For those thinking of upgrading to Mk. 3 - think twice!

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Hello everyone! I hope that you all remember me, I've not long been gone from this forum, having sold my trusty Mk. 1 VRS and 'upgraded' to a 2 year old Mk. 3 VRS a few months ago.

 

I found what I thought was a lovely example, in red, manual petrol, with 13k on the clock from a main dealer. 16 grand and off I went. On day one, I was really happy with the car, it looks fabulous in red I think, and the interior and ride quality was definitely an upgrade from my Mk. 1. That said, my old car was remapped and so performance-wise, there's not really much in it. The new car is definitely a way ahead in terms of handling though, and I do like the stability system which brakes the inside rear wheel - you can really feel it working, especially in the wet. Just when you're expecting understeer, it kicks in and tightens the line even more. Pretty good.

 

However.

 

As I have posted in the Mk. 3 thread, I am struggling to love it, and I have already had a load of problems with it, which is dulling my ownership experience to the extent that I am already thinking of outing it and finding another nice, low mileage Mk. 1. I have had problems with the stop-start system, the infotainment screen, and now the adaptive headlamps. All of which are due to be looked at by a main dealer.

 

It's worse on fuel than my Mk. 1.

 

The rain-sensitive wipers annoy me, they work illogically, and I just want manual control. The auto-dipping rear view mirror is useless - I just want a manual dip! If I forget to press the cancel stop-start button, it annoys me when it cuts out at traffic lights and I have to re-start the thing. There are rattles and buzzes from both the seat-belt top mountings. The infotainment and radio screen is a disaster, counter-intuitive and difficult to use. Plus endless menus for endlessly useless and pointless things. What was wrong with normal buttons by the way? Touchscreens have no place in cars I think. This one keeps freezing up on me and crashing.

 

There are numerous bings, bongs and warnings - which I find distracting. It binged at me with a bright warning light in lane three of a motorway the other day - so loudly and distractingly that I thought that maybe the engine was about to expire. What was it warning me about? Low bloody washer fluid level!

 

Why do I have to push the flipping clutch pedal down to start the car? I'm not a mong, I've never started a car in gear before....this is just pointless nannying.

 

The lane assist function is toss.

 

What the actual **** is this 'sound generator???' Jesus wept, if manufacturers feel the need to fit this kind of rubbish, then we really do have a problem. It renders the 'sport / VRS mode' completely useless, such is it's ridiculously noisy intrusion. It's bad enough on the normal setting. Honestly, it makes the car sound like a 1980's diesel from inside. It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.

 

Same with the electric power steering. Ok, for normal driving maybe it's fine, despite having no feel whatsoever and helping to render the driving experience even more anodyne. However, again, press 'vrs mode' and all that happens is that it just gets heavier. That's it. No increase in feel - apparently, less assistance is VAG's idea of a 'sporty' steering feel. Joke, and again, a completely unusable feature.

 

Headlamp wash. I would like to choose when to wash my headlamps please, and not the car deciding that when the headlamps are switched on, then washing the screen involves washing the headlamps too. If I have spent all afternoon washing, polishing and waxing the car, but later I decide I need a very quick dab of the windscreen washers to clear the screen, I do not want the car pouring Niagra Falls out of the bumper and all over my freshly-waxed front end, bonnet and wings. In fact the washers are so powerful, I get a mist all over the entire car. So now I have to remember to turn the headlamps off if I want to do that. Which means stopping the car. Apparently that's progress.

 

When I wash it, the body panels are thinner than the Mk. 1 - so when I am washing or polishing the bonnet or the roof, the panels keep going 'boink, boink' and popping inwards like an old tin oil can. Even the rubber thingy hanging down from the inside of the boot lid to pull the tailgate closed annoys me - the fabric strap on the Mk. 1 was so much easier to grasp and pull down, especially if I am holding a bag of shopping.

 

I could go on, but the post would be veering into TL:DR territory and I don't want to impose that upon you suffice it to say, that if you're thinking of making the change, do think long and hard, and maybe even try to get an extended test-drive first to see if you like it. It is a completely different vehicle from the Mark one, and it is difficult to see where it shares and DNA with the original car at all.

 

The Mk. 1 was a triumph of Czech engineering with investment from a big German car manufacturer. the Mk. 3 just feels like another VAG automotive white good, if I am honest.

 

Be interesting to hear your comments.

