I’m tentatively looking at replacing my 14 year old Mondeo with a 2011 1.8 tsi petrol octavia scout with 55k on the clock.

Does anyone have any experience of them or advice on what to look out for on an inspection or test drive? They seem to be have had reasonable reviews but real life experiences would be good to hear.

Honest John does a good guide. Supposed to be an excellent car the petrol scout. Shame they don’t make it any more.

I use one at work but the diesel version. Not too bad inside, lovely to drive, responsive, handle well at speed even loaded up and grip well. I’ve consided one for my next car but price wise they didn’t favour well.

As with drac I’ve used the diesel version from 58 plate onwards to latest ones for emergency driving and find them very good. Also very good to crash, sturdy, well built and stay together when you get t-boned by a truck. Only
Negative I can think of is some people don’t get on with the seats, but I never had a problem!

Do they have any advantage over a standard Octavia? I’m not too keen on the Airfix add-ons.

Haldex 4×4, higher ride height, some plastic wheel arch trim and a nice badge.

I’ve had to drive back for my sump guard a few times so a bit more ride height for forest and farm tracks would be useful.

I’m slightly worried about the 4 wheel drive aspect. Sounds expensive to fix if anything went wrong?

I’m not sure they’re built for even use on farm tracks it more about road grip.

Had a recent test drive in Scout and Superb 4×4. Scout felt better to drive, Superb much better internal quality. These were brand new ones though.

It’s very much an urban 4×4 rather than an off roarer. Good in snow and speed bumps bumps, had a few off road jaunts, it copes but it’s no forester!

My old 4×4 (non scout) had a slight vibration from the rear driveshaft. Complete replacement was about a grand. £200 or so to change the end coupling was enough to settle it. It could be felt when up to speed and the rear view mirror went blurry. That was when I bought it with 66k on the clock. Sold it 142k and the only thing that died was the air con compressor. Excellent car.

Can add to Jimbobo and Dracs endorsements; the diesel scout has been the most reliable RRV ever used in our Trust (much better than even Hondas!) they hardly ever break. I wouldn’t lose to much sleep over the 4×4 aspect of these cars, if our lead footed responder monkeys can’t break them, you will be very unlucky indeed too! Also agree on the nice place to be and drive comments, that is before they’ve done 100k or so hair raising miles…

I have a 2014 Passat Alltrack, which is the same platform and similar running gear. Mine is a DSG 170bhp oil burner. I love the car, beautifully smooth and relaxing. 4×4 works well, but you will be limited if you have road tyres; a nice insurance policy rather than something to depend on IMHO. I get around 45mpg. Haldex oil change is recommended every 30k I think – it cost about £80 in the main dealer recently.

Ours hand over 108k on them they came from another trust. They rattle on from the dash bit but apart from that sound. Given they can sit for a few hours then been driven at speed without a warm up they’re very reliable.

I have the earlier incarnation (2001) of what you’re looking at OP, before the plastic add-ons.
Mostly got it for the extra clearance along farm and forest tracks, not been able to tell when the haldex engages, despite trying my best in crap conditions. Doesn’t understeer as much as I would expect it to based on driving a mk4 Golf. Extra travel can be a bit bouncy castle at speed on some roads. Not great fuel economy, but it doesn’t go far and is still more frugal than a Subaru. Goes better than people expect and was cheap because everyone wants diesel.

Farmer friend has a newer diesel one. His wife is quite happy taking it around the fields as it has a better heater than the Land Rover. Their farm is far from flat and dry.

Mine was also previously an ambulance car. Coming up to 200k now, lot of service parts and damn brake calipers.

I have a Superb which is the same year and engine that you’re looking at.
Some of the 1.8 tsi engines had the wrong pistons fitted in 2010/11 cars.This gave high oil consumtion.Briskoda forum would be a good place to check.Also the cam chain tensioner can get noisy with some owners changing them at 40 k miles as a precaution.
No problems with mine and the engine is so smooth and quiet.

