Octavia 245 Owners Club

[tonyhan]

4 minutes ago, jonjc said:

 

Finally picked up new Quartz Grey Octavia VRS Tsi DSG with DCC today.  Mysterious problem with indicator unit fixed by swapping some sort of box unit with one from another new Octavia - but they've ordered a brand new totally up-to-date version of the offending box and will fit when available.  They actually bent over backwards to help and offered various sweeteners from the accessories brochure (stopping short of a wheel upgrade).  They are adamant that this is not indicative of a 'problem' car.  Time will tell..

 

However - very happy with the car.  A far less shouty colour (quartz grey instead of red) and 18" wheels instead of 19".  Not massively different to my previous 2016 VRS 220 (inside and out) except for the extra 25 horses (or is it PS), DCC and interior LEDs.  I have yet to have a proper play with the DCC settings but should be fun experimenting.

 

 

Great news - congratulations!  Hope you enjoy it. 

 

Still waiting for delivery date on mine - apparently Build Week 8.  I'd be really interested to hear what you think of the DCC (or maybe not if you tell me it's rubbish and I've wasted my money ;-)  

[BA Baracus]

@jonjc - pics or it didn’t happen!  Enjoy your new car and forget about the wee hiccup.

[ExSEAT]

6 minutes ago, tonyhan said:

Great news - congratulations!  Hope you enjoy it. 

 

Still waiting for delivery date on mine - apparently Build Week 8.  I'd be really interested to hear what you think of the DCC (or maybe not if you tell me it's rubbish and I've wasted my money ;-)  

Ive had the DCC for a month now, my most used setting on local roads is 'comfort' as it sucks up a lot of the crashyness and jiggling my MY16 used to do. Very noticable differences between the main settings with the firm sport setting being pretty harsh! Overall it gives the driving modes a more distinctive change and I would have it again straight away!

[jonjc]

5 minutes ago, BA Baracus said:

@jonjc - pics or it didn’t happen!  Enjoy your new car and forget about the wee hiccup.

 

Twas getting dark - pics to follow...

[themanwithnoaim]

4 hours ago, tonyhan said:

Great news - congratulations!  Hope you enjoy it. 

 

Still waiting for delivery date on mine - apparently Build Week 8.  I'd be really interested to hear what you think of the DCC (or maybe not if you tell me it's rubbish and I've wasted my money ;-)  

DCC is a game changer, in Sport mode you can believe you're in a sports car, in comfort mode your family will believe it's a comfortable car.

 

WTF is not to like ?

[TheWanderer]

This is bizarre, OEM rubber mats for the car. 

 

Buy them in the UK £50. Buy them from the Czech Republic and get exactly the same product delivered £36.50!

 

Nice saving. 

[Black Howling]

So my bad luck car brings more bad luck.

 

After being in at my local dealer in August and they forgot to service it and forgot to change 2 tyres. Then not calling me back within a week, actually only calling me back about 2 weeks ago. I got the tyres from somewhere else.

 

My car should have gone in for first and second services this time with a nice £80 discount cos of previous muck ups, I'm now over 21k miles, I work nights, skoda assured me that If I booked in for today, that they would pick my car up first, between 7.30 and 8am, I would then sleep and car would be returned between 5 and 6pm and I would go back to work.

 

Anyways, it got to 9am before I called them, to be told "our driver hasn't got back with the first car yet, you're second on the list". At this point I politely told them to cancel this service, they're losing another few hundred quid and that I'll get it serviced by a dealership nearer my work.

 

The nearest dealership to my work is lookers in Salford, has anyone any experience with them? 

 

I actually don't even want the car anymore cos of all the crap that keeps happening, I've only had it 14 months 

[TheWanderer]

I've dealt with Lookers Guildford branch and they tried to overcharge me by £80, even though I had prebooked the service via the online service which fixed the price, so beware. 

[shyVRS245]

9 hours ago, Black Howling said:

So my bad luck car brings more bad luck.

