I was slightly concerned about the condition of the 12-volt battery if the car ran on e-power for some time. The dealer couldn't help, so I connected a voltmeter to the 12-volt battery. The resting voltage was 12.4 volts and with the main battery charger connected, it rose to 13.1 volts. So the car could be run on electric power only for some time without the 12-volt battery going flat. It should be like this, but my brother-in-law's hybrid vehicle wouldn't start earlier this year because the 12-volt battery had a low voltage and only started when the AA came to charge the battery. Hence my concern, now sorted.

Can you clarify, please? "So the car could be run on electric power only for some time without the 12-volt battery going flat." Do you mean the car can only be run on electric power for a limited time before the battery goes flat? And "It should be like this". Really? Being retired the majority of my trips are short local journeys on electric power; by this I mean utilising the electric range in hybrid drive, not the E-Mode electric drive.

 

In spite of my glowing remarks at the start of this thread, my car has been at the dealer for 3 working days. Went out last Monday with a fully charged high-voltage battery. Did a return trip of 22 miles and, on return, 11 miles electric range remaining. Charged up again and put the car in the garage for the next 36 hours. On next entering the garage the car was completely dead with a flat battery. It was transported to the dealer where it remains. They tell me the 12v battery is now fully charged and all 26 (!) indicated faults have been remedied. They are road-testing tomorrow. Perhaps it will be all OK, but I need them to tell me why the 12v battery went flat. Your post seems to indicate that the car cannot be driven regularly on electric power without flattening the battery; correct? Surely that can't be right. The whole point of these mild hybrids is, for example, commute to work and back on electric power, plug in to charge over night, and do it all again, day after day.

Forgot to say - the manual states : "The 12-volt vehicle battery is automatically charged when the high-voltage battery is charged". So I'm at a loss as to why - after a full high-voltage re-charge - not using the car for 36 hours should flatten the 12v battery?

Further thoughts on the Octy. After just over seven weeks, it's a delight to drive and I look forward to going out in it, however long or short the journey may be. It's renewed my enthusiasm for driving. Superb acceleration, useful around here with limited passing places, for example on the A169. The satnav still won't save favourites, bur I can live with that for now because using the search function, or inputting a location or even using voice control to ask the satnav to take me somewhere, it works perfectly. My direct contact at Skoda claims it's not a known issue, but has recorded my problem. (She obviously doesn't read complaints on Briskoda!) The car does have the latest software, so there is no point travelling to the dealer until another update is ready. Also there's no point leaving the car with them for a couple of days because I already know what the fault is: test favourites delete when the stop button is pressed. So I'm not proposing to reject the car as it's so good in every other way. For example, I refuelled the car today for only the second time in seven weeks and over 1186 miles it's averaged 90.7mpg, almost three times better than our Karoq on a similar pattern of driving.

On 28/06/2021 at 18:47, Sir_Ron_Norris said:

Can you clarify, please? "So the car could be run on electric power only for some time without the 12-volt battery going flat." Do you mean the car can only be run on electric power for a limited time before the battery goes flat? And "It should be like this". Really? Being retired the majority of my trips are short local journeys on electric power; by this I mean utilising the electric range in hybrid drive, not the E-Mode electric drive.

I missed your post when I wrote my previous comments. My worry was that during the winter, when we don't go out much, all the motoring would be on e-power, with no alternator charging the 12-volt battery. Modern vehicles seem to gradually drain the 12-volt battery if not used regularly, or only used for short journeys. So during lockdown I had a trickle charger connected our previous car, the Karoq. My test confirmed that the 12-volt battery is charged at the same time as the main 400-volt battery, as stated in the handbook and confirmed by my test. Therefore the car can be driven regularly on e-power without draining the 12-volt battery as any recharging necessary will be done when the car is connected to the main charger. I assume that on hybrid power, with the engine running on occasions, the alternator will top up the 12-volt battery, so it should never go flat in either mode. I've kept the voltmeter plugged in to the 12-volt socket in the boot to do regular checks. Sorry to read about your problems with the battery discharging completely: I hope that the problem has been resolved. Incidentally, when did you buy your car - is it an early model? Ours was bought in early May, but I don't know the build date.

