Tweet
Higher milage feedback on an Octavia 2.0Lt TDi DSG
Just thought I'd introduce myself and provide some feedback on my long term experiences with my Skoda Octavia. My Skoda is an Octavia Elegance 2.0 Lt TDi DSG Sedan, delivered new in February 2008 - built I believe in November 2007.
I commute to Brisbane to work each day, which means that I normally run up 750 Km per week commuting. I've been working locally for the last few months, so the odometer has been ticking over a little slower since July 09. As at 20 November 2009, my Octavia has done just over 74,000 Km.
So the feedback ......
Fuel Consumption. According to the Average Fuel Consumption Display on the dash, the car has averaged 6.5 L/100Km since new. BUT, I've also kept a fuel diary each time I've filled up. Based on the odometer readings, the fuel bowser readings, and always filling the fuel tank to the same visible level - the average fuel consumption works out at 5.6 L/100Km.
Which ever figure is right doesn't really matter - as far as I'm concerned they're both good. The bottom line is that I'm very happy with the small number of dollars I've handed over at the fuel stations while I've owned the Skoda. As a matter of interest, the cost of fuel over 60,000 Km for teh Octavia was 50% cheaper than the petrol cost for my previous car (a Holden Astra 1.8 Lt Petrol Manual), and that was with the very high diesel prices that we had in early and mid 2008.
Tyre Wear. The tyres fitted to the vehicle when it was new were Bridgestones, made in France. Wear wise - the Dealer rotated the tyres at the 30,000 and 60,000 services. The front tyres wore past the wear markers at 70,000 Km. The wear was even and there is no sign of the wheel alignment going out. The rear tyres still had about 3mm of tread to go to the wear markers, so they might have made it to 90,000 km. Road noise wise - I hate the Bridgestones! They are very noisy on all but perfect road surfaces. On typical country roads in Qld and NSW, the usual course bitumen causes a loud roar at all speeds above 60 Km. I recently replaced the Bridgestones with Michelin Primacy tyres - $205 each, but worth every c ent! Michelin market the Primacy as a "quiet" tyre amongst many other advantages. I can now confidently say that an Octavia on Michelin Primacy tyres is an eerily quiet car on any road surface (other than a dirt road).
Rattles & Squeaks. Not much to speak of. It seems to be a well built and tight vehicle. The only annoyance that bugged me for the first 20,000 Km was an intermittent squeak from somewhere down back. One day I decided to do the right thing and check the tyre pressure on the spare. Lo and behold - the spare wheel and tool kit were not tied down. The tool kit rests in a styrofoam moulding - that styrofoam was the source of the intermittent squeak.
Air Conditioning. Not completely happy ! The a/c cools very well, and has been able to maintain comfortable temperatures at outside temps of up to 42 degrees C. But - at 60,000 km, the AC ceased to cool. The dealer found that it had no refrigerant remaining, but failed to find the leak. It was re-gassed and I'm expecting that the leak will reappear after a few more months. A CAUTION NOTE: Don't leave loose bits of paper paper, sweet wrappers, etc on the passenger side floor - if they are in the wrong place when the A/C is in recirculate mode, and the fan is on high speed - the A/C manages to suck loose paper or plastic wrappers into the A/C internal air inlet. It makes a horrid noise in the A/C fan until you fish it out, and that's not easy to do. Another good reason to keep the car clean and tidy.
Comfort & Ergonomics. Me - I'm a heavy weight and 6'4" tall. I fit in the car comfortably, and am able to achieve a good driving position (not always possible for me in cars this size). But, I manage to always rub my back across the B pillar when getting in and out of the vehicle. It doesn't bother me - except that I've managed to wear some of the cloth covering on the B pillar threadbare. I think that the seats are great, and they seem to suit me. But, without any prompting from me, I've had two passengers, on separate long multi-day trips, complain that they find the seats 'too hard', and 'unyeilding'. Ergonomics wise - my only gripe is that with the driver's seat in the rear most position (where I need it to be) the B pillar really blocks my view of traffic in the adjacent lane - just means that I need to be extra careful at intersections and when changing lanes. It no different to many other four door cars this size, so if you are my height and don't like the B pillar limiting your side vision - don't complain - buy a different car.
