Completely happy - no. But for the money its a good car. Let`s not expect Skoda to outdo Audi, VAG marketing would never allow it.

 

My main complaints are:

 

* 1.5TSI engine still kangarooing after car has sat for a few hours albeit light kangaroo

* Noise from stock tires (I have optional acoustic glass)

* Sometimes switching to 2nd when downshifting gets stuck (manual) if you push the lever slightly more to the left

* Audio system is mediocre

* Jumpy ride on the stock 17" wheels

* Weird petrol gauge which stays at full for about 200-250km and then drops fast

* Aircon settings only digital and after the last update Laura disappeared (at least not responding to Hey Laura anymore)

* Torsion bar which is felt easily when you push it a bit

 

Main compliments:

 

* Very good build quality

* Feels more upmarket but some materials are quite cheap (central console, seats plastics)

* Engine is lively and very economical

* Great digital cockpit and main display

* Massive and very practical boot

* Good practicalities on the inside and beautiful interior

 

In my opinion the main issue to such car is not competition but deciding between one of these new or getting a premium (like a Merc or a BMW) with low mileage. I am mostly inclined to do the second in the future as warranty is so trickily written that basically you`re stuck forever with the stock equipment and its lacking in a lot of important areas to me.

Edited 12 November, 20223 yr by MP1983

On 03/05/2022 at 12:34, toot said:

Well first and foremost it is contracted out Customer Services and people who seem to be trained to refuse almost everything and let the paying customers fight for the right to have vehicles of merchantable quality. 

You have a bunch of people who might have been selling trainers in a shop recently that are now panning off Skoda / VW Group car owners. 

 

 

We had a loose rear view mirror that the Skoda dealer insisted was due to a collision (not) and it wouldn't be covered under warranty. Contacted Skoda Customer Services. It was all frontline 'have a nice day stuff' but no help with the problem.

Took it to our local garage workshop who contacted Skoda garage support. They said take it to a windscreen place to get new adhesive. The response from the windscreen guy.. it's a known problem that requires a new windscreen, don't give up fighting Skoda. We wrote to the MD of Skoda and months later it was replaced FOC as a 'goodwill' gesture.

1.5 TSI Manual SEL

Yup, I’m happy 🙋‍♂️

Expect me back here when I’ve got something to grumble about apart from the odd brake-assist/lane assist incident. 

(Actually, I’d like a USB-C to right angle lightning cable so my phone could sit in the allocated spot without sitting on the lead. The area dimensions are obvs with wireless charging in mind)

Overall very happy with my Octavia. Initially some software issues however they seem to have been sorted for me with the latest update. The car performs very well both on a spirited drive and when trying to drive economically. I love the size of the boot and space inside along with the looks of the car. For the money I paid last year, I would struggle to get something else that ticks all the boxes I was looking for. I'm sure when I looked at a BMW 3 series with similar performance and spec I was looking at over 15k difference in price along with a smaller boot. This also impacted on the road tax and servicing costs.

the only problem i have with mine is trying to find out how everything works.apart from that a great car.

Just now, Joss1733 said:

the only problem i have with mine is trying to find out how everything works.apart from that a great car.

I just had a couple of sessions on the driveway working out a few bits at a time.

41 minutes ago, Joss1733 said:

the only problem i have with mine is trying to find out how everything works.apart from that a great car.

You’re still struggling? You have it for quite a while now 😉😊 I guess I also have a lot I don’t know yet, but enough for my daily commute to work, which is much more enjoyable and relaxed now with the dsg and great interior, consumption also good 😎 

She’s a nice lady, I have to say 😊

There's two MK4 at home. One 1.5tsi manual Style, 11 months old 8000km and a 2.0tsi DSG VRS that's 6 weeks old with 1500km.

 

The only problem we have had is sometimes it comes up that front collision avoidance system unavailable comes up on the RS. It appears about a minute into the journey on cold mornings and disappears after a few minutes. I'm wondering if it's due to dew on the sensor array first thing. We've had no software errors, no noisy SOS, no other warnings etc. in both cars.

 

I did have one VERY annoying rattle that drove me mad for 2 weeks until I figured it out. It was very light and eventually I copped that the umbrella was rattling in the door. Yes, the Skoda umbrella.....

 

Fuel consumption is shockingly good for what they are. The 1.5tsi will easily do about 4.8L/100km on a long motorway journey (200km plus) and I've seen 6.5L/100km over a 50km journey in the VRS. However, they drink around town.....

