So i'm 5 days and 350 miles in with my Quartz grey 245 Challenge DSG Estate.  It’s replaced a 17 plate LR Discovery Sport which is obviously a very different car but had a 65 plate Superb SE Business estate before that so roughly knew what to expect going back to a Skoda estate from an SUV and my wife has a Seat Leon FR. I live in rural Devon so technically an SUV is probably a bit better for me with cow muck covered pot holed roads but I could just never quite get on with the Disco Sport so decided to get a slightly impractical 19 inch shod Challenge instead 😊. The Auto box on the Disco was a mess with 2/3 second shift gaps depending on where you were in the gear range which proved to be dangerous on numerous occasions, using the paddles made no difference, the infotainment was horrible, Sat nav was the worst system ever, it broke down several times, had 15 minor faults which meant it was in and out of the dealers and the DPF was a real pain. Although I never had any warnings for DPF regen failures/clogging it would do a regen every 100 miles or so plummeting the MPG by 20% and stinking out the cabin (which LR never managed to fix). Although I do about 14k a year I figured going back to petrol would be nice.

 

So first thoughts on the Octy Estate –

 

Good stuff

Nice to have the standard VAG infotainment back with Apple Carplay 

Virtual cockpit is excellent. The only way it could be better in my opinion is if I could get Apple car play/google maps to display in the middle

DSG box a dream compared to the Disco

Boot space and rear passenger space better than the Disco although not a fair comparison to my old Superb which was massive

Seats are more comfortable than the Disco and the Alacantara is much better than leather in the Disco

MPG in first 350 miles taking it easy is comparable to the diesel discovery sport (although I suspect may tumble when run in)

It goes round corners properly unlike the Disco

I love having a manual tailgate again! The electric tailgate on the Disco was slow and the virtual pedal would always get set off by my dog in the driveway

DCC is brilliant - even on the 19's and in normal DCC mode the potholes round my house are significantly better damped than my big tyred Disco sport

 

Bad stuff

The manual hand brake is taking some getting used to again

Having to change the driving mode to individual everytime I start the car is rubbish, especially as it remembers all other settings. Normal is largely fine though

Miss the reverse camera the Disco had

Should have specc’d extra USB ports in the back as trailing a cable from front lighter to the kids in the back is a bit rubbish

Should have specc’d Adaptive cruise which I had on the Superb as with the DSG would make motorway/average speed limits much less hassle

 

Most of these are my fault though as could have specc’d the car differently. Overall I love it. Good thing too as I’ve leased it for three years which will be a year longer than I’ve ever kept a car before.

For the USB ports in the back you can retrofit them or trail a USB from the boot through the rear armrest so that you don't have to see the mess when you are driving

8 minutes ago, SunsetZed said:

For the USB ports in the back you can retrofit them or trail a USB from the boot through the rear armrest so that you don't have to see the mess when you are driving

Ta, will take a look at the retrofit

Reverse camera can be retrofitted quite easily as well. Did it to my 2014 estate.

The driving mode one is odd though as mine remembers the setting.

38 minutes ago, WayTooTall said:

Reverse camera can be retrofitted quite easily as well. Did it to my 2014 estate.

The driving mode one is odd though as mine remembers the setting.

I’ll get used to not having a camera as it’s a lease car I don’t want to modify it. Driving mode seems to be a new thing I think. Bit annoying but not the end of the world.

I had a full discovery as a hire car about a year ago.   Doesn't sound like that was any better.

Had to park in a multi storey car park too, which was amusing but highlighted that the thing wasn't overly practical in the real world as it was so big.

Speed humps were more painful than in any of my cars and it drank fuel like mad...  and I don't get the auto tailgate thing, as you say it's just a slow annoying unnecessary feature.

 

I don't get why Skoda have messed up the driving mode selection.  Mine stays in the previous position also.

Are you sharing the car with anyone and are you swapping keys? Could it be being stored on the key?

1 hour ago, Alex-W said:

I had a full discovery as a hire car about a year ago.   Doesn't sound like that was any better.

Had to park in a multi storey car park too, which was amusing but highlighted that the thing wasn't overly practical in the real world as it was so big.

Speed humps were more painful than in any of my cars and it drank fuel like mad...  and I don't get the auto tailgate thing, as you say it's just a slow annoying unnecessary feature.

 

I don't get why Skoda have messed up the driving mode selection.  Mine stays in the previous position also.

 The electric tailgate has always annoyed me. Although not as much as a Caravelle we had when the kids were small - it had electric sliding doors which took 20 seconds to open/close (compared to 1 second for the manual ones). That was of course if you could actually get them to close properly. They spent most of their time bouncing back for an imaginary blockage. My kids eventually started climbing in the front door and walking through to the back. 

Usb ports in the rear was only an available option if you opted for heated rear seats at one point. Not sure if that's still the case but that adds a fair extra cost for that plus the usb ports if you only want usb.

 

As others have mentioned, use the boot 12v socket and use a converter with some cables through the ski hatch/armrest.