Only been driving my octy a month or so now (99 SLX TDI EST)

and it does really like to understeer alot, especially in the damp.

On a windy B road i would have left it for dead in my old citroen zx

1.4i and i've nearly come a cropper on a few roundabouts now.

The tyres have got plenty of tread and are Avon ZV3's (195/65/15).

Cant believe all octys (under)steer like this, anyone experienced these tyres?

A Friend of mine had a set of those on his Passat TDi and said they were awful, so it may well be them.

Although having a great lump of diesel iron over the front axle will make a difference compared to a lighter 1.4 (i'm sure i'm now going to be told this isn't the case!)

I'm running a set of Pirelli P6000 at the moment which are also awful when the road gets abit wet, but they are great in the dry.

To fight against the understeer a rear anti roll bar would be just the ticket (eibach 25mm from jabba

The Octy TDi IMHO rolls and under steers horribly.

Not really sure an anti-roll bar would do much good at the mo, cant really turn in hard enough in the wet to induce any noticeable roll before I go straight on and soil my pants !!! Sure the old lump of iron over the front wheels dosent help compared to the very light/small alloy block in my old zx (passive rear steering on those cars is great!) but my Pug 205D (1.8) never understeered like the Octy, even on skinny 155 section tyres but i do recognise that diesels are normally more nose heavy than their petrol counterparts.

Reckon its got to be down to the Avons which appear to have no grip and are also wearing out at a silly rate.

Well mine understeers a lot less than other front wheel drive cars I've had, I put that down to the weight of the engine improving the traction - but I'm probably talking power induced understeer from broken traction rather than entering a corner too fast? - but I don't really have that problem either?

I think I have bridgestones on the front and pirellis on the rear, or vice versa and the fronts are pretty worn now. 205/55/16's I think.

The body does roll a bit, but not excessively for a non-sporty car and nothing that a bit of finesse with your driving skills can't negate - I'm certainly not being outhandled by other cars on the twisty bits and mine has 80k on the clock.

If it feels that bad I'd be looking at the tyres (quality or pressures) and for worn suspension components - shocks etc.

If anything my old zx used to roll more than the octy but it just used to grip and grip. I havent found roll to be much of a problem with the Octy. Have driven a friends Golf TDI estate on several occasions and it certainly didn't understeer like my Octy.

Think the tyres are going to be changed long before they reach the legal limit....

My Octy vRS understeered quite heavily on the Dunlop Sp Sport 2000 tyres it had on previously, when these were worn down I changed them to some Toyo Proxes T-1Rs and the understeer has considerable reduced

As others have said check the dampers for wear as well

Not much understeer on my vRS. If anything the back end is more likely to

step out a bit on bumpy corners. Mind you, it is a combi.

Combi = Estate shirley?

I can't say that I've noticed much understeer in mine (52 Elegance TDi110 Estate); if anything the back's inclined to try and come round on rough surfaces. Switched Dunlop and Michelin mix for Proxes T1-Rs all round without much effect (well other than an increase in overall grip and reduction in road roar).

Just in case anyone's not familiar with the spec, it's 205/55R16Ws as standard.

i find the vrs understeers bad in the wet i have 5hite tyres at the moment mind

you

5hite tyresX180bhpXdamp/wet= understeer

i think the understeer may be built in as a safety feature as understeer is much easier for the average driver to deal with than oversteer

Had a look on honest John's site and he says "Early LHD examples understeered heavily and late models can still be frightening in icy conditions, especially TDI with its heavy, torquey engine." so understeer is definately a TDI Octy characteristic.

It is noticeably better with a few 100Kgs in the boot tho!

Sure the VRS dosent suffer like this with lower/stiffer suspension and wider low profile tyres. Think may replace crap Avon 195/65/15s with 205/60/15s or even try to get hold of a 2nd hand set of VRS rims/tyres

i reguarly drive a vrs estate 205/55/r16 and a tdi estate 195/65/r15 and I must say that the time I know understeer on the tdi is when it is really pushed over the vrs and then it does not discrace it's self. I actually noticed recently that the tdi was cornering better than my vrs until I looked at the front tyres and relaised they were dead! must say it now handled better with the new front tyres. the tyre shop suggested that I would get even better grip if I went to mitchlin sport pilots but I was using the spare first. I hope you sought it out