Hi - Really liking my Octavia, very nice drive and features overall and it makes my driving better (I haven’t figured out why yet). I do have some queries/frustrations and just wanted to know if it’s just me or if others feel the same:

 

1. Electric Battery

This gives me battery level anxiety ! I don’t (can’t) have a home charger and the nearest charge point is not a convenient distance from my house. I mostly have to rely on regeneration. The majority of journeys I take are a mixture of motorway and town driving and under 30 miles. I find I get the best regeneration on the motorway in hybrid mode with auto switched off and recharge level set to 100. But in regular hybrid mode the battery just drains ridiculously quickly even with other car features disabled. Example: I finished charging at Tesco to 100% (first time ever). With no heating or assists I reversed out and drove down the car park 100 metres and it went to 99% - that’s about 20 seconds of travel !

 

2. Assists

The first time lane assist kicked in I thought it was cool, but I subsequently have found it incredibly annoying so I almost always disable it. I want to drive the car, I don’t want the car to drive me!

 

Front assist is good although on some roads near my house it randomly blares out near parked cars when I’m nowhere near them, I notice it happens more on a slight bend. In one case it automatically slammed the brakes on which was actually way more dangerous than what the car ‘thought’ was happening.

 

3. Save Settings

I’ve seen other people comment about this too. The profile doesn’t save all the settings which I find ridiculous. I set the car up the way I want and it saves half the settings. There are always things I need to switch on and off every time I get into the car. Annoyingly Electric/Hybrid mode - it always default to electric, which I kind of get but it is not wanted. Minor gripe, it just reverts settings randomly at times. For example Laura (female voice) one morning was male again. But why ?

 

4. Traction control

Oddly I find the traction control really bad. I’m not talking about putting it in sport mode and speeding away from a junction in the wet … I’m talking about general, non-aggressive driving, in the dry. It doesn’t seem to kick in quick enough to stop a slight wheel spin. In the month I’ve had it I’ve wheelspun slightly 7 times in situations I would never expect the car to allow. In contrast this is more spins in 1 month than I had in 5 years of my Astra CDTi. In fact I can only really recall it happening once in the Astra and that was in the wet but traction control corrected it. Anyone else finding this ?

 

Aside from those, and it sounds like I’m more irritated than I actually am, the car is superb (no pun intended). I really enjoy driving it, it’s smooth, good interior space, the boot is amazing, and there are so many clever features.

Welcome.

 

 

Battery not much good at 100%, and 100% displayed might not really be 100%.  as it is the car wants to regenerate and produce electricity and the 100% when driving off in a BEV or PHEV surprises some as they need to maybe use the brakes.

 

As to the TC/ASR,  Is it the ECO bias tyres being pretty crap if non aggressive driving from a junction and dry.

What tyres are on the car and did you reset the pressures from the hand over and reset the TPMS?

At least Laura still talks to you 😅

 

Since having mine in June 2023 there have been no end of software issues. I think the forgetting of settings is mostly due to skoda restoring databases from backups every now and then. I used to lose everything in first month or so of ownership. After 9 months it has mostly not happened as my backup must have close to my current settings now.

 

I had a skoda mk3 before and the ASR worked a lot better then. I'm putting it down to the extra weight in back of car from the battery. Imagine the none IV models stick to the road so much better.

 

 

Everything you’ve said you find annoying is exactly how I feel about mine too, and I’m especially glad you mentioned the traction control.

 

If I need to make even a slightly spirited pull away from a junction in anything less than bone dry conditions then it is almost impossible not to have some degree of wheel spin. It’s so embarrassing, anyone nearby must think I’m either incompetent or just showing off! 
 

It’s a shame as overall it is a nice car but as someone who enjoys being able to drive a car I have found there are just too many annoyances that detract from the experience. 

On 03/02/2024 at 11:35, Vapor said:

This gives me battery level anxiety !

There is nothing wrong with draining your battery. With it being constantly around 1% you'll drive the car as a regular hybrid and still have nice mileage. No need to purposefully recharge it with engine, it is just a waste of fuel.

 

On 03/02/2024 at 11:35, Vapor said:

Oddly I find the traction control really bad.

I think it is all about weight distribution due to battery. Even on the best tires you'll have the same issue - slightly harsher push on accelerator and wheels spin.

6 hours ago, Edela said:

 

.........I think it is all about weight distribution due to battery. Even on the best tires you'll have the same issue - slightly harsher push on accelerator and wheels spin.

That's seems like a reasonable assumption, I don't experience this traction problem with my petrol IV

I've only had my iV for a month and agree with a lot of what you say 

 

I get arm ache from forcing the car to ignore lane assist to drive round a parked car, and now I'm on a mission to find out how to disable it too.

 

However, I've not experienced any issues with traction control, but my previous car as an automatic Passat which span the wheels at the drop of a hat. Maybe I already learnt to adjust my driving style from that experience?

 

 

9 hours ago, WakeyG said:

I've only had my iV for a month and agree with a lot of what you say 

 

I get arm ache from forcing the car to ignore lane assist to drive round a parked car, and now I'm on a mission to find out how to disable it too.

 

However, I've not experienced any issues with traction control, but my previous car as an automatic Passat which span the wheels at the drop of a hat. Maybe I already learnt to adjust my driving style from that experience?