Another strange one. Whenever the rain is heavy (like today) and I open the driver's door, water pours out of the drain holes when I open the door. The holes are obviously not blocked, but somehow water is retained until the door is opened. Has anyone else noticed this quirk?

5 hours ago, Jim2015 said:

Another strange one. Whenever the rain is heavy (like today) and I open the driver's door, water pours out of the drain holes when I open the door. The holes are obviously not blocked, but somehow water is retained until the door is opened. Has anyone else noticed this quirk?

I noticed that too. Did not examine just where it is retained.

15 hours ago, Jim2015 said:

Another strange one. Whenever the rain is heavy (like today) and I open the driver's door, water pours out of the drain holes when I open the door. The holes are obviously not blocked, but somehow water is retained until the door is opened. Has anyone else noticed this quirk?

That affected the early Octavia 3's too - until a new door seal design was introduced. I'm shocked that Skoda have repeated the same design fault with the Octavia 4

I assume that the interior of the doors is well-protected. In the old days I'd have squirted Waxoyl through the holes, but nowadays I'm not sure what I'd bung up!

For maximum mpg, I've found that a journey of around 60 miles provides optimum performance. Today we did a 62-mile journey and achieved 104 mpg, with 10% remaining in the battery. Since refuel, we've done 91 miles, with 31 miles on e-power only and have obtained 153 mpg. Not bad!

On 06/07/2021 at 18:43, Jim2015 said:

Another strange one. Whenever the rain is heavy (like today) and I open the driver's door, water pours out of the drain holes when I open the door. The holes are obviously not blocked, but somehow water is retained until the door is opened. Has anyone else noticed this quirk?

I wonder if this could be a surface tension issue, and opening the door breaks the surface tension, allowing the water to drain?

I loaded the MySkoda app on to my iPad today, because I've been using my wife's Android 'phone, which takes ages to load the app. It is always on in the iPad, which is a relief. Today as it was hot, I pre-conditioned the car and it was lovely to be in a cool car (in more ways than one!)

I have commented on various threads about the issues I've had or others have experienced with the Octavia iV. Today I took the car to the dealer for them to confirm the issues I have, primarily the inability to save favourites. The service manager entered  a couple of favourites, we left the car for fifteen minutes and they had gone. He then went to confer with Skoda technical, taking a timed and dated list of the 'glitches'. I then had the option of leaving the car with them and taking a loan Octavia iV estate, or having our car collected next week. As we'd like to go out this weekend and take our dog (we have a guard) plus Skoda techys don't work at weekends, our car will be collected early next week and kept for a few days. The dealer has been excellent throughout and is doing the utmost to fix the problems. Both the service and sales managers have Octy iV's and none of their vehicles have any issues. I was taken for a drive by the sales manager to demonstrate how well the battery charges in hybrid mode with 'auto' mode off and I can confirm that his satnav works perfectly as we had a look before the drive.  Both the company Octys were supplied a month or two after ours, so perhaps there is hope of a cure. Oddly, all three have the same software version, so changing the MIB might be a solution. I love the car and would be very reluctant to reject it (it's still an option) because it's the best car I've ever driven: comfortable (my wife has a bad back and has said the seats are the most comfortable she has ever sat in), the performance is stunning and yet the economy is almost unbelievable: using the remaining petrol plus a full battery, I'm likely to have covered over 800 miles on the latest tank of fuel: in 1900 miles, I've only refuelled twice.

I've just filled the tank for the third time. 736 miles on 35 litres and 92.5 mpg since new. Computing petrol and electrical power, the total cost for 736 miles was £67.72 or 9.2 pence per mile. (£22.90 electricity and £45.82 petrol). Once I have the Octopus Go off-peak rate of 5p/kWhr, the same journey would have cost £52.71 or 7.2 pence per mile. As a contrast, our Karoq averaged 32mpg, so the same journey length would have cost £104 or 14 pence per mile. So I'm likely to half annual fuel costs. Incidentally, the loan car will be an Octy iV estate, so we can still take our dog with us.