 

Both are very quiet and refined compared to the previous MK2 Octavia and MK3 Leon (184ps FR TDi) Infotainment is a lot easier to work than I expected from some of the reviews. We should have ordered DSG for the Style one having experienced the DSG in the RS for the first time. I can however, tell the difference in the rear suspension setups of the two over "typical Irish backroads" and the torsion beam doesn't cope as well as the independent rear suspension.

 

2 hours ago, Hairy_Joe said:

The only problem we have had is sometimes it comes up that front collision avoidance system unavailable comes up on the RS. It appears about a minute into the journey on cold mornings and disappears after a few minutes. I'm wondering if it's due to dew on the sensor array first thing.

 

I get the same. A heavy dew and within a few 100 yards or so the error comes up. After about a mile it clears and all well.

12 hours ago, sneal said:

 

I get the same. A heavy dew and within a few 100 yards or so the error comes up. After about a mile it clears and all well.

I've finally started to expect the ding every time I drive off after washing it on a cold/dewy evening. Got me by surprise in the beginning 🤣 As you guys have said, it clears itself after a minute of driving.

52 minutes ago, Jorgeminator said:

I've finally started to expect the ding every time I drive off after washing it on a cold/dewy evening. Got me by surprise in the beginning 🤣 As you guys have said, it clears itself after a minute of driving.

It happened to me once as well in the morning, it’s quite loud, it scared me 😁 - I guess I should get used to it as well 😊

On 17/11/2022 at 04:41, itschard said:

Expect me back here when I’ve got something to grumble about apart from the odd brake-assist/lane assist incident.

Not sure if not already started (by some other folks) but I think we should really think of some kind of a petition to either make lane assist on only when driving highway or completely removing it. I hate it and it could have caused at least 3 incidents so far. It is especially dangerous when there are people or a car just by the road as it by some reason wants to keep the car close to them and I don`t want to imagine one of them or a kid just taking a step 20cm to the left. If the car jumps for a moment - for example due to a road depression lane assist immediatrely turns the wheel sharply when touching the tarmac again and car whobbles. Its one of the most stupid and dangerous things imposed by a regulation ever.

I’ve had 2 sharp turns enforced on me with Lane assist on. I tend to turn it off for anything other than motorways/long journeys etc now. It can be a bit of a nuisance on rural roads. 
It is really easy to turn off- easier than anything done via infotainment. 
 

~5000km driven with RS iV. 

 

Pros

Good ride even with 19" wheels

Automatic aircon rarely needs more than temperature adjust

App works better than expected

Matrix lights are awesome

Seats are great

No rattling or extra noise so far

 

 

Cons

Canton is mainly a joke (compared to earlier Dynaudio)

Tire noise / noice dampening 

Automatic aircon isn't drying floor that well

Unable to change instruments cluster middle section (speed)

Headlight washers wash the whole car

Factory summer tires make launch control useless, since there is very little grip.

 

Mainly i'm really happy with the car. It has started to make some blinging and bonging for SOS and travel assistant errors, but that should be fixed on upcoming service.

Wish i could change remote window heater NOT to heat rear window too. Snow melts to the side = freezes and in time might cause issues with the liftback motors.

I can add a few more things:

 

+ the 1.5Tsi is fun to drive with the exception of a turbo hole at around 1 300rpm (only annoying on 1st). When you get 2 people in the car it dies

+ 6MT gearbox is indeed pretty nice

+ stock headunit is indeed pretty decent - changing the speakers reveals its quite capable

+ front doors feel quite solid and even have a tiny bitumen sheet behind the speaker

and...

- parking assist takes centuries to launch especially when paring ahead just as arriving

- I just cannot make the seat/steering comfortable and I`m 1.82m - when I get it somewhat right my right leg is barely behind the air outlet but shift knob feels 1km away (especially on 3rd and 5th)

- rear doors and hood are made out of chocolate foil

Had my vRS now for a month and on the whole I'm very satisfied with the car.
If I'm going to be hyper critical then these are couple of niggles I have experienced since downsizing from my previous car which was a superb.