Towing. This topic is a big disappointment for me. The Octavia Sedan has a max towed weight of 1,300 Kg, but a maximum tow ball down force of only 75 Kg. With most Australian caravan and trailer manufacturers placarding their units with minimum tow bar downforce loads of at least 10% (some Caravan manufacturers want 15%) of the trailer weight, this means that an Octavia can really only legally tow a caravan or trailer with a max weight of 750 Kg, as a result of the Octavia's very low max tow bar load spec.
Definitely not happy about that ! And you can't ignore it and increase the tow bar down force above Skoda's 75 Kg limit - as there are a few documented cases of Australian insurance company's declining insurance claims when the accident occured when towing, and the vehicle's tow bar down force loads were exceeded. When the Octavia Scout came out with the much higher maximum towed weight, I thought I'd trade up to a Scout. But no go - even with the increased max towed weight, the Scout still has the 75 Kg max tow ball down load. Can someone tell me how they manage to effectively use the 1,300 Kg towing capacity on their Octavia's - is there a mod (like maybe a different tow bar design) that will legally increase the allowable max tow ball down force?
Servicing, Costs, Etc. A bit of a mixed bag here. Generally OK, but I'm surprised that the cost of servicing the diesel is not somewhat cheaper than the petrol model. I'm about to do the 75,000 Km service myself - it is just an oil and filter change, so we'll see how that goes. The Octavia has never let me down, so I haven't yet had to test the Skoda Roadside Assistance service. The only real mechanical problem to date was a failure to start easily from cold when the temperature dropped below 5 degrees C. It would fire, run rough and slow and stall before you could catch it with the throttle. A software upgrade installed by the dealer fixed that problem. I've never heard of anyone else having this problem, so maybe it was limited to only the first shipment of Skodas imported in October 2007. Service Department knowledge at my local dealer - seems patchy. Some service advisors have made the effort to learn how the Skodas differ from the VWs they mostly service - but some Service Advisors don't have a clue about the Skoda range, and don't seem interested.
So - that's my feedback. Now for a brief summary..
Am I happy with the vehicle ? With the exception of the towing issues - a resounding YES !
Would I buy another Skoda ? That's a hard one to answer honestly. As I want to buy a caravan at the moment, the towing issues with Skodas may make me move away from VAG cars with their measly 75 Kg tow ball limits - either that or I could lash out on a Toureg 4WD.
Would I recommend that someone else buy a Skoda ? That's easy - another resounding YES!
Brand Recognition & Resale Value. Resale values have yet to stabilise. Valuation by a non-Skoda dealership (alright a Ford dealership and a (fleeting) proposal to trade-in on a Mondeo Diesel) resulted in figures of 60% depreciation in 18 months ownership. I'm expecting (really hoping) that re-sale valuations will stabilise as Skodas get more brand recognition in Australia, and as more vehicles come onto the used car market.
I'm waiting to see if the local Taxi operators decide to try the Skoda Superb Diesel on their fleet. They've already got a few Toyota Prius (by the way - what's the plural of Prius - is it Priuses, or Priuii). Anyway, by my calculations, a Superb diesel should be a similar purchase price to the fleet version Toyota Prisus that they are buying, and the Superb should work out cheaper to fuel and cheaper to service than the Prius. I hope Skoda Australia are doing their best to get some Superbs onto Australian taxi fleets. If you travel around eastern Europe, you'll see Superbs and Octavias being used as Taxis in all sorts of places. An Octavia Taxi in Athens was my first exposure to Skoda cars, and I was impressed (even though the Greek driver drove with a death wish).
Come on Skoda - do some hard negotiating and get some Superbs onto the Taxi Australian fleets, and get some Skodas onto one of the major the Rental Car Fleets. Both actions will help improve the brand recognition situation.
Brand recognition is still not there for Skoda in Australia. In February this year I rang around a few insurance companies to get revised insurance quotes. Seventeen months after the Skoda Octavia was introduced in Australia, three major national insurance brands still did not have Skoda vehicles on their list of insurable vehicles.
