Hello, recent owner of a 2013 Octavia

[WillM82]

Hi,

 

After much car hunting I bought a 2013 (late - built November reg'd December) Octavia hatch 1.6 TDi DSG with 34k miles, and have been told from an ex-Fabia owner that this forum is a great resource.

 

So far I think it is a nice big car, huge boot, good looking car, in blue a great colour.

 

I seem to be getting nearly twice the MPG I was getting from my last car, a 2 litre Saab 93, which is nice. £20 a road tax is ridiculously cheap too - like taxing a motorbike!

Albeit I know it'll come back on increased servicing costs for the diesel.

 

I find the 8 speaker Bolero sound system not too bad at all - it gets a bad review on here from what I've read while lurking. Found that increasing the mid and treble helped as mine is quite bass heavy (on DAB at least).

Would've liked if it had mirrorlink/Android auto for Waze maps, but not the end of the world, bluetooth works well for calls. (I've seen aftermarket Kenwood stereos that integrate quite nicely, perhaps a future project). Huge improvement over a Saab Linear-spec 4 speaker system! The touchscreen can be tempremental when cold, I found a good screen clean helped a little.

Was pleasantly surprised with DAB - was expecting it to be a lot patchier than it is.

 

However I am trying to diagnose a bit of a bodywork vibration, sounds as if the bootlid isn't fully closed - adjusting the stoppers - even to the top - doesn't make a difference (other than the 'pressure buffeting' feeling seems to have ceased).

 

I haven't driven a diesel in years, it can be a little bit lumpy sometimes on a cold start, one evening it took a few turns to start, like an old school diesel with a dead glow plug. (Injectors going?)

Also concerned about 7 speed DSG horror stories. I've seen Octavias with stellar mileages, and while I did opt for an automatic for ease of the urban half of my commute, was hoping that it would be a good car.

 

It certainly feels more solid, not sure how to put it - almost chunkier / heavy duty - than the Saab it replaced. The bumps and potholes that threw the Swede off are just brushed off in the Czech.

 

Look forward to being part of these forums!

[ColinD]

Hi and welcome.

 

The fabia driver knows his stuff, hope you find it so too. As we cover all the skoda models we benefit hugely from shared knowledge and a ridiculous amount of diversity in our members.

 

I think the gov't have to get a wiggle on for DAB coverage. I'm sure they hoped to sell analogue soon. We find the DAB on our Ford is ok, till you're in the hills. Then it's far worse than intermittent analogue. But onwards technology must march.

 

If you have another driver, have them drive it with you in the back seat, or boot if a private section of road can be found. Never know it could be coming from the passenger seat and echoing around, it's that big  

 

Takes a bit of adjusting to the diesel for sure. When I swapped, I was for a bit when overtaking wondering why the engine had stopped accelerating, the old mkI eyeball not adjusting to the lower red line thing, mostly as it's glues to the oncoming lane. 

[WillM82]

Thanks Colin. Years ago I worked alongside him he bought a new mk1 Fabia VRS - absolutely cracking little hot hatch.

 

Have had Skoda in the background of my life - passed test in a Felicia, dad's Octavia estate helped my wife and I moved into our first bought house, uncle has taxied Octavias for years and I remember he laughed at me years when I had an Alfa Romeo with parts on order from Italy while his mk1 was ridiculously cheap and easy to run.

 

I had lurked in the Octavia and Rapid forums before buying, the radio seemed to be hated upon much as the 4 speaker base Saab radio was on the Saab forums, yet I was pleasantly surprised with it. DAB is so much better than the small selection of local DJs on regional commercial FM.

 

The noise does sound like the bootlid, but your comment about the passenger seat makes me wonder if perhaps the rear seats aren't clipped in fully, I'll have a look at that...

 

Don't mind the diesel for overtaking - the DSG kickdown takes care of that, however it is noticable that it seems to fly through the gears compared to my old Saab petrol automatic which dropped a couple of cogs on kickdown and went up to high revs and screamed like an old GroupN touring car