Skoda Octavia vRS estate - Impressions after 2,000 miles | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

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Mon 13 Jan 2014 21:24

Skoda Octavia vRS estate - Impressions after 2,000 miles - Avant

After a month and a half and 2,000 miles with the Octavia, time for some first impressions which I hope might be of interest.

This is my third vRS estate, the first being a diesel manual (blue) and the second a petrol DSG (white). This one's a petrol manual (red). Not (quite) as capricious as it sounds: I'm now doing between 10,000 and 15,000 miles a year rather than 20-25,000, and although the DSG works well and was totally reliable (wet-clutch), I always got the feeing that it was holding the car back just a bit.

I did wonder during the (quite reasonable for a new model) 16-week wait for delivery whether I'd miss the DSG. But no, I don't. There's none of the holding back with the manual, and as it loosens up I'm enjoying this superb engine more and more. In terms of torque and smoothness, the 2.0 TSI really is the next best thing to a straight six.

I had the extra expense of winter tyres: the old 16" steel wheels with the excellent Kleber Quadraxer all-weather tyres won't fit over the brake calipers of the mark 3 vRS. But at least that's two new sets of tyres bought upfront. Both sets of tyres are Continentals. Ride and handling are fine, and the steering on this vRS is much quicker and more direct than the old one. And it's been very sure-footed in the torrential rain.

I was very tempted by a Golf GTI. There's a very fair comment in the current issue of CAR where the Golf and vRS are tested together - the vRS is a bigger car and just slightly more ponderous. But it is only slightly, and we still need the space of an estate, so this and the lower cost price, the 0% finance, the proper handbrake and the excellent dealer I use (Jewsons of Oxford, shortly to be rechristened Ridgeway Skoda) swayed it in favour of the Octavia.

The icing on the cake is 40 mpg on a long run. I'm no boy-racer but I like to get a move on (or I wouldn't have had the vRS in the first place).

I didn't need many extras - cruise control, variable boot floor, spare wheel, silver roof rails (to set off the black rubber window surrounds) and Amundsen sat-nav which was a surprisingly reasonably £550, and far better than the feeble old TomTom that I used to have to rely on. The seats are excellent and the new dash gives a good feeling of space. So far my only criticism is that for some reason Skoda have deleted the separate section of the driver's door mirror which avoided a momentary blind spot. I must see if there's any after-market substitute.

Otherwise, so far so very good. I look forward to every journey - not something you could say about every large estate car.

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Tue 14 Jan 2014 09:52

Skoda Octavia vRS estate - Impressions after 2,000 miles - oldtoffee

Informative review, thank you. I am considering one of these as my next company car, doing about 20k miles a year. The BIK of the petrol over the diesel isn't much and having had an 06 vRS petrol I know what you mean about the peachy engine and the new one sounds even better. I also think they look good too, bit understated with clean sharp lines and quite classy.

In the new one have they done anything about the level of road noise? When I had mine I found the tyre noise drummed into the cabin and was quite intrusive at speed and I know many others did too. As most of my miles are motorway and not slow I'll be looking to see if they have addressd this.

40 mpg on a run if it is a fast'ish run ;-) is very good and I'd be more than happy with that.

Looking forward to your next update.

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Tue 14 Jan 2014 13:15

Skoda Octavia vRS estate - Impressions after 2,000 miles - craig-pd130

Thanks Avant, very interesting.

Did you do a final report on your previous two vRS'? If so, I'd like to read those.

Coming up to the end of lease on my current V60, so I'm starting to think about car options ... probably still a diesel though, as the BIK on most petrol variants still seems quite a bit higher than for the diesel variant.

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Tue 14 Jan 2014 17:34

Skoda Octavia vRS estate - Impressions after 2,000 miles - RichT54

Thanks for the review Avant. The Octavia is definitely on my new car list, though I would probably go for the hatchback rather than the estate.

Did you get a full-size or a space-saver spare wheel? I was wondering if a full-size spare will fit under the boot floor.

