if yours can go sideways with ESP turned on then its broken, the ESP on the octavia doesn't allow this as long as its working properly.

also understeer will only happen if your driving at speed and wind a load of lock on if the ESP is working right, booting it round a corner won't result in understeer as long as the system is functioning correctly.

sounds to me like yours is broken mate.

To my knowledge, I've only had ESP cut in once and I'm very glad it did. It's quite impressive when you're all set to end up backwards and the car sorts it out for you

The Golf GT I hired had ESP and I gave it a bit of a test by coming off a wet roundabout quite aggressively. Aside from the fact the car didn't react for a couple of seconds (can it correct a "4 wheel drift" with the wheels pointing dead ahead?) adjusting the steering did make it kick in with a clunk and it prevented the back stepping out while I was still on the power.

Much better than ASR, but I think I'd still prefer to be left to my own devices

Chris

Its very macho to drive without driver aids, however I think I maybe fooling myself! (I am certainly not the Stig) I would **** my pants if I lost control at high speed. The only problem I can see with ESP is that it may lure you into a false feeling of security and you may be tempted to drive too fast for the road conditions. Overall I think purists cars like Lotus are probably better without but your every day road cars with the family in are better with.

Interestingly though how do you get the back end out with a rear ARB? lift off the throttle mid corner??

if yours can go sideways with ESP turned on then its broken, the ESP on the octavia doesn't allow this as long as its working properly.

also understeer will only happen if your driving at speed and wind a load of lock on if the ESP is working right, booting it round a corner won't result in understeer as long as the system is functioning correctly.

sounds to me like yours is broken mate.

I possibly described that badly. When I say sideways, I don't mean Topgear style drifting, I mean that it's perfectly possible to achieve lift-off over steer without the ESP kicking up a fuss... it has cut in on one occasion when things were looking like they might go a bit pear shaped, but it allows a certain amount of leeway before it does it's thing.

As for under-steer... it will. It's not something which would occur under normal driving conditions, but if you try and make it under-steer then it will. Again, the ESP (traction control side of things I guess) will sort it out, but it's not an instant thing and in most cases you need to be driving pretty badly for it to sort things out before you do.

makes more sense now

Interestingly though how do you get the back end out with a rear ARB? lift off the throttle mid corner??

yes