 

After being in at my local dealer in August and they forgot to service it and forgot to change 2 tyres. Then not calling me back within a week, actually only calling me back about 2 weeks ago. I got the tyres from somewhere else.

 

My car should have gone in for first and second services this time with a nice £80 discount cos of previous muck ups, I'm now over 21k miles, I work nights, skoda assured me that If I booked in for today, that they would pick my car up first, between 7.30 and 8am, I would then sleep and car would be returned between 5 and 6pm and I would go back to work.

 

Anyways, it got to 9am before I called them, to be told "our driver hasn't got back with the first car yet, you're second on the list". At this point I politely told them to cancel this service, they're losing another few hundred quid and that I'll get it serviced by a dealership nearer my work.

 

The nearest dealership to my work is lookers in Salford, has anyone any experience with them? 

 

I actually don't even want the car anymore cos of all the crap that keeps happening, I've only had it 14 months 

Perhaps you should name and shame the shocking lack of service from the dealer that messed you about so much so others can avoid them.

[Nigel101]

Well it’s here and love it so far.......

[shyVRS245]

Looks like Grey is going to be 2019 most popular colour choice like 2018.

[Nigel101]

5 minutes ago, Nigel101 said:

Well it’s here and love it so far.......

And there’s me avoiding all the colours they were trying to sell me......it’s a lovely colour, very understated.....

[jonjc]

16 hours ago, jonjc said:

 

Twas getting dark - pics to follow...

 

Here it is...

Already mucky from 5 mile drive home on winter roads.  And with frost on top!

But it's proof!

 

Thoughts so far (having hardly driven it)...

Glad I can choose to turn the sound generator off rather than having to physically disconnect the speaker as I did with my old car.

More import drive stuff (esp DCC) coming soon....

[shyVRS245]

5 minutes ago, jonjc said:

 

Here it is...

Already mucky from 5 mile drive home on winter roads.  And with frost on top!

But it's proof!

 

Thoughts so far (having hardly driven it)...

Glad I can choose to turn the sound generator off rather than having to physically disconnect the speaker as I did with my old car.

More import drive stuff (esp DCC) coming soon....

Another BLOODY Grey one so boring. Only joking glad they finally sorted the light issue for you, enjoy.

[jonjc]

7 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Another BLOODY Grey one so boring. Only joking glad they finally sorted the light issue for you, enjoy.

 

I was gutted the day after I ordered it to see the report that said that grey was now the most popular car colour.  I've never knowingly or intentionally done anything trendy and something being fashionable is a good reason for me not to do it!  I do like it and I'll get used to it but it does seem very tame after the corrida red.  I'm hoping to get fewer busybody pedestrians signalling for me to slow down when I'm already at or below the speed limit |(this has happened quite a few times).  I'm convinced that VRS+Red causes an assumption of speeding when driving towards pedestrians!

 

Not 100% sure my heated windscreen is working properly.

[Scotty72]

37 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Looks like Grey is going to be 2019 most popular colour choice like 2018.

Probably cos all the zero cost red ones got sold/leased already?   I hate white cars and so I had a choice of 1 colour. Options with PCH are full priced no discounts and added to leasing costs over the period of the lease = less desirable.

[shyVRS245]

2 minutes ago, Scotty72 said:

Probably cos all the zero cost red ones got sold/leased already?   I hate white cars and so I had a choice of 1 colour. Options with PCH are full priced no discounts and added to leasing costs over the period of the lease = less desirable.

Our car park at work is full of grey, black and white cars currently last years 3 most popular colours. This is why the odd red or yellow car really stand out amongst all the dull ones.

[martysparty99]

3 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Our car park at work is full of grey, black and white cars currently last years 3 most popular colours. This is why the odd red or yellow car really stand out amongst all the dull ones.

Have to say I wasnt sure when I got my red 245 after previously having a few grey cars. But I love it now and it goes so well with the special edition 19' wheels.  I do find people do get out of my way ;-)

 

[Scotty72]

5 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Our car park at work is full of grey, black and white cars currently last years 3 most popular colours. This is why the odd red or yellow car really stand out amongst all the dull ones.