 

 

Using your indicators momentarily disables lane assist 😉

I've got used to turning off lane assist everytime I get in the car. Its 2 quick button presses on the steering wheel

On 03/02/2024 at 10:35, Vapor said:

I don’t (can’t) have a home charger and the nearest charge point is not a convenient distance from my house. I mostly have to rely on regeneration.

Im really curious to know why someone would buy a plug in when you can’t charge at home (on the cheap). As other threads here discuss the lovely low costs of running an iV short distances on cheap rate lecky and rarely visiting the petrol station

Mine is a company car. The BIK is really good on the Octavia.

 

If I was buying one I would go for a standard petrol with everything on for the same price 😅

39 minutes ago, Novascape said:

Mine is a company car. The BIK is really good on the Octavia.

 

If I was buying one I would go for a standard petrol with everything on for the same price 😅

I think this is the reason for a lot of hybrids / fully electric cars being purchased in the last two years. 

Mine is a company car too, no way in hell I’d have gone hybrid if it were my own money (just my personal opinion of course). 

23 hours ago, GWoodhouse said:

Using your indicators momentarily disables lane assist 😉

Geez, I remember when I and a couple of others dared to advocate for that in another thread not so long back.....talk about poking the bear! 🙄

@SouthernComfortRe wheelspin and your car not having this issue.   It is rather relevant that your car does not have a 6 or 7 speed Wet or 7 Speed dry clutch DSG of any flavour so not a DQ200 or a DQ400

with a very low 1st gear and where even those with 1.0 or 1.2 TSI,s sometimes complain of wheel spin with 75,95, 105, 113/115 ps.

 

You have an 8 speed Torque Converter gearbox. 

?

What engine has it, is it a 1.4 TSI? 

 

 

Edited 6 February, 20242 yr by Rooted

29 minutes ago, Rooted said:

@SouthernComfortRe wheelspin and your car not having this issue.   It is rather relevant that your car does not have a 6 or 7 speed Wet or 7 Speed dry clutch DSG of any flavour so not a DQ200 or a DQ400

with a very low 1st gear and where even those with 1.0 or 1.2 TSI,s sometimes complain of wheel spin with 75,95, 105, 113/115 ps.

 

You have an 8 speed Torque Converter gearbox. 

?

What engine has it, is it a 1.4 TSI? 

 

 

Yes, mine is the 8sp TC box, 1.4 TSI. Previously I had a 7sp DSG Golf, but no traction issues with that either. Not that it's never happened e.g. occasionally if the wheels are sitting on a wet white line at an intersection you can make it happen on take off, as you can in any FWD car, but not enough to call it a bothersome issue.

^^^ That how it is for many in 2 pedal cars, Drivers modulation of the foot on the acceleration, and sometimes with a DSG just a bit of a roll on before booting it. 

I've been driving a DSG for last 10 years and have mostly got used to it. Moving from the mk3 DSG to my Mk4 IV.

 

Generally don't wheelspin the iV unless I'm in sports and really go for it. Most likely due to it having twice the horsepower than my old mk3.

 

But down country roads you can definitely feel the battery. Car is a lot more bouncy and sometimes it does feel a bit light on the front. Had wheelspin in past while overtaking when the car starts to feel like I'm doing a wheely

@NovascapeThat was how it was / is with Mk2 Fabia vRS Twinchargers.

VW Group to Sand Bag them had Skoda put 25 kG Success Ballast on the rear crash bar making the hatch supposedly 5 kg heavier than the 9 3/4 " longer Estate Car, 

and Slower, less economic and with higher emissions than the Polo, Ibiza & A1 sister cars with the drive train but wider tyres as standard and no spare wheel as standard.

(The Polo GTI got the battery in the boot to help it,s balance. )

Under acceleration the Hatch went light and you bet wheelspin, and journalists that never asked Skoda WTF are you playing at in these days of going light.

If they had bothered to put the sister cars that could have a tow bar on a weigh bridge they would have found that VW Group cheated with Kerb Weights anyway. 

 

Somehow a 1.6 TDI CR Monte Carlo on the same wheels, tyres, springs, standard or remapped did not require weights bolted to the rear to keep the back end on the road.

 

"How is it happening?". 

Doh,

Well nothing to do with the longer roof or the 5 kG lighter.

It is the Stronger Rear Springs and nose down stance and less wheel spin than the Hatch that drops at the rear, spins the wheels and has the TC cut power or nip the brakes. 

Top speed might well be the longer roof, but then VW Group never have cheaper cars showing as quicker than the more expensive, even when heavier, or especially if a VW or Audi.

 

 

 

Edited 6 February, 20242 yr by Rooted

On 05/02/2024 at 16:23, Dillers said:

I think this is the reason for a lot of hybrids / fully electric cars being purchased in the last two years. 

Mine is a company car too, no way in hell I’d have gone hybrid if it were my own money (just my personal opinion of course). 

Funny that as I did the opposite.

 

I got a great deal on my IV that was the same cost as the 1.5 SE L and thought that as the economy on the IV would be better, it was a good choice.

 

I am loving mine (except for a current issue with not being able to purchase the speed sign recognition that I am about to start a post for)