“Given they can sit for a few hours then been driven at speed without a warm up they’re very reliable” I can tell you’re in the North East Drac! Don’t think Ive sat for more than 20 minutes in 5 years (i remember when we’d sleep on nights, ambulances were white, all this were fields etc etc!)

I can tell you’re in the North East Drac! Don’t think Ive sat for more than 20 minutes in 5 years (i remember when we’d sleep on nights, ambulances were white, all this were fields etc etc!)

I’m not fully operational so be out gathering statements meeting crews or doing audits. Then a R1 might come in and I’m near by so get called to go.

20 minutes must be nice. 😀

All sounds very positive. The only thing that I need to do now is convince myself that I need to change cars now.

The mondeo still runs well although it wouldn’t start for a while the other day. It’s very shabby with rusted door sills and a torn carpet but that doesn’t mean that it won’t still get me from A to B perfectly well for the foreseeable future. However, this petrol scout does seem to fit the bill when thinking of my car for the next 8 years.

How do you decide when it’s time to change?

MOT failure beyond economical repair, or loss of trust in reliability for a non easily fixable reason. That’s bangernonics! 8)

How much is an economical repair though? I feel like if I spent an average of 400 per year on it then it’d keep going forever.

I have a 2014 Passat Alltrack, which is the same platform and similar running gear.

Nope. Octavia shares the Golf platform. Passat/A4/Superb share the same platform. Difference that makes to useable space is questionable though.

1st rule of bangernomics : if it costs more to fix\mot than you can withdraw from a cashpoint in 1 go then its time to swap. Otherwise stick with what you have

That’s a good rule! 😆

Im sure i have the same running gear on my Seat 4×4 but i have the golf gti mk5 or vrs 2.0 engine lots of life but 3 winters now with little snow to try out the grip, sounds like a rear wheel bearing starting to go but like toothache i can put up with it for a while. It can be a wee bit thirsty

If it’s a Mk3 Mondeo estate, I’d stick with it OP.

Passat/A4/Superb share the same platform.

Not relevant, but for fact fans that’s no longer true.

Currently driving a 2015 diesel Scout and find it an excellent car for my needs. Roomy inside, well equipped, decent sized boot even before you put the seats down. Deals with mud and snow in North Yorkshire with minimal hassle. Happy to recommend it.

It replaced a 2009 Octavia 4×4 estate 1.8tsi which also had much to recommend it but I had one of the duff engines which Audi were producing at the time. Not sure about it having duff pistons, that wasn’t a story I heard at the time, but it steadily drank oil from 6 months onwards, probably half a litre a month. It also left me stationary at the side of the road when the fuel injectors went at 2 years and were replaced under warranty.

At just over 5 years and 50k the timing chain, which wasn’t supposed to ever need replacing, jumped a sprocket. It allegedly had a tensioning system in which a cog was somehow kept tensioned by the oil pressure and possibly the regular loss of oil had allowed it some free play and thus unanticipated wear. Skoda did meet some of the cost of the repair but it was still a 4 figure bill. After that its oil consumption increased dramatically, 3 litres in a good month, although it still passed its emissions check to both my and the main agent’s surprise. At their suggestion I traded it in as the next repair would have been an even more major engine rebuild.

I understand Audi did make some changes to the engine design and service schedule and a bit of research on Briskoda or elsewhere may tell you if your 2011 model is likely to be affected but if it drinks oil and hasn’t had it’s timing chain seen to I would be slightly wary.

The 2015 Scout only came as a diesel so I had no hesitation in buying one. Irrationally I would be very wary about buying an Audi although I did take a little heart from knowing that a colleague who had similar engine problems with his Audi had paid three times as much for the privilege.

Well, i swithered about it for so long that the potential car was sold before I had a chance to view it. It was 100 miles away which kind of put me off too. Have put a saved search on autotrader for an octavia scout or superb 4×4 to alert me of any closer to home.

The trusty Mk3 mondeo will keep chugging on for now.