 

 

56 minutes ago, Jim2015 said:

I've just filled the tank for the third time. 736 miles on 35 litres and 92.5 mpg since new. Computing petrol and electrical power, the total cost for 736 miles was £67.72 or 9.2 pence per mile. (£22.90 electricity and £45.82 petrol). Once I have the Octopus Go off-peak rate of 5p/kWhr, the same journey would have cost £52.71 or 7.2 pence per mile. As a contrast, our Karoq averaged 32mpg, so the same journey length would have cost £104 or 14 pence per mile. So I'm likely to half annual fuel costs. Incidentally, the loan car will be an Octy iV estate, so we can still take our dog with us.

 

 

 

That's interesting and shows how the running cost of an iV can be much lower than those of a petrol car. However, I've just done some sums...

 

I've been returning 56.6 mpg from the loan 1.0 e-Tec estate over the 7000 miles Ive had it, and using your figures scaled up to my usual annual mileage of 15,000, I'd save £232.98 a year. Given the higher initial purchase price of an iV (about £7200) I'd have to run it for nigh on 30 years to get my money back. For the few weeks I was running it, my own 1.5Tsi manual estate was returning similar (55+) mpg; though for long motorway runs I doubt an iV would return 55mpg.

 

That is, of course, using my driving pattern which is very few miles in short journeys whilst most is on trips of 300+ miles each way - in other words, relatively few miles on electric power. So, for me, the rationale for buying a hybrid (and maybe electric?) would not be economics. There are perhaps more important reasons to choose a car with lower fuel consumption and are more 'green' but that opens a whole new 'can of worms'.

Whilst our Octy iV is at the dealer for investigation, we have an Octavia Mk4 2 litre diesel DSG estate as a loan car. No faults and everything works as it should, so there is hope that our iV can be fixed. The loan car has a 2 litre diesel engine, not sure about whether it's 116 or 150 PS, but the acceleration is impressive and over a distance of just over 2000 miles, it's returned 60 mpg.

2 hours ago, Jim2015 said:

Whilst our Octy iV is at the dealer for investigation, we have an Octavia Mk4 2 litre diesel DSG estate as a loan car. No faults and everything works as it should, so there is hope that our iV can be fixed. The loan car has a 2 litre diesel engine, not sure about whether it's 116 or 150 PS, but the acceleration is impressive and over a distance of just over 2000 miles, it's returned 60 mpg.

similar story to me. Mine is at the dealer since April, loan car is a 1.0e-etc estate. Fault free over 7500 miles and average consumption is 56mpg.

there is hope…

Good news today. We've had a few problems with the Octavia iV, all software-related, as I've written in previous threads. We were always able to drive the car, so the problems were more of an irritation. Anyway, it's now all been fixed bar one minor glitch. It's taken nearly five months, but although I was firm in my attitude to Skoda, I was always polite and indicated that I'd much prefer to keep the car rather than reject it. Today as a goodwill gesture, I've been sent an e-mail giving the car a free service. All credit to Skoda UK: I have had a Customer Relations Manager keeping in regular contact with me and the dealer and Derek Slack Motors couldn't have been more helpful. It's the best and most economical car I've ever driven, 101 mpg at the last fill after 600 miles and the acceleration is stunning. I've now been given another reference number as the remaining issue has been handed over to the Skoda Connect technical team for their attention.

I've been able to calculate more accurately how much electricity is being used to charge the iV. This is based on our electricity use being fairly constant but does not include for the fact that the electricity was cheaper last year. At the last refuel the car had done 2630 miles and cost £162.34 for petrol and £96.88 for electricity or 9.9p/mile. When the cost goes down from 16.66p/kW hr to 5p/kW hr with Octopus Go off-peak electricity, this will reduce to £29.07, or assuming a 50/50 split between IC and e-power, 2630 miles for £191.41 or 7.3p/mile compared with £335.20 on petrol alone or 14p/mile. Our Karoq cost 17.8p/mile for fuel.

