I have sampled an Octavia

I’d love a VRS but I’m precluded from ownership due to the high risk of carjacking / home intrusion-to-seize keys in my wonderful city.

A mate of mine was the founder of Briskoda.  All his mates had vRS Octys, he bought the 4×4 and it ate the vRS for breakfast.  It was something crackers like 300bhp by the time he’d finished with it.

You can get a 280hp AWD Superb which is about a second quicker 0-60 than the Octavia VRS and just looks like a Superb from the outside so no real increase in theft risk over a 1.6TDi

I checked back, it peaked at 222, I thought it was higher.

Look at the price of a Passat vs an Octavia.

Fair point, well made. 🙂

I may be about to become a stw cliché too. It’s by far my favourite of the cars I’ve poked around in so far.  Usefully sized boot, decent rear leg room, I like the interior and exterior – it’s neither too shouty nor too bland. It’s the Spitting Image Liberal Democrat of estates.

Boot division for the dog and a couple of holdalls needs thought as half a boot won’t be enough.

OP I quite like the “primer” finish FWIW.

Just double-check the boot.  Some variations had weird pokey-outy sides which made them not quite as spacious as they might first appear.  Though I’ve not looked at the new facelift models.

Having owned all of them at various times, with a blank canvas today choosing between an Octavia and a Passat I’d probably have a Mondeo.  Whilst dreaming sluttily of a Cavalier, my ex-girlfriend who got away.

My last car was an 18 plate Passat. It was a great car with an enormous boot. If I was buying again I’d try and get the 1.5 rather than the 1.4, and DSG rather than manual. But this was from new and in warranty.

I’m considering a Passat – looks like it’s possible to fold only the middle seat down, so might be possible to get a bike in upside down with wheels off down the middle… could be useful for carrying four people and four bikes with a 3 bike towbar mounted carrier!

looks like it’s possible to fold only the middle seat down, so might be possible to get a bike in upside down with wheels off down the middle

I had a B7 (previous gen) Passat I think you’ll lack height enough height for an MTB.

I’d probably have a Mondeo

Me too.  But Ford have stopped making them and there’s precious little choice of good 2.0 diesel autos especially the later 8 speed torque converter ones.

Boot division for the dog and a couple of holdalls needs thought as half a boot won’t be enough.

@garage_dweller if getting a pano-roofed one the standard dog grate doesn’t allow for the separator that gives you more than 50% of the boot, so check that out first. I only know as I have one and end up giving the dog all the boot.

@gray Certainly possible to get a kids’ 26er between two rear seat passengers.

Cool, thanks. Would be exactly that initially. My wife’s bikes are 27.5 so even if the kids eventually moved on to bigger then a 27.5 is the max requirement for smallest bike. (I’m ignoring the possibility of us all moving to 29ers for now!)

I’ve got a Minoura thing that the forks clamp to and takes two bikes. Regularly took the girls out with the 20+40 side of the seat down, their bikes loaded in lengthways in the boot and mine on the roof and latterly they were both on 26ers. Only thing was that we were getting to a point where I’d have had to drop the bigger child’s seatpost to stop the saddle fouling the roof lining.

Look at the price of a Passat vs an Octavia.

not apples to apples, surely? the octavia is based on the golf platform if i understand correctly?

I think technically they’re both based on MQB.

My Leon had a navigation database error when I test drove it.
I think they take the disc or SD card out that sits in the glovebox unit and put it in when sold to stop it being nicked.

That’s correct, when I was working arrivals at SFS/Cazoo, every car that came in had to be thoroughly checked and and SD cards installed had to be removed, photographed and noted on the check sheet, put into an envelope with car details written on it and stapled closed, then put into a steel cash box. A replacement was about £250-300.