[moley]

Most modern cars are like this with similar features. If Skoda continued to build the Mk1 they wouldn't sell that many because it would be out of date with the opposition. I like the mk3 and I have owned mk1  and mk2's. The auto wipers are good as long as you set the sensitivity correctly. The headlight washers don't wash everytime you wash the screen. The warning 'bongs' are useful and the infotainment screen is ok as I can make most changes on the steering wheel. 

It all comes down to personal choice, but most cars are this way now. I had a Mercedes E220 hire car in Germany last week and I couldn't change the infotainment screen to English, but I managed with the German to set the sat nav. It bonged like the Skoda when the temperature dropped etc.

[Saints92]

If I had £16k, wanted a VAG car and still wanted power, I'd be buying a ~53 reg Audi RS6.

 

Old style equipment and build quality, but you can still get all the equipment a modern car has

[Silver Bullet]

Very interesting read,

Couple of years ago I went to look at a second hand petrol MK2 Vrs at a main dealer, "Oh twin exhausts thats nice", the sales guy shuffled his feet "well sir that ones a dummy", wtf. Also a space saver wheel, come on, a backward step in my book.

Also discovered the milage was way higher than mine and that finally clinched it, thank you but no thank you, ill stick with my old bus.

Are the above points (dummy exhaust / Spare wheel the same?.

Sorry you were disappointed, they have nice wheels though, whats reversing like, camera assist, parking sensors?.

[Liverpool-Lad]

Hehe, I like this candid review.  Im keeping mine for a while longer I think, heard too many problems with the newer engines, tensioners going, oil consumption and so on.

[yesiamtom]

Interesting read, think it's horses for courses though, for your average driver all these driver aids like auto wipers, mirror, stop start are needed.

 

For those of us who take a real interest in our cars we are sensible enough to know when to turn the wipers on, wash the lights, turn the car off if waiting for extending periods and the like.

 

That said I do like that my new mk1 vrs has rear parking sensors, really makes up for the dreadful rear visibility of that enormous cavernous boot which I also love. 

[pikpilot]

Ray, you missed out the Mk2 step so you were not conditioned by the half way house of "improvements".

Incidentally, my rear view mirror is not auto-dip but auto-dim, which I find very good - and you can turn it off if so inclined.

I too have to press the clutch to start and I wonder if it is because of the very small battery that is now fitted at the factory. So much so that after using the radio for 90 minutes when stationary it bonged and put a message on the screen telling me to start the engine to recharge the battery!

My lights wash occurs automatically on the first and fifth use of the screen washer if the lights are on - no choice!

I make sure I don't press too hard on the roof when washing it but my other panels seem ok. The plus side is that the car is less heavy than my Mk 1 and this probably helps with the better fuel consumption. I added quite a bit of weight to mine by putting in a full size wheel, tyre and jacking kit to replace can of tyre sealant and mini tyre pump that was factory supplied.

 

[Wardy]

I get where you're coming from. For some this is enforced 'progress'.

 

Some of those bits can be improved, by a visit to someone with VAG-COM/VCDS. Stop-start can be disabled and settings for the headlamp wash should be able to be adjusted.

[Auric Goldfinger]

I get where you're coming from. For some this is enforced 'progress'.

 

Some of those bits can be improved, by a visit to someone with VAG-COM/VCDS. Stop-start can be disabled and settings for the headlamp wash should be able to be adjusted.

 

I think the headlight washers can be made to work when you pull the stalk to wash the windscreen and if you  hold it for say 3, 4 or 5 seconds it will wash the lights

 

done via VCDS

Edited 13 December, 2016 by Auric Goldfinger

[Mankee]

Great thread and "welcome back", sort of. It is an interesting read and, with the recent bits falling apart on my modified 1U vRS and having to visit a main dealer showroom, a new(er) car was tempting. Until I saw a £29999 price tag on a red vRS estate! Then this thread has just egged me on to chuck some effort and money at the Octavia I've known and loved for the past 3 years, and give her the upgrades she deserves. I can forgive her for crapping her pants recently.

[mbames]

I have been from a mk1, mk2 and now a mk3.

 

I always started my manual cars with my foot on the clutch (needed to with the mk2)

The auto washers seem fine on my car - maybe your sensor area is dirty/confusing it somehow

Auto dim rear view mirror works suitable well too!

 

I have found my passenger seatbelt buckle can rattle, and the bongs are a bit on the loud side, so I'll give you those!

 

The fabric boot handle (estate) could trap over the rubber seal when closed and wick water into the car, so to have that replaced is a good improvement (was done on the mk2).

