6 minutes ago, MC Bodge said:

 

 

Each to their own, but I was glad to see my Octavia go. 

 

Yes, my Octavia replacement costs me £15 a week extra in fuel and £150 a year more road tax.  But the two hours I'm in my car every work day are now relaxing and enjoyable.  Worth every penny.

Over the weekend I had a taxi ride in an 07 Octavia with 206,000 miles.  Apart from the seats & a bit of what sounded like exhaust whistle, it was in pretty good nick.  The ride was better than mine!!!

10 minutes ago, Kental said:

Over the weekend I had a taxi ride in an 07 Octavia with 206,000 miles.  Apart from the seats & a bit of what sounded like exhaust whistle, it was in pretty good nick.  The ride was better than mine!!!

 

Yes, my Wife has an 8 year old Mk2, it's low mileage but even so it's absolutely fine to drive. Comfortable, refined and not at all crashy or skippy at the back.

We bought it as a nearly new ex-dem with just a few hundred miles on the clock and it's been totally faultless.

 

 

2 hours ago, Kental said:

Over the weekend I had a taxi ride in an 07 Octavia with 206,000 miles.  Apart from the seats & a bit of what sounded like exhaust whistle, it was in pretty good nick.  The ride was better than mine!!!

It doesn't surprise me.

 

Having said that, the Mk2 Estate suspension drags it arse along the floor on standard springs when fully laden. It doesn't pull off the trick of working well under a range of loads. Helper springs are needed for that. 

There have been some suggestions that the facelift variant is different to the pFL. If so can anyone shed light on why? And if it's a change in axle could it be fitted to older the pFL?

15 hours ago, MarkyG82 said:

There have been some suggestions that the facelift variant is different to the pFL. If so can anyone shed light on why? And if it's a change in axle could it be fitted to older the pFL?

 

Did pre FL cars have standard rear mudflaps?  Perhaps the FL widened the rear track?

1 hour ago, Kental said:

Did pre FL cars have standard rear mudflaps?

No, mudflaps have always been an accessory not standard fitment.

On 17/02/2020 at 07:18, logiclee said:

 

Was that the 180PS Diesel?

 

The 1.5 Ecoboost has a totally different gearbox. It's smooth and refined, they don't use the dual clutch box.

 

No, it was the 1.5 Ecoboost petrol, 178bhp/ps 

 

Dunno what the box was, apart from not-a-manual, but the combination was really, really bad....

 

I wouldn't have called it smooth either, certainly after having the 6 speed DSG in a 4x4 vRS Octavia, and now a 7 speed DSG in my Passat 272ps.

 

I've also just got an Amarok 258ps V6 TDI with the ZF 8 speed auto box, now THAT is smooth!

17 minutes ago, pist0nbr0ke said:

 

No, it was the 1.5 Ecoboost petrol, 178bhp/ps 

 

Dunno what the box was, apart from not-a-manual, but the combination was really, really bad....

 

I wouldn't have called it smooth either, certainly after having the 6 speed DSG in a 4x4 vRS Octavia, and now a 7 speed DSG in my Passat 272ps.

 

I've also just got an Amarok 258ps V6 TDI with the ZF 8 speed auto box, now THAT is smooth!

 

That's unusual as the old 6 speed torque converter auto is usually smooth although it's a bit slow witted and not that efficient. Ford's new 8 speeder solves those issues though and is better than any DSG I've owned. (5x DQ200, 2x DQ250 and a DL501)

 

I've not driven an auto that betters the ZF8HP (I've owned two, still have one). There's a reason why it's the gearbox of choice for most high end and premium vehicles.

Edited 18 February, 20206 yr by logiclee

On 17/02/2020 at 11:13, MC Bodge said:

The boot space claims is a bit puzzling and I suspect inconsistent. I suspect that Octavias are measured with no Vario floor and no spare wheel, quoting total gas volume. I fitted the things I kept under the Octavia floor into the underfloor pockets around the Mondeo spare, which are possibly not included in the volume.

 

 

Octavias will be measured the same as any other car and of course they'll be measured with no vario floor otherwise you'd never know what the maximum cargo volume is.

 

More to the point, Mondeo doesn't have a vario floor option because the boot isn't big enough to accommodate it - as you say it only has is underfloor pockets. Mondeo estate is pretty small even amongst it's direct rivals (  Passat is 650L v Mondeo's 525L ). And when you consider cars in the class below such as Toyota Corolla estate or Peugeot's 308 they have a larger capacity too. Heck, Ford's own Focus estate now has 575L - 50L more than the much larger Mondeo. There's no doubt about it, when it comes to packaging, the Mondeo has become a dinosaur. That's why nobody buys them these days.   

 

From memory the Mondeo estate wasn't particularly clever either as you couldn't lower the rear seats from the boot which seems a weird omission for what's supposed to be a large estate. Again these are things you'll find in more modern cars like the new Focus.    