FunkyDunc
We looked at an Octavia a few years back and thought they were a bit basic / crap

You could get a Merc e class estate of similar vintage, different league of car for similar money

If you say so. Not all Mercs are equal. I had to drive an 18 month old A-Class to Cribbs Causeway from Westbury to have the windscreen replaced and the sensor suite recalibrated, about an hour’s drive. By 1/3 of the way there, I’d have happily dumped the bloody thing in Bath Spa station car park and caught the train back; honest to God, I’ve sat on wooden church pews that were more comfortable! Wretched thing, I can’t tell you how glad I was to get it back to work, after an hour’s drive each way. The two and a half hours I spent in the Maccy D’s nearby was more comfortable.

why in the name of all that is fetid and disgusting did someone at Skoda give them mechanical handbrakes when the equivalent Passats had electronic parking brakes

I deliberately chose my current car because it has a mechanical handbrake, along with actual knobs for important controls, and hill hold because it’s got a semi-auto ‘box. I drove hundreds of different cars over the space of about six years – at no point did I ever say to myself “what I really want is a car with an electric handbrake”!

I think technically they’re both based on MQB.

well that’s cleared things up. 🙂

Back in the day, the Octavia was indeed based on a Golf so although the boot was bigger, the wheelbase, controls, general feel was more akin to a Golf than, say, a Passat.

Whereas now VW use a single platform for loads of cars. MQB is VAG’s modular platform that can be made into various sizes of cars, so even though they’re all on the same platform, that’s pretty meaningless since they can turn an MQB starting point into almost any size of car.

I just checked. A3 / Q2 / Leon / TT / Golf / Passat / Touran / Octavia / Superb all now use MQB.

So the argument of “Yeah but it’s really just a Golf” is even less relevant now than it ever was.

69 plate?

Niiiice.

I see there’s a new Passat out that’s wagon only (in the UK).

Nice motor OP.

Ive had a couple of Octavia VRS now: A brand new 2016 plate estate 220bhp petrol and also a 2018 68 plate hatch 245bhp.

Both were fantastic cars and I’d have another in a heart beat.

Currently driving a 2015 Passat B8 and whilst its a nice car its not as sporty as the VRS.

I dont think the rear windows on the one you are looking at have been tinted even more, just think its a trick of the light.

I’d be snapping that up.

@cougar

Just double-check the boot.  Some variations had weird pokey-outy sides which made them not quite as spacious as they might first appear.  Though I’ve not looked at the new facelift models.

VRS and potentially other larger engined variants use Independent Rear Suspension (and thus can also utilise Haldex AWD, although annoyingly not in the UK with petrol).

Lower spec / smaller engine variants, use a twist beam rear axle. There are dramatic differences into how much this encroaches into the load space.

If you say so. Not all Mercs are equal. I had to drive an 18 month old A-Class to Cribbs Causeway from Westbury to have the windscreen replaced and the sensor suite recalibrated, about an hour’s drive. By 1/3 of the way there, I’d have happily dumped the bloody thing in Bath Spa station car park

@CountZero

Cheapo Renault powered transverse engined front drive trash. Enterprise have a bunch of them and I keep getting them as rentals. I prefer the current shape Corolla.  C class is pushing it, E class is a proper Mercedes though. Have always been, and still are, superb.

gray
I’m considering a Passat – looks like it’s possible to fold only the middle seat down

Yep you can, it’s called something like a ‘ski hatch’. As mentioned though the roof height on the passat isn’t very tall so whether you could slide a smallish bike in their I’m not sure. I’m a little disapointed with the load space in mine tbh, Previous car was  a lot smaller but I could fit a 27.5″ bike in with both wheels on. Can’t do that in the Passat, the combination of low roofline, 750mm bars etc make it impossible without removing one wheel. With one wheel off there is loads of room though as lengthways there is plenty of space. Do wonder how the boot layout in the Octavia compares but looking at photos it looks similar.

It’s not really a ski hatch, the seat splits 40/20/40 (though the 20 bit hinges off one of the 40 sections). Current A4 is the same, but the Toyota I had before had an actual ski hatch which was great for accessing the boot from the back seat but wasn’t much good for anything else.

Ah fair enough, you can either pull part of the seat down to access the boot from the rear seats, or like you said fold down the middle 20% completely.

When an electronic parking brake fails (as it did on my dads A5) then it costs approx 10x that of a manual one to fix.

Oh and why in the name of all that is fetid and disgusting did someone at Skoda give them mechanical handbrakes when the equivalent Passats

Passat is not the equivalent. Golf estate is but the argument still holds, ours is 10 with auto handbrake and they had been fitted for a while before that. Only downside is no handbrake turns :D.

