Dear fellow Briskodians (is that actually a word??!!)

 

To start I will apologize for the long story, but it explains my reasons for driving Skoda (again)..

My name is Huib (I don't care how you would pronounce that in English I'm 40 years young, happily married and father of 2.

I've been a petrolhead from the day I was born and since my very first car (a rusty 1980's Peugeot 205) I always kept a special

place in my heart for Peugeot (i've owned several 405's and 306's, more out of Francophile sentiment than common sense).

 

Until that day in 2009, on which my previous employer promoted me to a position where I would be allowed (and need) a company / lease car.

My boss was very Audi minded and working with a Volkswagen/Audi lease company. For my work I needed to visit our customers

all through the Benelux countries to sell them guitars and amplifiers so I needed some space in the car to bring stuff with me.

But for the given budget I could only choose a VW Golf stationwagon or Audi A3, both in very basic trim. So only very little gadgets/options

that make driving long distances in unknown territories comfortable (well adjustable seats, good satnav, decent audio, etc).

 

It was my father who suggested to check out Skoda, as it had already been part of the VAG-group for some years. Although i'm a true petrolhead,

I've never been sensitive to car brand image to polish up my own image (as opposed to many Audi/Volkswagen drivers/owners) so I was curious to

check out Skoda; To find out that their Octavia SW (O2) 1.6 TDI Greenline Business would be a perfect car for me. It took some time to convince my

boss (as he was sensitive to brand image) but finally I got to pick up my brand new Skoda. 2 years later, 75% of my colleagues with company cars

were driving Skoda. So... "Follow the Skoda driver...." as was the official Skoda slogan in the Netherlands for years.

I've driven the Octavia for about 60.000 km's before I changed jobs and needed to turn the car in. I will never forget that car. Driving for 5

hours straight to appear completely fit and sharp at my appointments.

 

Since then I've privately owned and driven 2 consecutive Toyota Prius II's (The first was 2007 and second 2009). We needed an economic, cheap to

drive/own and safe car. Let me say this as a petrolhead, believe it or not: But to me the Prius II is one of the best cars ever built. Period. Not the

most fun, not the sexiest, definitely not the sportiest but... definitely the most reliable, economic and comfortable car I've had.

The Prius II will end up in the top 10 of most important cars ever designed, besides the VW Beetle, T-Ford and others.

After I had a very serious accident with my first Prius (a BMW 535i drove at over 55 mph through red light, right into my driver side) I got out

with relatively minor injuries but the car was a total loss. After all legal and insurance issues were arranged (the Prius was still valued very high

I did not hesitate a second and looked to buy back a similar Prius, albeit a bit younger one.

 

My wife (who is also petrolhead) was getting a bit tired of the overly comfortable (read: unsporty) handling of the Prius. I felt the same way, but

I just could not yet do away with the superb economical, reliable and practical properties of this car. Until... my parents in law refused to go on holiday

with us and the kids (because of the fact that we need to stick to high-season now). We used to stuff our Prius for our vacation drives, and all the things

that did not fit, would be stuffed in the back of grandpa's Toyota Avensis station. But not this time. So my wife and I looked at each other and I knew

it was time for me to let the Prius go.... I sold it within days. As we do not use our car daily, we took our time to look around. We had both already agreed

long time ago that our first choice would be a Skoda Octavia SW. As I had sold the Prius for a good price, we could stretch our budget so that an

2014/2015 O3 would be within our reach. After some research I decided not to go for a TSI model, after reading about too many TSI related issues, that

mostly occur between the 90 -130k km's (which was exactly the mileage range of cars within our budget). And as there is a growing anti-diesel sentiment

in our country, the TDI's have become cheaper than the petrol models. So last week we found our 2014 Octavia SW, 1.6 TDI Greenline Business Ed., 6 gear manual,

where the previous (1st) driver (leased) ticked almost all the options boxes: Bi-Xenon / Led with AFS, Led rear lights, Columbus system, DAB+ radio, privacy glass,

KESSY, leather interior with seat heating, full parking assist system, drive mode selection, etc. etc. Alot of comfort and luxury at a really good price.

We can't be happier. Every time I get in the car, I get a big smile on my face. Next month the first big test. A 1400km vacation drive to south of France. And

I plan to have the car stage 1 chip-tuned when we return, to 150BHP / 320 Nm, which will make the 1.6 TDI much smoother.

 

If you managed to read all through the above, thank you! And thank you all for providing me with great info on this great forum!

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

A warm welcome to the Forum !  Thank you for a good read.  I have also enjoyed Toyota, last one a GT86 but now sold.  Happy memories of The Netherlands when living at Moenchengladbach.