The lack of Brand recognition in Australia is also causing dealers (and insurance companies) to under-value Skodas. When I recently looked at upgrading to a Octavia Scout, I was very disappointed with the resale valuation offered by a NSW dealer. I'm desperately hoping that the resale values will come up to par with at least VW resale values, this year.
I commute to Brisbane to work each day, which means that I normally run up 750 Km per week commuting. I've been working locally for the last few months, so the odometer has been ticking over a little slower since July 09. As at 20 November 2009, my Octavia has done just over 74,000 Km.
So the feedback ......
Fuel Consumption. According to the Average Fuel Consumption Display on the dash, the car has averaged 6.5 L/100Km since new. BUT, I've also kept a fuel diary each time I've filled up. Based on the odometer readings, the fuel bowser readings, and always filling the fuel tank to the same visible level - the average fuel consumption works out at 5.6 L/100Km.
Which ever figure is right doesn't really matter - as far as I'm concerned they're both good. The bottom line is that I'm very happy with the small number of dollars I've handed over at the fuel stations while I've owned the Skoda. As a matter of interest, the cost of fuel over 60,000 Km for teh Octavia was 50% cheaper than the petrol cost for my previous car (a Holden Astra 1.8 Lt Petrol Manual), and that was with the very high diesel prices that we had in early and mid 2008.
Tyre Wear. The tyres fitted to the vehicle when it was new were Bridgestones, made in France. Wear wise - the Dealer rotated the tyres at the 30,000 and 60,000 services. The front tyres wore past the wear markers at 70,000 Km. The wear was even and there is no sign of the wheel alignment going out. The rear tyres still had about 3mm of tread to go to the wear markers, so they might have made it to 90,000 km. Road noise wise - I hate the Bridgestones! They are very noisy on all but perfect road surfaces. On typical country roads in Qld and NSW, the usual course bitumen causes a loud roar at all speeds above 60 Km. I recently replaced the Bridgestones with Michelin Primacy tyres - $205 each, but worth every c ent! Michelin market the Primacy as a "quiet" tyre amongst many other advantages. I can now confidently say that an Octavia on Michelin Primacy tyres is an eerily quiet car on any road surface (other than a dirt road).
Rattles & Squeaks. Not much to speak of. It seems to be a well built and tight vehicle. The only annoyance that bugged me for the first 20,000 Km was an intermittent squeak from somewhere down back. One day I decided to do the right thing and check the tyre pressure on the spare. Lo and behold - the spare wheel and tool kit were not tied down. The tool kit rests in a styrofoam moulding - that styrofoam was the source of the intermittent squeak.
Air Conditioning. Not completely happy ! The a/c cools very well, and has been able to maintain comfortable temperatures at outside temps of up to 42 degrees C. But - at 60,000 km, the AC ceased to cool. The dealer found that it had no refrigerant remaining, but failed to find the leak. It was re-gassed and I'm expecting that the leak will reappear after a few more months. A CAUTION NOTE: Don't leave loose bits of paper paper, sweet wrappers, etc on the passenger side floor - if they are in the wrong place when the A/C is in recirculate mode, and the fan is on high speed - the A/C manages to suck loose paper or plastic wrappers into the A/C internal air inlet. It makes a horrid noise in the A/C fan until you fish it out, and that's not easy to do. Another good reason to keep the car clean and tidy.
Comfort & Ergonomics. Me - I'm a heavy weight and 6'4" tall. I fit in the car comfortably, and am able to achieve a good driving position (not always possible for me in cars this size). But, I manage to always rub my back across the B pillar when getting in and out of the vehicle. It doesn't bother me - except that I've managed to wear some of the cloth covering on the B pillar threadbare. I think that the seats are great, and they seem to suit me. But, without any prompting from me, I've had two passengers, on separate long multi-day trips, complain that they find the seats 'too hard', and 'unyeilding'. Ergonomics wise - my only gripe is that with the driver's seat in the rear most position (where I need it to be) the B pillar really blocks my view of traffic in the adjacent lane - just means that I need to be extra careful at intersections and when changing lanes. It no different to many other four door cars this size, so if you are my height and don't like the B pillar limiting your side vision - don't complain - buy a different car.
