New Octy III owner from WA

[occy]

Just bought a new Octavia III 1.4 TSI Elegance wagon for my wife. Our first Skoda, being a cyclist maybe all those TDF ads had an effect.

I had a run of VW Kombis 25 years ago, the last of which I sadly sold when I moved to WA. I got to the point with the Kombis where I could pull an engine out on my own in under 60 mins, the technology has certainly changed a bit.

The Skoda looks great in candy white. Very impressed with the car and it's features . The Canton stereo is a pearler, this will be the first car where I won't be putting in an aftermarket stereo. But the real surprise is the engine. We drove the 1.8 but realised that we didn't need the power, the 1.4 is quicker than our previous Honda Euro! Also the DSG which I really like seemed to work better with the 1.4 than the 1.8. The fuel consumption is also quite amazing, 8l/100km on the very first tank.

So a happy new Skoda owner looking forward to joining this forum,

[geoff_gti]

Welcome to the forum Put up some pics

[occy]

Here's a few snaps of my new Octavia, not the greatest quality as the photos were taken with my phone.

[occy]

Forgot to mention one of the main reasons that we ended up with an Octavia. My wife absolutely wanted a smart key (KESSY in Skodas) because my car has it and she loves not having to get her key out of her bag to use the car. Unfortunately the Golf and the Passat which I was looking at don't come with a Smart key option in Australia, neither do Subaru which was another option, except for the GT and 3.6 Premium.

The car has a bunch of neat features which I didn't fully appreciate when I bought the car, like Adaptive cruise (brilliant) and we were both surprised by the lights under the mirrors which come on and illuminate around the car at night.

[dArK5HaD0w]

congrats mate and welcome.
i test drove a new elegance (with tech-pack) 2.0 tdi today.
i'm nicely impressed. the interior & electronics r nicely done.
i must admit the stop-start function wasn't to my liking.

as my dealer put it nicely, when comparing the mk2 octavia to the new mk3 octavia - "its like sleeping in a different bed.......in a nice way". its familiar.....but different.

[iamthestig]

Here's a few snaps of my new Octavia, not the greatest quality as the photos were taken with my phone.

Ah, that looks really nice...

[Mysticality]

Pretty!!! How does the little 1.4 go?

[occy]

Pretty!!! How does the little 1.4 go?

If I'm honest, initially I really struggled with the concept of a 1.4. Over the years I've owned a lot of cars, including V8s and 3l was a small engine. But, if I didn't know the engine size then by driving feel I would guess it at around 2-2.5l.

The 1.4 has more low down pickup than the 2.4 that was in my Honda Euro, which is a really nice engine. I also read a review of the new Mazda 3 engines and the 2l doesn't sound like much fun unless you really rev it.

The engine is complemented by the DSG and it feels like they were designed for each other. The only downside is very occasional and minor lag, which can be eliminated by understanding the gearbox/engine. I read an article the other day on driving a DSG that explained the logic of the gearbox, and knowing that it is really easy to keep the engine in its sweet spot (1500-4000). Also, while I have the car set to Eco driving mode, tipping the gear lever back switches it to sport mode so its only one touch away when you need it. A big plus is the fuel economy, without really trying I'm averaging 7-8l/100km with a new engine in stop start traffic, so 6-7l/100km should be easily achievable. Not quite as good as a diesel, but the 110TDI 2l diesel also doesn't go quite as well and isn't as much fun to drive as the 1.4, my other car is a diesel and I wanted the diesel until I drove the 1.4.

On another note, the 1.8 would be awesome with a better gearbox or in manual. It's definitely fun to drive. It really is a shame to have it limited to meet the specifications of the 7 speed dry DSG, which I think is far better suited to the 1.4.

A bit of research shows that the engine can easily be tuned up to around 130kw/300Nm and VW use it in slightly higher tune in some cars. However, the gearbox design limit is 250Nm so not sure about doing that, which is also why there's not so much benefit in getting the 1.8 as it just gives a slightly better torque spread.

So for the size the 1.4 really is a sweet engine and in my opinion easily matches the average previous generation 2-2.5l normally aspirated engines.

[occy]

Time for a quick 2000km update.

Still very happy with the car, it's genuinely fun to drive a works well in city traffic. The 1.4 combined withe DSG is a great combination and fun to drive, with plenty of pickup in sports mode. Overtaking at 110km/h on a recent country trip with a fully loaded car was a breeze, so no problems with the engine size.


That adaptive cruise and associated tech pack gadgets such as adaptive front lights all work really well. The Columbus/Canton multimedia works well and the sound really is quite good now that it has bedded in. The only minor criticism of the car is on really coarse country roads with the low profile tyres at +36psi, the road noise becomes a bit intrusive compared to my Prado.

The city emergency braking recently activated while my wife was driving when a car in front suddenly stopped. My wife said it activated just as her foot moved to the brake and it was pretty seemless and worked well.

Fuel consumption around town with lots of stop start is sitting at around 7.4l/100km and dropping.

On a recent 500km country trip the car averaged 6l/100km, this was fully loaded with 4 people and a lot of luggage. It was pretty stormy and we sat on around 110km/h actual. At 110km/h on the freeway the car sits at around 5l/100km.

All in all a nice car that is very good value for money.

[Katana]

Hi Occy, wagon looks very nice. I have the Ambition Plus hatch with Tech pack, 1.4 with DSG. Have 7200km up, average fuel 7.1. Recent trip to the snow averaging 5.1 open road at 115km true. The Octavia is a very nice drive, great road manners, adaptive cruise is a treat and the Canton system doing the business is a pleasure. Have you needed to top up the engine oil at all. My first warning came at 2170km needing just on a litre to bring it up to the top of the dip stick (recessed). Put in another litre at 4300km then another 600ml at 5900km before the trip to the snow. It appears to have used about 500ml on that trip as the level is halfway on the dipstick. Have been told these engines consume a reasonable amount of oil, hope the consumption drops as the km's increase.