Well… we had a Golf estate and a Passat estate at the same time, and wife’s mate had an Octavia estate. The Octavia had a much bigger load area than the Golf, but less rear legroom than the Passat.

As a total aside, when we punted on the Passat bootliner, it seemed to fit a B7 estate pretty much exactly.

Please tell me your partner’s name is katy

I can’t comment on the latest models, but my mkII was a proper Friday afternoon special and ticked almost every box of stuff that could go wrong. It was bad enough that I’m still shy about and VAG car, although I’m sure they could only possibly get better than my experience.

Up vote for using Briskoda for help and advice.

@kormoran ?

@kormoran ?

Check out the number plate on page 1…

I’m still waiting to hear from the dealer about the VIN number. If we can’t fit a tow bar it’s a deal breaker. I spent loads of money on a BuzzRack and I intend to use it!

Anyway, the Yeti is up for sale…

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296446773530

Maybe not great to use the wifes eBay account with zero history, zero feedback or anything, but I couldn’t face all the FB messages from marketplace so we’ll see how we get on.

If anyone knows anyone in Sheffield who could turn off my airbag light that would be massively appreciated!

Please tell me your partner’s name is katy

Sorry to disappoint you but no it isn’t.

I know you say the airbag light is only on because you’d unplugged the switch (and I believe you, because you’re on here!) I wouldn’t spend £7.5k on something with the airbag light on.

Get on a Skoda (or other VAG) FB group and find someone to switch it off for you.

know you say the airbag light is only on because you’d unplugged the switch (and I believe you, because you’re on here!) I wouldn’t spend £7.5k on something with the airbag light on.

+1  even spending the 100 quid at Skoda would open up a large market of people that are just scrolling on thinking what else can’t this seller be bothered fixing.

I’m still waiting to hear from the dealer about the VIN number. If we can’t fit a tow bar it’s a deal breaker. I spent loads of money on a BuzzRack and I intend to use it!

Hold on. There’s a difference between not being rated to tow and fitting a towbar.

I have a (supermini) car that cannot legally tow a trailer ( none of the models made or it’s derivatives can tow)  but they produce and I can (legally) fit a tow bar exclusively for fitting a bike rack.

Avenue worth exploring if it’s just for a bike rack.

The airbag light is a major annoyance as I didn’t realise that disconnecting and reconnecting the switch in the glovebox is enough to trigger it. I’ll get it sorted if I can but I wanted the advert up because it’s taken me months to finally get around to it.

When an electronic parking brake fails (as it did on my dads A5) then

When my Passat electronic parking brake failed, I was second in the queue leaving a North Sea ferry and couldn’t move.  How I laughed.

I triggered the airbag light on my VW when swapping the stereo and turning the ignition on to check all was good before reassembling the dash.  Turns out a dash light fault logs an error code!

I cleared it with a £17 OBD 2 dongle and a free app, no need for a dealer, too about 30 seconds.

Dongle : Veepeak Mini Bluetooth OBD II Code Reader from Amazon

I have seen them on eBay for a tenner, with mixed reviews.  I was time limited so went on recommendation and it worked for me.

App – I think it was DTC Fault Memory Erase for VAG on Android. Other OS may be available…

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bluetooth.vagerasedtcall&hl=en&gl=US

If you’re staying VAG a decent code reader/resetter is well worth it. Think mine was 60€, bought purely to reset an airbag light after I twatted a connector under the passenger’s seat.

And a real, mechanical handbrake? Sign me up. Her Macan has an electric one and it’s a hateful thing, occasionally pulling itself on when it thinks it should, rather than when I tell it to. If I could rip it out and put a lever in, I’d do it tomorrow.

Definitely on the list. I was wondering if the Foxwell ones were any good as I live right next to Halfords and have a trade card. It would come in handy in the future.

I’ve already got a Bluetooth one and I’ve tried multiple apps and haven’t found the airbag fault.

Just had a cash offer on the Yeti. It’s low but not out of the question. Can’t accept it on the first day though so we’ll wait a week at least.