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Tue 14 Jan 2014 17:58

Skoda Octavia vRS estate - Impressions after 2,000 miles - Avant

It's a space-saver, as the vRS has 18-inch wheels. I haven't tried but I suspect a full-size wheel wouldn't fit under the boot floor. But in non-vRS Octavias with 16" and 17 " wheels as standard it might well be possible,

Craig - sorry, I didn't do a final report on the last Octavia and I don't think I did on the first one either. I should have done, But briefly (neither of them ever went wrong so nothing to report on the reliability front)....

09 diesel manual - post-facelift CR diesel (170 bhp) much quieter then the Golf TDI estate which preceded it, but there was still a bit of diesel drone which I started to tire of after 5 diesel cars in a row. Otherwise very good to drive: PX'd after 2 years and 20,000 miles because Jewsons offered me a new vRS for £80 a month less than this one. 0% finance and they wanted a newish diesel on their forecourt - it sold on very quickly.

11 petrol DSG - I got very fond of this one and loved its effortless performance and refinement. But even though it was a DSG and not a torque-converter automatic, I still thought that a manual might be even livelier (and so it's proved, even before it's fully loosened up), so chose not to keep it long-term. I expected to have to wait for the new car till nearer its third birthday this March, but it came through at the end of November. Not the same reduction in monthly cost, but still £2 cheaper a month for a car whose list price is £3,000 more than the old one.

Interestingly I did look at a Volvo V60: tempting in some ways, but it's better as a company car than a private buy. List prices are in Audi territory and I'm not sure they hold their value as well as the equivalent Audi A4 or Q3.

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Tue 14 Jan 2014 19:06

Skoda Octavia vRS estate - Impressions after 2,000 miles - craig-pd130

@ Avant, thanks, that's very useful information. What did the vRS DSG give you in terms of economy? I'd be interested to know what a good-sized turbo petrol auto gives long-term.

I would agree, the V60 suits me as a company car user, and the higher trim levels can be punitively expensive for what amounts to a few bits of snazzy trim and a factory satnav.

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Tue 14 Jan 2014 21:07

Skoda Octavia vRS estate - Impressions after 2,000 miles - Avant

I don't think there's much of a consumption penalty with DSG, as there is with a torque-converter - maybe 1-2 mpg as the current manual is doing about the same as the DSG, and it should improve a little once fully run in.

So we're talking about 30-33 mpg in town and in suburbs, depending on traffic; up to 40 on motorways cruising at the legal limit (OK, about 75 mph), and somewhere in between on A- and B-roads unless you drive like the clappers.

The diesel I'd say gave about 12 mpg better on all those figures. But the torque on the TSI engine is as good as a diesel, and so you'd need a diesel only if you do a high mileage so that the sums work out.

Finally, as I come up to retirement I'm conscious that I may need to keep this car for longer than I have during my working life. So a petrol manual is surely the place to be.

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Tue 14 Jan 2014 21:32

Skoda Octavia vRS estate - Impressions after 2,000 miles - gordonbennet

Nice summary Avant.

I'm particularly interested that you went back to and appear to be enjoying the manual, you'd have thought that the all singing all dancing DSG would have been as near as dammit perfect for general driving, but already you seem to be 'relieved' to not have to wait for it.

Even if it is only milliseconds, it's horrid having to wait for these auto clutch things to sort themselves out.

In peak time traffic, even empty, my automated manual lorry can still make me cuss, it doesn't matter how you try to pre think it in order to stop it doing so it still comes to a complete halt far too often, then its around 3 seconds before it makes it's mind up, finds a gear and finally engages drive...extremely frustrating, no doubt your DSG wasn't in quite the same league of utterly horrid as the ZF AS-Tronic lorry box but its such a blessed relief when i get out at the end of a day and climb in my old MB with its proper auto box which @ 18 years is still as smooth as silk and responds instantly when needed.

Oh and well done for not joining the electric parking brake fad...a poster on the lorry forum was waxing lyrical about the new Renault artic he drove, when you turn the engine off it automatically selects neutral, switches off the lights...and yes you've guessed it, applies the parking brake for you...apparently this is progress...;) luckily i've only got another 8 years to go.

Edited by gordonbennet on 14/01/2014 at 21:33

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