 

I used to turn my headlights off on the mk1 when washing the windscreen to avoid draining 18 gallons of water onto the road, so I see your pain there!

 

No issues with my touchscreen though, or adaptive headlights and I haven't played with lane assist yet.

[Wardy]

I think the headlight washers can be made to work when you pull the stalk to wash the windscreen and if you  hold it for say 3, 4 or 5 seconds it will wash the lights

 

done via VCDS

 

I certainly altered the settings with VCDS on my Mk2, so that unless I held the windscreen washers for 1.5 secs (still every 5th use) the headlamps wouldn't be cleaned.

 

That worked perfectly, as you could do a brief clean without having the bonnet covered, as already mentioned

[Paul thornton]

I think you just must be old school at heart Ray.

I cant stand modern cars to the point there's nothing that would tempt me into buying a new car.I like a car with Raw power and something I can work on myself.

It's all the European safety features that make them annoying, the mother in laws vauxhall makes an horrific noise just to tell you you've left the keys in the ignition!

I once went from an e39 bmw 530d m sport to a newer e60 version and hated it.I was tempted by all the toys but as you say after a few days they become more annoying than anything else.

Doesn't help that manufacturers these days tend to only build cars to last 3 or 4 years, just to get them out of warranty period then they start to fall to bits.

Hope you can sort something out. Not a nice feeling parting with 16k for something you don't like.

Edited 15 December, 2016 by Paul thornton

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

I think you just must be old school at heart Ray...

 

I think this observation may well be at the heart of my rant / feelings, yes! That said......I'm far from a moaning old git either, I'm only 42...!

 

Thanks SO much to everyone for their comments and replies, and I now sort of don't feel like I'm in a majority of one at least.

 

When I bought this car I also bought an extended warranty, so I have four years warranty in total, which covers the period of the personal loan I took out to buy the thing.

 

However, I am also familiar with the fact that many of the more annoying features can be switched off via a VCDS session. I had the basic RossTech VCDS for my Mk. 1, but I see that for the MQB cars it's quite a bit more expensive. So I guess if I was going to change things, I would take it to a decent aftermarket tuner. Probably JKS in Portsmouth who re-mapped my Mk. 1.

 

Question is - if I had a load of features re-programmed to my personal tastes, would this invalidate the warranty do you think???

[old newbie2]

Very interesting read, Couple of years ago I went to look at a second hand petrol MK2 Vrs at a main dealer, "Oh twin exhausts thats nice", the sales guy shuffled his feet "well sir that ones a dummy", wtf. Also a space saver wheel, come on, a backward step in my book. Also discovered the milage was way higher than mine and that finally clinched it, thank you but no thank you, ill stick with my old bus. Are the above points (dummy exhaust / Spare wheel the same?. Sorry you were disappointed, they have nice wheels though, whats reversing like, camera assist, parking sensors?.

We've had 2 Mk2 vRS Octys, pre & post facelift & both tailpipes worked, there's some evidence of this on the cardboard racking protectors at the back of the garage.....

 

All 4 pipes on my Superb work too, the're all dirty....

 

DC

[Paul thornton]

There's a possibility I'm going to have to retract a little bit of what I have previously said, as although I've owned my mk1 for many years and it looks very pretty sat on the drive, in all honesty it very rarely goes anywhere these days... Reason? I have a Ford focus as a company car.

The focus does around 30 - 40k a year, isn't particular special apart from the dab and Bluetooth. Thing is, if it breaks, needs a service etc, I just phone lex autolease and they come and pick it up and drop me another car off.

Could I expect the mk1 Octavia to replace and do the job of the focus? Not a chance! It would drive me mad! Lowered suspension, low profile tyres, noisy exhaust, rattles etc etc. Sure it's fine for an occasional drive out in the summer but as a daily driver, no chance!

I think to a certain extent modern cars have the edge over 'classics' depending on what you are using them for. If I worked a mile away from home then the mk1 would be just fine but 200 miles or so a day, the focus is a much nicer place to be.

Edited 17 December, 2016 by Paul thornton

[Girardi]

I think this observation may well be at the heart of my rant / feelings, yes! That said......I'm far from a moaning old git either, I'm only 42...!

Thanks SO much to everyone for their comments and replies, and I now sort of don't feel like I'm in a majority of one at least.