The Mondeo boot appears more usable than the Octavia was. The volume of the cuboid contained by the floor, roof and back seats is large and certainly doesn't appear smaller than the Octavia. The floor area is certainly much larger. The rear passenger compartment is very large, so for holidays, more things will be able to be stored there between the kids!

 

 

 

It does seem a bit odd that the Mondeo boot floor isn't lower, though. The enormous exhaust silencer takes up a lot of space under it. It's a shame that the Mk5 was developed from the US Fusion rather than the European Mk4 Mondeo, but big non-German/Czech, non-SUVs are not a big market nowadays. 

 

My Octavia had levers to drop the seats from the boot, but one was broken. I can cope with leaning forward to flip the seat catches. 

 

As discussed, I disliked driving the Octavia I had intently. It had a big boot, but it was like a throwback to the early 90s, with harsher springs/dampers, and unpleasant vibrations, no steering feel around the centre or in long bends, brakes that faded and tinny body shell. 

 

The Mondeo is vastly superior from that point of view. 

 

I would have had a manual TSI 150 Superb estate had I found one in budget, although the chassis of the DSG one I drove wasn't as good as the Mondeo.

 

I found some photos. The Octavia boot is narrower, and shorter front-back.(compare the front seats for perspective) With more, albeit thin, underfloor storage, although the Mondeo has space around and top of the spare wheel. The Mondeo has more space above the parcel shelf. 

 

 

Edited 19 February, 20206 yr by MC Bodge

I re-discovered this thread 3 years on... 

 

In contrast with my relatively short and frustrating Octavia ownership, I still have the Mondeo.

 

The Mondeo has been painless to live with.

 

The chassis is excellent, even on 18" rims on its standard non-"sport" suspension. 

 

Not once have I thought that I needed to make it ride better or to make it quieter (I even leave my roof bars on) 

 

The steering did initially have an annoying anti-drift, anti-weave feature that I disabled in software and it improved the driving a lot. I suspect that this was a negative feature that tainted early reviews. 

 

The boot is more useful than the Octavia estate. It will carry more camping and sports kit, as is very useful for tip and DIY shop runs. 

 

The Sync3 infotainment unit works as it should. The radio sounds good, but benefits from a bass enhancement. 

 

The halogen headlamps are not good. Better bulbs helped a little, but if I still did a lot of driving on dark back roads, I would fit a set of extra driving lamps. 

 

The rear tailgate won't hold a bike rack. It required a towbar and a cantilever rack, which is a superior method of carrying anyway. 

 

The 1.5 petrol engine is not as good as the 1.4TSI. It is not as economical. Its not quci off the mark -Torque is restricted in first and second gears, and gearing is very long, although from third onwards it is fairly rapid.

 

The aircon is very powerful, although spring temperatures can confuse it a little. I managed to correct some of the settings in software. 

 

With the great chassis and adequate power it is much quicker and more agile than the Octavia on the road, empty or with a full load, roofbox and four bikes on the towbar rack. 

 

Whatever people argued in this thread, the Mk5 Mondeo is in a different league to the Mk3 Octavia (and is far better than its reputation suggests) and to argue otherwise is just perverse. 

What size tyres does it have? I would have put the Mondeo against the superb. Is a focus not a more fair comparison with the Octavia?  Obviously not in your case as you moved to the Mondeo. Just rambling.

Thanks for the update and I'm really happy the Mondeo has worked out so well for you.

Odd last paragraph though 

6 minutes ago, MarkyG82 said:

What size tyres does it have? I would have put the Mondeo against the superb. Is a focus not a more fair comparison with the Octavia?  Obviously not in your case as you moved to the Mondeo. Just rambling.

You are just being perverse! 

1 hour ago, MarkyG82 said:

What size tyres does it have? I would have put the Mondeo against the superb. Is a focus not a more fair comparison with the Octavia?  Obviously not in your case as you moved to the Mondeo. Just rambling.

The Mondeo has 235/45/18 tyres. 

 

There were various comments about the Mk5 Mondeo being not very good, barge-like handling etc.

 

The Octavia was big enough, but it just would not carry as much of our stuff inside as the Mondeo, and wasn't a deciding factor in moving on. 

 

Admittedly, I had been under the impression that it wasn't as good as the previous Mondeo, but it is actually a very good car. Despite being bigger and much heavier, it also steers, handles and stops far better than the Octavia we had. It is very composed. 

 

FWIW, even our 2006 Fiesta (that we still have...) was better to drive and ride in than our Mk3 Octavia Estate. 

 

 

Edited 8 February, 20233 yr by MC Bodge

Same tyre size as superb. 

 

Those fiestas are great to drive despite having torsion beam too.  Just shows what can be done with the technology.