28 minutes ago, OccyVRS said:

...

I love the vRS. It’s not a fast car. In today’s world, honestly, it’s not even really a quick car. It just does everything so well - it’s fast enough and handles well enough, but yet is also practical and comfortable enough.

I don’t believe it is the master of anything, but I do believe it is one of the ultimate jack of all trades. While other cars from the MQB platform are more practical, faster, better handling, more comfortable, etc, I don’t believe any of them do everything as well as the Octavia vRS (except for maybe the Cupra ST and Golf R Estate, purchase price aside).

except this silly and stupid soundaktor...and all these assistances that are not great at all re-1st post.

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by vblanche

33 minutes ago, vblanche said:

except this silly and stupid soundaktor...and all these assistances that are not great at all re-1st post.

Honestly, I don’t even hate the Soundaktor - I just hate that it’s installed into a dashboard so cheap it rattles the whole thing! Aside from that, it’s a great drive. It’s faster than it should be, handles better than it should (for a 2.0 FWD saloon) and in general is a nice car to drive. Sure, it’s not as planted or as tight as a “hot hatch”, but it’s also nowhere near as uncomfortable or attention-seeking. Even as someone in their 20s, I love how understated and interesting the car is. You do see them on the road, but nowhere near as much as a hot Golf or A3.

I actually have nothing bad to say about the driver aids in my 3.5. The ACC is amazing, I’ve had no issues with the braking assist or lane assist (beyond it seeing seams in temporary motorway works as white lines). The TSR was a nightmare, but I coded it out not long after I bought the car. That being said, I have had issues with the braking assist in both my parent’s cars and the Ibiza (2022). In particular, the SEAT likes to give lots of false warnings. The BMW lane assist is also a bit aggressive.

I’ve driven lots of new cars and I can’t say the Skoda systems are anything but identical to SEAT, Cupra, Audi or VW. Indeed, I can’t say they’re any different to anything from France, BMW, Ford or Japan, either.

I will say that I do believe the systems are perhaps toned down a little for performance models. I’ve had the least issues in an M340i and my vRS, but that may just be placebo.

I’ve had no issues in my mate’s GTI, but that might be because it’s an 8v from 1985, and doesn’t even have power steering.

2 hours ago, OccyVRS said:

Shame they didn’t do this for the Mk3.5 and Mk4 - they sound absolutely horrible. Part of the change on the Mk4.5 is less that they added a different system to the GTI/etc, but more that they just stuck that one in. I think it has one fewer resonator, wider tubing and less restrictive back boxes than the old design.

I love the vRS. It’s not a fast car. In today’s world, honestly, it’s not even really a quick car. It just does everything so well - it’s fast enough and handles well enough, but yet is also practical and comfortable enough.

I don’t believe it is the master of anything, but I do believe it is one of the ultimate jack of all trades. While other cars from the MQB platform are more practical, faster, better handling, more comfortable, etc, I don’t believe any of them do everything as well as the Octavia vRS (except for maybe the Cupra ST and Golf R Estate, purchase price aside).

Agreed. The reality is that most of the time you are doing something hum drum in your car. When I drove a whole bunch of VAG cars back to back I could really feel how agricultural the RS3 DSG was in city traffic compared to then DQ381. It really didn’t surprise me once I learned afterwards that it’s a VW transporter gearbox!