Towing. This topic is a big disappointment for me. The Octavia Sedan has a max towed weight of 1,300 Kg, but a maximum tow ball down force of only 75 Kg. With most Australian caravan and trailer manufacturers placarding their units with minimum tow bar downforce loads of at least 10% (some Caravan manufacturers want 15%) of the trailer weight, this means that an Octavia can really only legally tow a caravan or trailer with a max weight of 750 Kg, as a result of the Octavia's very low max tow bar load spec.
Definitely not happy about that ! And you can't ignore it and increase the tow bar down force above Skoda's 75 Kg limit - as there are a few documented cases of Australian insurance company's declining insurance claims when the accident occured when towing, and the vehicle's tow bar down force loads were exceeded. When the Octavia Scout came out with the much higher maximum towed weight, I thought I'd trade up to a Scout. But no go - even with the increased max towed weight, the Scout still has the 75 Kg max tow ball down load. Can someone tell me how they manage to effectively use the 1,300 Kg towing capacity on their Octavia's - is there a mod (like maybe a different tow bar design) that will legally increase the allowable max tow ball down force?
Servicing, Costs, Etc. A bit of a mixed bag here. Generally OK, but I'm surprised that the cost of servicing the diesel is not somewhat cheaper than the petrol model. I'm about to do the 75,000 Km service myself - it is just an oil and filter change, so we'll see how that goes. The Octavia has never let me down, so I haven't yet had to test the Skoda Roadside Assistance service. The only real mechanical problem to date was a failure to start easily from cold when the temperature dropped below 5 degrees C. It would fire, run rough and slow and stall before you could catch it with the throttle. A software upgrade installed by the dealer fixed that problem. I've never heard of anyone else having this problem, so maybe it was limited to only the first shipment of Skodas imported in October 2007. Service Department knowledge at my local dealer - seems patchy. Some service advisors have made the effort to learn how the Skodas differ from the VWs they mostly service - but some Service Advisors don't have a clue about the Skoda range, and don't seem interested.
So - that's my feedback. Now for a brief summary..
Am I happy with the vehicle ? With the exception of the towing issues - a resounding YES !
Would I buy another Skoda ? That's a hard one to answer honestly. As I want to buy a caravan at the moment, the towing issues with Skodas may make me move away from VAG cars with their measly 75 Kg tow ball limits - either that or I could lash out on a Toureg 4WD.
Would I recommend that someone else buy a Skoda ? That's easy - another resounding YES!
Brand Recognition & Resale Value. Resale values have yet to stabilise. Valuation by a non-Skoda dealership (alright a Ford dealership and a (fleeting) proposal to trade-in on a Mondeo Diesel) resulted in figures of 60% depreciation in 18 months ownership. I'm expecting (really hoping) that re-sale valuations will stabilise as Skodas get more brand recognition in Australia, and as more vehicles come onto the used car market.
I'm waiting to see if the local Taxi operators decide to try the Skoda Superb Diesel on their fleet. They've already got a few Toyota Prius (by the way - what's the plural of Prius - is it Priuses, or Priuii). Anyway, by my calculations, a Superb diesel should be a similar purchase price to the fleet version Toyota Prisus that they are buying, and the Superb should work out cheaper to fuel and cheaper to service than the Prius. I hope Skoda Australia are doing their best to get some Superbs onto Australian taxi fleets. If you travel around eastern Europe, you'll see Superbs and Octavias being used as Taxis in all sorts of places. An Octavia Taxi in Athens was my first exposure to Skoda cars, and I was impressed (even though the Greek driver drove with a death wish).
Come on Skoda - do some hard negotiating and get some Superbs onto the Taxi Australian fleets, and get some Skodas onto one of the major the Rental Car Fleets. Both actions will help improve the brand recognition situation.
Brand recognition is still not there for Skoda in Australia. In February this year I rang around a few insurance companies to get revised insurance quotes. Seventeen months after the Skoda Octavia was introduced in Australia, three major national insurance brands still did not have Skoda vehicles on their list of insurable vehicles.
The lack of Brand recognition in Australia is also causing dealers (and insurance companies) to under-value Skodas. When I recently looked at upgrading to a Octavia Scout, I was very disappointed with the resale valuation offered by a NSW dealer. I'm desperately hoping that the resale values will come up to par with at least VW resale values, this year.
Good effort.
Comment