Test Drive Impessions

[wfdTamar]

Well, I care buster and since it's my thread I will persist in my quest for an answer/explanation

It's hardly insignificant. If this supposedly great car is noisy to the point of being annoying, particularly compared to my 12 year old run of the mill car, I would call it a significant fault. If it is exhaust noise - fair enough - that would be part of owning a sports car, but it would seem it's not. It's just bad noise control. Call it weight saving, cost saving, bad design - it's still a fault.

(Camry don't come in wagon form.)

[spellbound]

Well i suggest you go buy some other car , cause its faulty and you wont enjoy the experience the rest of us skoda drivers enjoy .

Happy phishing .

[dsgfh]

From what I've read it's not an uncommon complaint, and judging by the briskoda forums fitting sound deadening is a reasonable solution.
Noise Killer Now Fitted - BRISKODA.net - The Skoda Forum and Community
Road Noise ! - BRISKODA.net - The Skoda Forum and Community

Of course it would be nicer if this was done at the factory, but nice to know it's a problem that can be overcome (at least to some extent)

[wfdTamar]

See spellbound - that's ^ a sensible response. 'Go away and don't play with us' is a bit childish.

[dsgfh]

See spellbound - that's ^ a sensible response. 'Go away and don't play with us' is a bit childish.

Just wish I had first hand experience to help, but I'm here to learn about the brand too. You might find the members on Briskoda able to give you more first hand experience beyond these threads. The Octavia is just another car over there, like a lancer or mazda 3 is here, so you're likely to find fewer martyrs & more people who not only share your concerns, but have ways to overcome them.

BTW, this is not to slight the truly helpful members on here, but I suspect it's harder to find answers to some questions in a niche market.

[spellbound]

As i said a phishing expedition , dont buy it its faulty , probably a lot quieter than a any GM product .

Storm in a tea cup , these are great cars , too busy having fun to worry about the bumble bee in the back .

[K1W1]

Who cares , the noise out back is not that bad ,get over it

You may not care but "get over it" is not any sort of response to a person who has an issue that relates to perception. Noise is a personal thing and what you may not notice might drive somebody else crazy and render a vehicle useless.

[spellbound]

And the steering wheel is off centre too , maybe he should be warned about that .

What you see is what you get , damn good value for $40K , a great driving experience .

Should look at an audi A4 avant for a quieter life at about $60k , a beautiful wagon , or maybe the superb combi.

[brad]

The Octavia is just another car over there, like a lancer or mazda 3 is here, so you're likely to find fewer martyrs & more people who not only share your concerns, but have ways to overcome them..

I'm not sure what everyone else cross-shopped against but I looked at Mazda3 (and M6) plus some of the other "just a cars" and the Skoda came up trumps on safety/price/performance/features. My 1.8TSI Elegance Hatch was $32k driveaway which I think is cheap motoring.

Two items worth noting -
1) I came over from a Subaru Liberty and it appears there are half a dozen others here that have done the same. I help run what was a Subaru based web site. I was the first Skoda owner 2 years back. After seeing my ownership experience one of the others traded in his 3.0RB for a vRS and another has a vRS on order. One of the others came close to ordering but bought a 320d wagon instead. Several others are now keen too.

2) We run GM & Toyota product (Astras, Corollas, etc) in our company fleet. There's no real comparison with Skoda. Vectra & Skoda? Maybe closer but I wouldn't want to be paying for the timing belt changes every 60,000km on the Vectra. My wife brings Camrys home a lot - they are great fleet cars & very popular among retired people.

As i said a phishing expedition , dont buy it its faulty , probably a lot quieter than a any GM product .

Storm in a tea cup , these are great cars , too busy having fun to worry about the bumble bee in the back .

My wife has a 2008 CalaisV with 10,000km more on the odo than my car - it may as well be 100,000km. They are very nice in the first 25,000km but after that they rapidly go down hill. Also, tyres & suspension are totally mismatched

[bobski]

Out of interest, do the Elegances or Scouts have the tyre drone?

I haven't had a car without a little bit of drone (the XR6 Turbo) to a lot of drone (the SP23) since I started shopping in the realm of "low profile tyre" fitted cars. It is part and parcel with having big wheels with not much rubber. I didn't notice it on the test thrashes, but if I find it excessive in my RS when I take delivery, I'll probably just lay some thick carpet under my rubber boot liner.

[wfdTamar]

...My 1.8TSI Elegance Hatch was $32k driveaway which I think is cheap motoring.

....Vectra & Skoda? Maybe closer but I wouldn't want to be paying for the timing belt changes every 60,000km on the Vectra.

One of the things that attracts me to Skoda is you do get quite a lot of good quality sorted stuff (because it's been on lots of VW cars for ages) for your money.

Timing belt on Vectra - That's an example of where doing it yourself makes having a self service car affordable for me. That would cost me about $250 (parts off ebay).

[Inego]

Out of interest, do the Elegances or Scouts have the tyre drone?

I haven't noticed it on mine - but the road noise seems to be pretty tyre make specific. Mine has Pirellis, FWIW.

As for previous cars, I came over from an Outback, which replaced a Golf IV - the Skoda has the same light switch as the Golf!

[wfdTamar]

What is 'mine'?

[brad]

Timing belt on Vectra - That's an example of where doing it yourself makes having a self service car affordable for me. That would cost me about $250 (parts off ebay).

But how long does it take to do the belt? No timing belt was one of the reasons I went 1.8TSI instead of the 2.0TFSI on offer at the time.
I have a lazy life compared to most and I doubt I could fit it in. I limit work to 40 hours/w. My commute is 10 hours/w. 2 kids, so i run around like a chook most weekends. After school pickups & morning drop-offs. Grocery shopping. Cooking. The house is falling apart around me - no time for stuffing about with cars besides a fortnightly wash.

I haven't noticed it on mine - but the road noise seems to be pretty tyre make specific. Mine has Pirellis, FWIW.

As for previous cars, I came over from an Outback, which replaced a Golf IV - the Skoda has the same light switch as the Golf!

I had a Golf IV too! Nissan U13 Bluebird Auto--> Gen 2 Liberty RX Auto --> Golf IV Cabrio Manual --> Octavia Hatch (plus about 20 cars & a few bikes before all that.

What is 'mine'?

I think Inego has a Scout. He mentioned it earlier

[wfdTamar]

But how long does it take to do the belt?

Haven't done it yet, but I reckon best part of a day (which I have). I'm time rich but money poor. To get it done costs a fortune. I only do about 8000 kms a year so it wouldn't happen often.

So now all I need is to hear from anyone with a standard wagon about the noise. Even better if someone has solved it with different tyres. I'll have a squiz over on Briskoda too.