling along, but after a while it became obvious that IMO it was slightly under powered for the size of the motor, nothing a trip to star wouldn’t sort out.

The handling gave me a fright when I came to the first fast-ish roundabout on the way to work, the car felt amazingly smooth into the roundabout, and indeed out of the roundabout.....It wasn’t until I was heading towards the nearside kerb that I realised I was actually understering like hell. The car is so smooth that it’s deceiving. And yes its probably due to the fact I’m used to driving a fabia each day on that route that I am noticing this and I would probably get used to it pretty quickly.

Braking seemed pretty acceptable reacts quite well but the steering impressed me most.

Something that astonished me was the sheer size of the boot…. Amazingly huge, I can imaging you would get a helluva load in there with the seats down, I can understand why it is a popular taxi choice, due to the comfort and space available.

One thing that annoys me, and only really became apparent to me after about an hour of driving, is how my leg rubs against the centre console whilst using the footrest, it actually gave me a bit of aggro on my shin just under my knee.

SWMBO loved it and asked if we could get one, I told her no problem……as long as it had a vRS badge on the back

And I would most definitely have parking sensors as an option, this one doesn’t and it’s a guessing game at the moment, again I suppose you would get used to it.

Overall pretty nice car, fairly low spec on this one, only really noticed electric front and rears and a CD changer in the cubbyhole in the boot.

I’m due to take the OctyII vRS out for a test drive when I take it back and I must admit I have high expectations of it, I just hope it lives up to my expectations

You won't be disappointed with the Mk 2 vRS :D

And I would most definitely have parking sensors as an option, this one doesn

the car being a saloon

But it's not....it's a hatch back.

If the rear view is anything like the MK1 Octy....rear parking sensors are a must.

Rear view in the MkII It is just as bad, if not worse! Best £150 i've spent. Plus you get a cool display on the Stream screen showing how far you are from the wall/car etc.

I have never had a problem with judging where the rear is in my Octy thats what the spoiler is for

Parking sensor's are for girlies. (Comes down to that Caveman/depth perception thing men can do it, women cant :eek: )

Nice review form a Fabia driver. Watch that roundabout at Drymen tho.

I have never had a problem with judging where the rear is in my Octy thats what the spoiler is for

Parking sensor's are for girlies. (Comes down to that Caveman/depth perception thing men can do it' date=' women cant :eek: )[/quote']

This one hasnt got a spoiler :( when i see the garage door flexing i know to stop.

there was one other niggly thing i had about it but i cant remember just now :confused:

Thats it, its missing 6th gear, i went for it about 10 times on the way home from work today :(

I have never had a problem with judging where the rear is in my Octy thats what the spoiler is for

Parking sensor's are for girlies. (Comes down to that Caveman/depth perception thing men can do it' date=' women cant :eek: )[/quote']

Oi referee!!! I can park a car just fine thank you very much. Mind you I don

I find the rear sensor good but when it comes on to the "final" continuous beep, and I stop, I find I could still back up another foot. So it is being ultra-cautious. Also, when I back out of my drive [which I do real slow] and a gormless pedestrian carries on walking across my rear [if you see what I mean] the sensor gives a couple of little bleeps - just before I run 'em over.

The Octy 2 is a very nice car indeed. After covering 2k miles in mine now - mostly motorway miles, my only critism is that I find the seat a little firm and is a little uncomfortable on long journeys and as other have said, the rear visibility is poor.

Build quality is a step above the Fabia IMO

Don't know if the vRS has the rear wiper fitted as standard' date=' but I'd recommend that. It's one option that I thought I'd do without, the car being a saloon and all, but now I realise that the rear screen clears very slowly at town speeds. Above 30mph/50kph it clears quickly on its own. Trouble is, I suspect it cannot easily be retro-fitted (cheaply).

.[/quote']

UK OCtys have had the rear wash wipe as standard since the facelift of the Mk 1 at around Jan 2000 (think it was then, that's when I got my 2nd of 3 Octy Mk1s)

Thats it, its missing 6th gear, i went for it about 10 times on the way home from work today :(

Thats only because your used to it.

The 2.0lTDi has a six speed box, as does the vRS.

Thats only because your used to it.

The 2.0lTDi has a six speed box' date=' as does the vRS.[/quote']

I totally agree,

i had another Octavia 2 today, same spec just a different colour, a kind of purply blue, the main niggle has to be the centre console digging into my shin, not so noticable at the time but after a while driving then getting home i had a wee bruise under my knee

Watch that roundabout at Drymen tho.

eh? we aint got one :confused:

eh? we aint got one :confused:

It's ok we let blackmagic away with things like that because of his age, He could have possibly been confusing Drymen with Jerusalem,

:rofl: