Octavia III Estate - Feedback from 5 years on the road

[MadFlavours]

Octavia III Estate 2.Tdi DSG Elegance from 2014. Own it since new.

 

I had dozens of cars in my last 20 something years on the road. This one is counting 133k kilometers on clock. 

 

My review

 

It's a decent car for the price tag but not more than decent in my humble experience. Please comment. 

 

- Given the chassis behavior, the ride is rough, specially on the back seats. I don't understand how can a car maker do that. If you have a floppy chassis, at least make the ride smooth. Other cars like the Peugeot 308 or the Megane have much more ride quality. My shocks are still stock. Changing them will improve the ride? I assume a very bad quality stock shocks. 

 

- The 2.0 Tdi with 150bhp and 320nm is nicely good to drive with plenty of torque. But at 133k, the dual mass flywheel is dying. Jerky start-ups when hot, and sometimes it stalls with a very jerky bumps that already caused leakage on the exhaust system beacuse of such play when starting up. That is just disappointing. 

 

- The DSG gear box, was clearly setup for petrol engines. If you step on the throttle, it will put one or 2 gears down and use the engine's rpm for optimum power. That's a PETROL setup. A Diesel, specially when recovering speed from 1500rpm, has the maximum torque available to use in the SAME gear until something close to 2500rpm. If you are in a worry, driving in the city in D mode is just a joke. Up and down, up and down. but Ok, it's an auto gear box. But the WORSE about the DSG is when you drive slow in speeds that uses 2nd gear to 3rd gear and back. The gearbox selects 2nd gear when driving in 3rd and the rpm drops from 1500rpm. That's just a joke for a city driver. Unless mine have a bad setup. 

 

- The wipers does not retract when you shut off the engine. My last car that did that, was a 1989 Peugeot 309.

 

- The aerodynamics are the worse I have came across. At 100 km/h, you need to open at least two windows to avoid a massive cabin turbulence. 

 

- If you leave a window half-down and close the door, the glass looks like it will fall apart. 

 

- Rain sensor is not the sharpest

 

Apart from this, good car

 

Best regards to everyone

 

 

[TDIum]

I had a similar experience to you with the TDI-DSG combination. Now I have a TSI-DSG and it works brilliantly. 

[gregoir]

Wiper parking and aerodynamics are fine on mine. No buffetting unless the windows were  open. 

[Boundy123]

The wind buffering on my vRS hatch was a nightmare, kids would open 1 window in the back at speed and it felt like my ear drum was being pulled out, had quickly open another window to ballance the pressure. 

[MadFlavours]

32 minutes ago, gregoir said:

Wiper parking and aerodynamics are fine on mine. No buffetting unless the windows were  open. 

Is it a fault on mine? Wipers should park by default?

[Kental]

4 minutes ago, MadFlavours said:

Is it a fault on mine? Wipers should park by default?

 

Not when you turn the engine off if they are up no.  You need to leave them up to lift them from the screen, if they are parked, you cannot lift them to clean them or change the blades as they are behind the bonnet.

[MadFlavours]

14 minutes ago, Kental said:

 

Not when you turn the engine off if they are up no.  You need to leave them up to lift them from the screen, if they are parked, you cannot lift them to clean them or change the blades as they are behind the bonnet.

Ok but they should retract DOWN when you turn the engine off correct? Mine stay in the middle of the windshield. 

[Kental]

7 minutes ago, MadFlavours said:

Ok but they should retract DOWN when you turn the engine off correct? Mine stay in the middle of the windshield. 

 

That's what mine do. If they retract you cannot lift them to change or clean.

[MadFlavours]

13 minutes ago, Kental said:

 

That's what mine do. If they retract you cannot lift them to change or clean.

I don't want to lift them with the engine off.I want them to retract DOWN when I turn the engine off and they are still going UP. That's a very basic feature. 

Just now, MadFlavours said:

I don't want to lift them with the engine off.I want them to retract DOWN when I turn the engine off and they are still going UP. That's a very basic feature. 

When I turn the engine off with them going up, they stay up like a 1980's car.

[TDIum]

Have you tried turning the wipers off first, then the ignition? 

[theandywaite]

1 hour ago, Kental said:

 

That's what mine do. If they retract you cannot lift them to change or clean.

 

Actually there's a special service mode for this.  h

 

 

I also find it annoying on my car with auto wipers that they don't park correctly. It'd be much easier to leave the wipers in auto all the time. But instead I have to remember to turn them off, then turn the ignition off, then restore the stalk to "auto" for next time.

[gregoir]

Turn the wipers off. They park. Sometimes up a little bit to minimise blade wear through stopping in the same positions. If wipers are not used again and ignition is switched off then the lower park position usually happens.

No buffeting/ buffering with windows fully shut. Can't think why I'd want them open ever apart from dealing with a ticket machine or dumping inital heat at low speed. Ventilation and climatronic deal with comfort and  demisting.

Edited 15 November, 2019 by gregoir

[WayTooTall]

There is a VCDS tweak you can do for the wipers to park.

[theandywaite]

2 minutes ago, WayTooTall said:

There is a VCDS tweak you can do for the wipers to park.

 

Any idea if it's possible with Carista as that's all I have?

[WayTooTall]

3 minutes ago, theandywaite said:

Any idea if it's possible with Carista as that's all I have?

 

If you can do long coding then probably. The VCDS details are here

 

[MadFlavours]

3 hours ago, TDIum said:

Have you tried turning the wipers off first, then the ignition? 

Yes, in 1987 cars. After that, no need to.

[MadFlavours]

2 hours ago, WayTooTall said:

 

If you can do long coding then probably. The VCDS details are here

 

Thanks for the tip! Will try it

[gregoir]

2 hours ago, MadFlavours said:

Yes, in 1987 cars. After that, no need to.

Oh yes?

Every car I have ever owned/driven stopped the wipers dead when the ignition was switched off. Many brands over the decades. Maybe a quirk of some brands that I have not yet driven.

[MadFlavours]

6th year update:

 

At 142k now (88k miles)

 

• In the last year, I started to ear a metallic clanking noise underneath the car, when driving in rougher roads. After some time, the car started to slip gears (DSG) : 1st to 2nd, 3rd to 4th and 5th to 6th with a slipping noise associated. One day in the highway, I lost the entire gearbox, no power with an error message on the dashboard. After checking the problem, it was found that the clutch was dead. At a first inspection, a metallic o-ring was detached, lost of bad wear. Remember that I have respected all DSG gearbox oil changes in the dealer. New clutch in. 
• At the same time, when hot, the engine start was awful, juddering a lot. So I decided to also change the flywheel which was in medium to bad condition.
• New battery in (S/S)
• New set of tires (Continental Premium contact 6), that fitted very well in the car as it improved the handling, steering and overall stability quit a lot

My next step will be changing the 4 shocks (still stock). Any recommendations?

 

Best regards to everyone

 

 

[paulski]

A good read thanks for posting your long term review. 

 

Why do feel you you need to change all four shocks now that you've changed the tyres and handling has improved "quite a lot"  do you think that would improve the ride further? I don't doubt that shocks do gradually loose damping qualities over time but that mileage still seems quite low for the expense for now. Bad roads? 

[MadFlavours]

4 hours ago, paulski said:

A good read thanks for posting your long term review. 

 

Why do feel you you need to change all four shocks now that you've changed the tyres and handling has improved "quite a lot"  do you think that would improve the ride further? I don't doubt that shocks do gradually loose damping qualities over time but that mileage still seems quite low for the expense for now. Bad roads? 

Thank you for your comments. Yes, the front of the car is already way to bouncy and the rear goes down deeper than normal when I load the trunk up to full. Also the ride is getting worse in bad road, specially on the rear seats. You can feel every bump! It is not noticiable and drastic right away, only when you drive a bit faster. My shop can change all shocks for a new set of Monroe for 300€, so I will go for it and hope that the ride improves. 

[ScoutCJB]

Hi, you've mentioned a few times of rough / bad roads - Just how rough and bad?  Could the car not be suited to your requirements.  Having had the (misfortune) to have a Megane as a company car for nearly 3 years and owning an Octavia Scout, i way preferred the Octavia by a country mile.  Far more comfier and nicer to drive (for me).

 

I never had an issue with the rain sensors,  i found them to be very good and like the fact you can easily adjust the sensitivity from the wiper stalk whereas other manufacturers such as MINI you have to go into an overly complicated menu on the trip computer to change.  No issue with aerodynamics either, even at speed it was fine, yes if you drop a rear window at 70mph it will sound horrific, but thats the same with the majority of cars - maybe get some window deflectors as this may help (to a degree).

 

Just counting the last 4 cars I have owned, all needed new batteries within 6 years, my last Oct 3 Scout only lasted 4 years.

 

You shouldn't need new shocks at 88k, has anyone inspected them thoroughly to check for misting, leaks etc?  Have you done a bounce test and pressed down hard on wing to see how many times the car appears to bounce before it settles?  If they are that shafted then id be looking to replace both shocks and springs & bumpstops.

 

Agree with the windows being partially open when shutting doors (certainly on the front), the glass seemed to rattle.

[peter3197]

6 hours ago, MadFlavours said:

 the rear goes down deeper than normal when I load the trunk up to full. 

I presume from this comment that you mean the rear goes down more than it used to when the trunk is full, if that is the case, it is the rear springs that need changing , as they are weakening.