I'm considering replacing my Fabia vRS with an Octavia Scout Tdi and have a few questions:

* Has anyone on the forum had a leather interior fitted, did it include the door cards as well as the seats, did it cope with the rear armrest sucessfully, and can anyone post some photos?

* What is the driving experience like: performance, handling, ride etc., particularly interested if you previously have experience of the Fabia vRS and can make a comparison?

Thanks for any help.

Pics attached of the interior. The car was already in production when I ordered it so I had no choice on the spec. I doubt I would have stumped up the £1300 for it if I had the choice but it is nice and a much better than the cloth trim.

I had a Octavia 2.0tdi saloon lat week as a rental car and have to say that was a lot keener to rev and seemed a fair bit quicker than the Scout. It was plagued by wheel spin and torque steer which is not an issue in the Scout.

Scout handles and drives really well just seems to lack a bit of poke. Could be down to the DPF or the fact that it is heavier than a standard 2WD hatch.

Certainly coming from a Fabia VRS you will notice a big drop in straight line speed.

Thanks JDCorr for the info. Is that leather on the door panels (just the section around the door pulls)? Must admit I hadn't considered the Skoda leather / alcantara option as I'm not much of an alcantara fan. Also I'm thinking about a colour other than black / charcoal for the leather to "lift" the interior, so was rather expecting to go to Seat Surgeons again. I thought there was a poster on here who had a Seat Surgeons interior fitted to their Scout?

Bump - any further thoughts guys?

I have a silver standard spec Scout sitting outside my house right now, my local Skoda dealer letting us have it over night on an extended test drive as I have been working weekends of late. Have to say it pulls really well in all gears but don;t let th erevs drop too low in 4/5 or 6 as I have managed to stall the car 3 times so far this evening.

Had a spot of hard driving see what happened resulted in 30mpg, while taking it easier as I would with the kids in the car got me to 38mpg as I got home. Handles roundabouts with ease (I tried one several times, increasing the gas each time to see what happened) and has plenty of punch for overtaking.

Took it on some unmetalled roads and dirt tracks as well and it handled them all with aplomb, soaking up the bumps easily and making light work of loose surfaces (mud, leaves, gravel). Stopped on a pile of muddy leaves and loose stuuf and tried to get some extended wheel spin, to no avail - quite impressed.

This is to replace my X-Trail SVE and is up against a Freelander TD4 SE for drive and spec and holding its own at this point. Need to tick a few of the options to get the trim levels the same, but all looking promising at the moment and around £8K cheaper OTR.

Regards

Mark

Thanks for your reply Mark. Interested to hear you felt it pulled well - my dealer is trying to source a car for me to test drive. I know it'll be a tad slower than my Fabia vRS (Skoda's figs say 10.2 secs vs 9.6, 0 to 60mph), but wonder how that translates into in-gear pull on the open road which is the real world test. Similarly the handling and ride comparison.

Well, as far as ride goes I can't give you a comparison between the Fabia and the Scout but in looking to replace our X-Trail we have test driven ...

- Audi A4 2.0 tdi 140bhp Avant

- Volvo V50 2.0 TDi

- Saab 9-3 and 9-5 150bhp Tdi estates

- Jaguar X-Type 2.0 GTdi estate

- Skoda Octavia L&K Tdi Estate

- Chrysler Captiva 2.0 Tdi Auto

- Freelander TD4 SE auto

- new X-Trail Dci 150bhp auto and 170bhp manual

- Honda CR-V 2.2 tdi EX

...and also looked around the A6 Avant, Volvo XC90, XC70 and V70.

This all came about when we had an Octavia Ambiente 1.9 105bhp Tdi estate while our X-Trail was in having some work done. Once I got over the badge (sorry) we decided we liked the estate car handling and ride over the 4x4 so started looking at a replacement car in a casual way. This is when we drove and looked over the first tranch of estate cars mentioned above.

Badge snobbery said try the A4 as it was supposed ot be the cream of the VAG group. Admittedly, it was a nice drive but after looking over and driving the Octavia L&K it looked just the same inside, wasn't as well spec'd and we could only get a 05/55 plate at best for the price of a new L&K. The rides were identical.

We drove the V50, Saabs and X-type next and looked over an A6 and the V70 and decided the Skoda still had more to offer at a better price point with equivalent or better build quality.

We had a small break in the proceedings then we decided we liked the 4x4s characteristics and 'advantages' relevant ot the type of holidays we have been taking of late so went back and drove the 4x4s listed above and apparently upped our budget

While we were deliberating the cost of the Freelander against its real worth our local Skoda dealer got a Scout in and my wife drove it, liked it and arranged for us to have it for Wednesday evening. Reference previous post.

Out of all the cars we have driven we think the Skoda Scout has the best compromise between features, ride, price and build quality. That's not to say it is top of all those classes, but we are fussy about our cars and so they have to be 'right' (can't really quantify that in a forum post).

I just have to add, this is my wife's car. I drive a Mitsy FTO 2.0 V6 as my 'toy', so when I said the Scout pulled well it was not just in comparison with the 130bhp 2+ tonne X-Trail we currently drive but also in real world terms alongside my 200+bhp 2+2 'sporter'.

You are the lucky one, with just the 2 cars to choose from

Regards

Mark

of a mad man>

double post.....

Mark, thanks for your time in giving this useful context.

Any comments from anyone else?

Mark, thanks for your time in giving this useful context.

Any comments from anyone else?

Obviously not

Mark