And worked perfectly for me when my broker said plenty of red available in Sept when I ordered mine. Other colours (other than white) back of the queue.

[Nigel101]

13 minutes ago, Scotty72 said:

Probably cos all the zero cost red ones got sold/leased already?   I hate white cars and so I had a choice of 1 colour. Options with PCH are full priced no discounts and added to leasing costs over the period of the lease = less desirable.

Had a choice they were really pushing red and white , but thought you don’t see many in quartz and it’s a bit stealthy so ordered , along with everyone else it seems , just proves we have taste , it’s a nice colour and really suits the car......

[Scotty72]

4 minutes ago, Nigel101 said:

Had a choice they were really pushing red and white , but thought you don’t see many in quartz and it’s a bit stealthy so ordered , along with everyone else it seems , just proves we have taste , it’s a nice colour and really suits the car......

Its a really nice colour. You've confirmed the high numbers of Red/White available. Had I 1. Not been leasing and 2. Not had to wait I'd have chosen the Met Blue or the Quartz Grey probably. However I really do like the Corrida Red, it was free and there was no wait

[shyVRS245]

12 minutes ago, Scotty72 said:

And worked perfectly for me when my broker said plenty of red available in Sept when I ordered mine. Other colours (other than white) back of the queue.

Still miss my Red 2003 Leon Cupra stunning looking car (remap to 230bhp).

[jonjc]

Now I've driven it a bit for about 30 miles total so far I have a few thoughts...

 

The step change from 2016 220 VRS DSG to 2019 245 VRS DSG/DCC was obviously nowhere near as great as my previous switch from 2007 Diesel VRS Manual to 2014 220 VRS DSG but there are a few differences I noticed and liked...

 

Firstly the extra 25 horses (or PS) is noticeable - hard to say how/why but it just feels a bit more zippy.

I prefer the Sport Mode gear changes in the new car. On the 2016 model I usually ended up knocking off the S-gears when in Sport Mode as I felt it held back from changing up a bit too long.  So it was roaring along in too low a gear for a touch longer than I was happy with.  The new car feels much more refined as it works up through the gears in S mode - perhaps this is because the transitions are spread across 7 gears instead of 6?

 

The DCC does make a noticeable difference over bumpy roads or speed ramps when in Comfort mode.  I still prefer the Sport Mode but can see that Comfort Mode might be nice and less fatigue-inducing on long motorway runs.  Of course comfort mode is never going to feel has soft and luxurious as the equivalent mode in a Bentley but it's a nice option to have. Comfort Mode is probably a bit too 'boaty' for my liking.  I suspect the differences between Comfort, Normal and Sport may be too subtle to ever bother with 'Normal' and I'll probably switch between Comfort and Sport - or set individual settings for a mix of Sport and comfort settings.  Good to be able to turn off the sound generator - and to turn it back on every now and then just for fun.

 

I haven't fully tested it with only 35 miles on the clock but so far, upon flooring the accelerator, I was pleased with the electronic diff - no more crash/bang as the engine fails to put the power on the floor.

 

The interior lighting options are interesting - the LEDs in the door panels look nice but of little practical value - nice to be able to switch colours.  The footwell lighting is a bit weird.  Of course it is a wonderful thing to be able to see my feet in the dark but I found that with the footwell light on its brightest setting (with only a normal white/yellow colour on offer) caused a dazzling and distracting reflection off the metal accelerator pedal - so I had to turn it down to its lowest setting - which reduces any practical value in being able to see stuff I (or my passenger) have dropped on the floor!

 

Early days - there may yet be some more discoveries to come...

Edited 31 January, 2019 by jonjc

[TheWanderer]

Well here's The Beast....

 

 

Note that I preempted Brexit with the number plate!   

Edited 31 January, 2019 by TheWanderer

[Scotty72]

4 minutes ago, TheWanderer said:

Well here's The Beast....

 

I do like that blue! Looking good