I feel the same way and only just turned 30. Even worse as I'm a massive tech geek. Cars peaked in the late nineties and early noughties. Not much made new since then that interests to be honest.

[devhdc]

If I had £16k, wanted a VAG car and still wanted power, I'd be buying a ~53 reg Audi RS6.

 

Old style equipment and build quality, but you can still get all the equipment a modern car has

So i'm not in England .. what years and thus models would an 53 plate be?

[nokiauk]

Late 2003/early 2004

[KenONeill]

My Elegance has headlight washers, and uses less than 5l of screenwash a year.

 

Oh yes and I push the clutch pedal in before starting the engine, because it reduces load on on the starter motor and hence the battery!

[yesiamtom]

I used a lot of screenwash in any car I drive, but that's more a comment on me I expect. Can't stand any dirt on the windscreen to the point I'm thinking of paying for a new windscreen on the VRS as it's got millions of tiny chips. :(

[TurboTurbot2]

I used to be TurboTurbot, but got locked out by new login system here, now back as TurboTurbot 2. And that's kind of the point. People keep fiddling with technology and it gets more fancy and worse at the same time. I really want a basic, tough, reliable car, not all those twiddly, fussy microprocessor gadgets that turn on the wipers and warn you not to sneeze. All those things that switch the engine on and off, regurgitate exhaust through the cat and dip the lights when royalty passes, they are all things waiting to go wrong. I am sure there is a big market for a car that stubbornly avoids all that, and a computer that does not need to be updated every ten minutes and has to send reports into Microsoft or Apple and the UK Government every time you click the mouse. It's enough to make you right wing! Bahh. 

 

P.S. is this what happens after the 55th birthday?

[butchvrs]

A lot of the stuff you mention Ray can be turned off or adjusted using the onboard touch screen, apart from that Stoooopid noise generator, I bought my TSI Mk3 VRS brand new in April 2015, I drove the 3 miles home, then got under the scuttle and unplugged it (there's a how to on the Mk3 forum).

 

Personally I love my car, I have lightly modded it to more my taste, -15mm Eibach springs, 20mm rear and 15mm front spacers, a rear diffuser between the exhaust trims and a very subtle lip spoiler at the top of the hatch, oh and had the remainder of the roof painted black to match the sunroof surround, but best of all is the DTUK tuning box and pedal box, makes the VRS how it should come from the factory, allegedly it makes the car produce around the 300hp mark and an extra 100Lbft of torque, I have it set on 2-2 and the midrange is just fantastic (and still returns 40+ mpg on a run).  

 

My biggest problem with the car is that the driver's seat side squab is wearing very badly, 13k and 18 months old but it looks like it 5 years old and 130k!

Skoda UK don't want to know, they're saying is fair wear and tear and that the warranty on interior trim is 6 months or 6500 miles!

I'm bloody fuming, I sold my Mk1 Octy VRS with 147k and the seat was in better condition.

My local dealer (Blade Skoda Gloucester) have made an offer to cover half the cost of a replacement cover as a gesture of goodwill, which is very good of them considering I didn't by it there, so they recognise there's a problem, but Skoda UK customer services don't want to know.

Now I've just written this reminds me, must call trading standards.

[octyal]

A lot of the automatic tech being added to cars these days is ultimately leading to fully autonomous cars, the tech is out there, it just needs so much refinement and legislation change that it will take years to complete. In the mean time we are getting more and more add ons - that many of us (more so over probably 30-35 age range) find is completely unnecessary, but then we learnt to drive without them, so now find them annoying - which is a lot to do with the feeling of a loss of control, anything that makes life easier (or appears to) is seen as pointless.

 

Take these new smart home devices - why would you feel the need to have a gadget plugged into your home that you have to ask to turn the lights on? what happened to the good old

reliable analogue, simple to use light switch? Is it too complicated for today's younger generation to flip a switch from off to on when entering a room? Cars are the same, gesture control, voice control, auto lights/wipers/heating etc I can see why though, as it allows the driver to be more in control, except the tech doesn't always work as intended, or as you would like it. Personally if I was in the position to be ordering a new car, I would be asking if they could supply it with the bare minimum of driver assists. As has been said, I can tell when it's dark, or when I need to wipe the windscreen, and I am perfectly capable of flicking the stalk or turning a switch for either.

 

As for sound generators, well, really???

[old newbie2]

 It's enough to make you right wing! Bahh. 

 

P.S. is this what happens after the 55th birthday?

I can't remember, it was too long ago..........

 

DC