• Standard speakers are truly shocking - the superb speakers were standard too but the sound was excellent, the octavia is so tinny

• Most days I get a 'Front assist is temporarily unavailable' message appear on the display but after 5 minutes it disappears (may need a dealer phone call)
• Unless I'm missing something, there is no trip mileage reset button and also you can't change the brightness of the virtual cockpit driver display

 

I have the Diesel variant so car is relatively quick and I'm also averaging around 50mpg over 20 miles of A road driving.
Early days so still adjusting to the size in comparison to the superb but overall it's a pretty good drive.

5 hours ago, ceeone1 said:

• Most days I get a 'Front assist is temporarily unavailable' message appear on the display but after 5 minutes it disappears (may need a dealer phone call)
• Unless I'm missing something, there is no trip mileage reset button and also you can't change the brightness of the virtual cockpit driver display

 

That’s a fairly widely commented Front Assist ‘thing’. Seems to be frost or dew causes the error until it clears after a few minutes driving. Road grime build up also can cause it.

For the trip mileage I use the Long Term readings. They can be reset using either the steering wheel knobs or through the infotainment screen. Since Start can also be reset IIRC

7 hours ago, ceeone1 said:

Had my vRS now for a month and on the whole I'm very satisfied with the car.
If I'm going to be hyper critical then these are couple of niggles I have experienced since downsizing from my previous car which was a superb.

• Standard speakers are truly shocking - the superb speakers were standard too but the sound was excellent, the octavia is so tinny

• Most days I get a 'Front assist is temporarily unavailable' message appear on the display but after 5 minutes it disappears (may need a dealer phone call)
• Unless I'm missing something, there is no trip mileage reset button and also you can't change the brightness of the virtual cockpit driver display

 

I have the Diesel variant so car is relatively quick and I'm also averaging around 50mpg over 20 miles of A road driving.
Early days so still adjusting to the size in comparison to the superb but overall it's a pretty good drive.

Brightness is for both infotainment and virtual cockpit I believe. I drag down from the top of the screen to access the shortcut menu and there’s a brightness bar to adjust. Handy for day/night changes. 

On 18/12/2022 at 17:21, ceeone1 said:

Standard speakers are truly shocking - the superb speakers were standard too but the sound was excellent, the octavia is so tinny

That's true. Interestingly head unit proves to be quite capable, if only given good enough speakers.

Factory speakers in new Leon sound MUCH better, but there are 20cm speakers vs 15,5cm in O4.

I have replaced speakers to Focal IS VW 165 and it sounds great.

lovely to look at , lovely to sit in, rubbish if dangerous to use on the move infotainment system and there is a safety review on it     https://www.autotrader.co.uk/content/news/is-onboard-tech-actually-safe    Also the model is beset by software issues. So buy again after several untroubled previous Octavia's , looking at this one , NO I'd not buy this car again. I have heard VAG are to drop this all touch button approach. Dealer excellent, cant say the same about VAG

 

 

I've had my VRS hatch for just short of a month covering around 1500 miles. Previous car was a 19 plate BMW 320d M Sport. Overall I have to say I'm seriously impressed with the VRS, true to say that the interior trim quality is not quite up to the BMW and the infotainment takes a little getting used to but I've had absolutely no problems with it all. I only really have two gripes and they're very minor:

 

• when the windscreen wipers are in auto mode the passenger side wiper doesn't return to the home position following a wipe, it's raised by an inch or two... If you knock it off auto it immediately returns to the home position... It's a little weird but is probably classed as a 'feature' 🙂
• The boot lid opens extremely high, you have to be a little careful in some underground carparks that it doesn't hit the ceiling (!) fair enough you can stop it before this happens with the button on the remote but you do have to be aware that this is a possibility.

Apart from those two very minor gripes I'm really happy with it. It drives really nicely, has a decent amount of power when required and is nicely settled on the road... I'd definitely get one again unless I get tempted by the S3 saloon 🙂

 

Now covered around 5k km in my Octavia estate manual 1.5 TSi. To be honest when I first looked at the car interior and particularly the infotainment system, I said no way I could drive this thing without most of the physical buttons and I headed towards the latest Ford Focus, which obviously is almost the same thing, but with a slightly bigger screen. Due to the tremendous delivery times from Ford and the most important thing to me, a lack of a four cylinder petrol engine( not a fan of a drive belt dipped in an oil bath either) I purchased the Octavia. I am now very happy with it and have almost no complaints about it ( there still should be at least a physical button for the start - stop system which I always turn off and the cabin air circulation). The inside temperature buttons are always on at the bottom of the main screen, unlike Golf for instance and it takes no time to get used to it. No faulty software errors so far, quite a roomy car with a huge and practical boot. The fuel  economy on A roads and even highways is great, however it could drink more in a heavy city traffic. The suspension(not the sporty one) works quite well even missing the rear multi link and I am enjoying a smooth ride. The matrix headlights are a great night visibility improvement and are working flawlessly so far.

