Hello Briskoda members

We've owned Skodas for 18 years and love the cars. We have had an Octavia, Roomster, 2 4WD Yetis and a Karoq. All have been excellent and reliable. We changed from diesel to petrol when we bought the Karoq, because of our relatively low annual mileage, which turned out to be fortunate because during lockdown we averaged 8 miles a week for our two shopping trips. We have just ordered an Octavia iV Estate and will be taking delivery in a week or so, therefore I've joined the forum to look for advice from fellow owners. The search for a PHEV took some time as I looked at many manufacturer's offerings. One major criterion was ease of access to the boot for our greyhound and into the front seats for us. After some searching, the main contenders were the MINI Countryman, which we dismissed as soon as we parked next to one, the Peugeot 3008 and the Citroen C5. The first one I drove was the 3008 and I was very impressed. The e-mode was very smooth with impressive acceleration and the transition to hybrid was extraordinarily smooth. The central display was angled towards the driver and was easy to view. The Citroen was equally impressive but the Peugeot was slightly better and the dealer offered a good price. However, there was one major issue: both vehicles are built on the same platform and the boot lidp was too high to allow our greyhound to jump in and out safely and in fact she refused to get out of the Peugeot. I ordered a dog ramp from Amazon, but although it was suitable, she refused to use it. Also, the reviews of both cars were lukewarm and I was concerned about their reliabilty, expecially the Peugeot. All along we'd been hoping to remain with Skoda but we were concerned about access into the front seats, which are lower than the Karoq's. So we visited our dealer, Derek Slack in Middlesbrough, where to our delight despite our stiff backs, we were able to get into the car easily and, more importantly, get out again. So we placed an order for the Octavia iV estate last Tuesday. It was in Emden at the time, but I was told on Saturday it's now in Newcastle docks. I'm busy studying the handbook and watching various on-line videos as there is a lot of new technology for me to get familiarised with. Incidentally, Thomas of Autogefuehl does some great reviews on YouTube and his review of the Octavia helped to confirm our choice. I'm sure I'll have lots of questions once we have the car. I'll just comment that I'll be charging the car using the 13-amp connection as 6 hours charge  time is fine for us and £500 plus for a wall box is a lot, since the onboard charger is only 3.5 kW.  I'll also be looking at changing our Octopus Energy contract to allow for off-peak charging. That's all for now and I look forwards to having a look through the forum. Regards to all. Jim