So long

[MC Bodge]

After a second, but fairly brief, disappointing, and only 10 month, stint at Octavia ownership I'm departing. 

 

I chose to buy an estate car with the excellent TSI 150 engine, but hadn't appreciated, until a day or so after taking up ownership..... just how poorly executed the rear torsion beam was in the estate version. The ride, handling and really unpleasant thud/boom/vibration (that I found to be as unpleasant as somebody scraping their nails down a blackboard) really let down what should have been a very good car - and is....until you start driving on a less than perfectly smooth road, or a road with fast or tight bends or undulations in it.

 

The OEM brakes/pads were a little inadequate too. 

 

Having spent time and money trying to improve the situation, and feeling increasingly frustrated, I have now traded it in. 

 

I've seen some interesting things on here and had some useful info. 

 

Cheers. 

Edited 5 February, 2020 by MC Bodge

[mac11irl]

@MC Bodge

What did you trade for??

[MC Bodge]

Mondeo Estate, although a manual Superb estate TSI 150 in budget probably would have done too. 

[Oldmansomerset]

Farewell and good luck with the Mondeo.

[MC Bodge]

I re-discovered my Briskoda activity 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 some people argued on this forum, 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.