I've had my beloved old 2006 Mondeo for 10 years now, and will be picking up my Octavia 2.0 TSI 190 in a few weeks.

Due to COVID19, I got to test drive the Octavia on my own (well, with the Mrs with me), so I got the chance to give it some stick and I found it drove quite nicely.

Even when pushing it deliberately too quickly round a corner, it went round well, with a little "something" seeming to happen at the back halfway round the corner that kept everything nicely on line.

 

It got me thinking.

 

My Mondeo has ABS, and that's your lot when it comes to fancy electronics.

My 2019 Octavia apparently has ESC including ABS, EBV, MSR, ASR, EDS, HBA, DSR. (I had to have a search to find out what half that lot meant.)

 

It's a big jump in tech and driver assistance, and I wonder how the day-to-day driving experience will change.

 

In my Mondeo (which I adore, as you can probably tell), I can feel everything the car is up to. I can control understeer/oversteer with the throttle, and there's a very progressive curve from things getting a bit out of shape, to starting a slide which is easily corrected.

I'm wondering if driving the Octavia will mean adjusting my driving style quite a bit, to rely on the electronics to sort things out when I push the car too hard round a bend?

And more importantly, if my instincts kick in and I start trying to correct something that the electronics are sorting out, will I end up counteracting the benefits of the electronic systems and wake up upside down in a ditch?

 

Has anyone else jumped from a similarly powered (my Mondy is remapped to about 185BHP) low-tech car into a high-tech car, and if so, how did your driving style change, if at all?

 

I think there is a slight learning curve.

 

The temptation to try and manually intervene to the extend you usually would is the tricky but.

 

It took my other half a while to adjust. The electronic systems would kick in, then with a manual intervention it can unsettle the car further. Since the car is making adjustments on the current situation and driver inputs.

 

The biggest change will likely be the ASR/Traction Control. With wheelspin the system locks the spinning wheels and reduces throttle.

 

So again, release the throttle at this point can results in a horrible jolt and sever loss of power.

4 minutes ago, Phil-E said:

I think there is a slight learning curve.

 

The temptation to try and manually intervene to the extend you usually would is the tricky but.

 

It took my other half a while to adjust. The electronic systems would kick in, then with a manual intervention it can unsettle the car further. Since the car is making adjustments on the current situation and driver inputs.

 

The biggest change will likely be the ASR/Traction Control. With wheelspin the system locks the spinning wheels and reduces throttle.

 

So again, release the throttle at this point can results in a horrible jolt and sever loss of power.

So just hoof it and let the traction control sort it out?

Yeah. That's been my approach for years since I've had traction control.

 

In cars varying between 100bhp & 250nm up to 240bhp & 490nm.

I went from a fairly basic B5 Passat to the Superb 2 and the only thing that's caught me out any bit is the XDS when it tightens the line mid-corner. A few times I've had to back off the steering a fraction to stay out of the ditch.

11 hours ago, chimaera said:

I went from a fairly basic B5 Passat to the Superb 2 and the only thing that's caught me out any bit is the XDS when it tightens the line mid-corner. A few times I've had to back off the steering a fraction to stay out of the ditch.

Ah! The XDS might have been the "something" I felt the car doing as it went round the bend. It was unobtrusive and effective, I just felt "something" going on with the car.

I didn't try and correct it, as by the time I had detected something was happening, it was all over and the car was round the bend. Whatever it was, it worked well, from my point of view.

Yeah it's basically a trick they use. Since they have an open diff, if a wheel starts to spin then just that wheel spins and no power goes to the other wheel.

 

So the XDS applies the brake to the spinning wheel to force power back to the other wheel.