Edited 6 January, 20233 yr by fryeruk

9 hours ago, SimonKent said:

I've had my VRS hatch for just short of a month covering around 1500 miles. Previous car was a 19 plate BMW 320d M Sport. Overall I have to say I'm seriously impressed with the VRS, true to say that the interior trim quality is not quite up to the BMW and the infotainment takes a little getting used to but I've had absolutely no problems with it all. I only really have two gripes and they're very minor:

 

• when the windscreen wipers are in auto mode the passenger side wiper doesn't return to the home position following a wipe, it's raised by an inch or two... If you knock it off auto it immediately returns to the home position... It's a little weird but is probably classed as a 'feature' 🙂
• The boot lid opens extremely high, you have to be a little careful in some underground carparks that it doesn't hit the ceiling (!) fair enough you can stop it before this happens with the button on the remote but you do have to be aware that this is a possibility.

Apart from those two very minor gripes I'm really happy with it. It drives really nicely, has a decent amount of power when required and is nicely settled on the road... I'd definitely get one again unless I get tempted by the S3 saloon 🙂

 

Hi SimonKent I am fairly sure you can set the hatch opening height.In manual Pg32.

Edited 6 January, 20233 yr by GrumpyOldGit
update

10 hours ago, SimonKent said:

I've had my VRS hatch for just short of a month covering around 1500 miles. Previous car was a 19 plate BMW 320d M Sport. Overall I have to say I'm seriously impressed with the VRS, true to say that the interior trim quality is not quite up to the BMW and the infotainment takes a little getting used to but I've had absolutely no problems with it all. I only really have two gripes and they're very minor:

 

• when the windscreen wipers are in auto mode the passenger side wiper doesn't return to the home position following a wipe, it's raised by an inch or two... If you knock it off auto it immediately returns to the home position... It's a little weird but is probably classed as a 'feature' 🙂
• The boot lid opens extremely high, you have to be a little careful in some underground carparks that it doesn't hit the ceiling (!) fair enough you can stop it before this happens with the button on the remote but you do have to be aware that this is a possibility.

Apart from those two very minor gripes I'm really happy with it. It drives really nicely, has a decent amount of power when required and is nicely settled on the road... I'd definitely get one again unless I get tempted by the S3 saloon 🙂

 

Currently have the MK3 and same thing happens on that with the wipers, for some reason it bugs me, it doesn't leave a clean line as it does when it returns to the home position, thought it would be different on the MK4 when mines delivered in a few weeks, but doesn't sound like it. Would love to know the reason for it!

Still on edge about the new MK4 arriving soon, just hope it's software is fault free.

The MK3 it's replacing  has  been used fault free high mileage  for 3yrs as a true work horse.

13 hours ago, SimonKent said:

when the windscreen wipers are in auto mode the passenger side wiper doesn't return to the home position following a wipe, it's raised by an inch or two... If you knock it off auto it immediately returns to the home position... It's a little weird but is probably classed as a 'feature' 🙂

Yes, that's a "feature" in all VAG cars since years. Had it in 5F Leon also.

Am not really sure what's the purpose of it though.

13 hours ago, SimonKent said:

Previous car was a 19 plate BMW 320d M Sport. Overall I have to say I'm seriously impressed with the VRS, true to say that the interior trim quality is not quite up to the BMW

Well would be surprised if it was up to it

Having said that, i also have to say it's ALMOST up to the same level as CLA Merc which i was considering, despite being MUCH cheaper. Yeah, Merc is better, but for me it was slightly better. If it was much better, i would've bought it

3 series is comparable to C-class Merc. That's better than O4, but not really light years ahead.

13 hours ago, SimonKent said:

the infotainment takes a little getting used to

It does, but coming from another VAG it's not that hard. It's still similar to MIB2 and 2.5 cars.

Unlike new Seat infotaiment, which i truly HATE. Having driven 1000km in new Leon, i never got used to it. It's so counterintuitive for me, and i work in IT for last 20 years, so thought i have seen it all