More good news! Skoda Finance has offered £170 in recognition of the inconvenience. Right at the start of my complaint, I stated that I'd owned five Skodas previously for 18 years and the sixth was the only one with problems. So Skoda does take customer relations seriously. I'm a happy Skoda user and hope to be for many more years.

I am now using the cruise control like a hand throttle. Because it increments up or down in 1 or 5mph intervals I can set a precise speed according to road conditions. If I approach another vehicle, the ACC adjust the speed by using the regen braking to keep to a safe distance. Also, the roads round here are very hilly and winding when I get to within 20 miles of home, so if I set CC to the lowest setting of 20mph, then drive manually, when I'm either going downhill or approaching a speed limit, engaging cc applies an impressive amount of braking so I now hardly ever need to use the brakes. In fact, the wheels are very easy to keep clean as there is never any brake dust on any of the wheels.

Edited 29 October, 20214 yr by Jim2015

Hi Jim2015, just had a read of your diary regarding your new Octavia iv, we too have owned several Skoda cars over the years, firstly a used  1.3 Felica hatch , great car,then a new end of line Mk 1 Octavia elegance hatch 1.9 pd, and still have the little Fabia vrs (slow resto project)

Now we have the Superb which we bought at 8 months old with 2,800 miles (now 12 months old) it was chosen after test driving several Volvo vehicles which did not feel as well screwed together as our 15 year old xc70, as it served our needs as a tow car, dog transport (rear seat) and masses of space and of course comfort.

Whilst the front seats are not as comfortable as our old Volvo they are very good.

Infotainment is glitchy but dealer very sypathetic and helpful, although we still suffer some rare random issues with sat nav, but it's not a deal breaker.

Whilst I understand some owners keep a strict check on fuel consumption we just fill up as and when required, we looked at the iv options but I personally think it's all smoke and mirrors, higher initial purchase cost and even more to go wrong once out of warrany and not as good a tow/ load lugger as a diesel, also we live very rural and have to drive 18 miles to decent shops.

Each to their own and by no means are we bothered about all the gadgets, not keen on the large glass roof and supposed performance a car may have, it just drove brilliantly so we got the Superb. 

Martin.

 

 

 

 

Interesting comments Martin. If we had a larger garage I'd like to have a Superb as it's the best car Skoda ever made. We wanted our latest car to be a hybrid and I looked at every one on the market. The Peugeot 3008 was the favourite, with the Citroen based on the same floor pan second. However, we wanted a Skoda if possible as the aforementioned makes have a less favourable reputation plus we've had them for 18 years. After we saw the Mk4 estate 'in the flesh' and found access easy, that made our minds up, plus the others were rather sluggish compared with the Skoda. Although our car is now fully fixed, it did take a while and the Mk4 iV should not have been released onto the market before all the issues were sorted. So when we change our car, in a couple of years or so, i'd like to test drive a Hyundai Tuscon. I had a look at one a few weeks ago and like all its features, as well as the long warranty. If adverse comments about Skoda continue, then that will make our minds up.

Another clever feature. The interior lights and the USB C sockets have an illuminated border when the main lights come on. So today, when we were driving through a forest, out of the corner of my eye I saw the front cabin light border, confirming the lights were on. It's a shame that there isn't a light in the console to show that the dipped headlights are on, but perhaps because they come on automatically, Skoda didn't see a need.

Our Octy was due to go into the garage last Monday for a couple of days, but it was cancelled as the technician who fixes software had suspected Covid. In a way I was relieved as only software was involved, so I'd like to wait until a full fix is rolled out. Everything works as it should, except Skoda Connect and I'd be upset if this issue was fixed, only to be replaced by something else. Out of interest, I had a look at car buying sites to see whether Octy iV's had a high residual values and it seems not. However, when looking at details of Octy iV's for sale, the average price is aroung £30k, but all those on sale were low mileage, between 2 1/2k and 8k miles. So I wonder how many have faults and how the dealer copes with an unhappy second owner when applying for warranty claims. When I next visit our dealer, I'll ask around to find out whether the Mk 4 model has spoilt their reputation.