MY11 Octavia

[dodgey]

Ahh, OK. They do have some compelling products. I was looking at the Mondeo and the Focus, but no Xenons and DSG kinda killed it for me. They had it in the Focus Diesel, and kept promising for the XR5 but never eventuated... Pity that...

[bobski]

I'm actually a Ford man. I've had a 2004 falcon XR6 turbo - absolutely amazing driver's car and I now have a Fiesta Zetec. They make some very good cars. There are exceptions of course.

The reason I didn't consider the Mondeo is the chintzy interior. I couldn't live with the chrome highlights all over the place. You spend 99% of time driving your car and 1% looking at it (and you'd need to really love it to spend that much!). Chrome inside is not for me I'm afraid.

[selurs]

I'd imagine that maybe the japanese makers are well placed like this too.

Not necessarily - I was quoted a 3-4 month wait for an Accord Euro when I was shopping around...seems red and manual is not a popular combination (and then I ended up with a yellow Škoda...wonder if it's me? )

I'm actually a Ford man. I've had a 2004 falcon XR6 turbo - absolutely amazing driver's car and I now have a Fiesta Zetec. They make some very good cars. There are exceptions of course. The reason I didn't consider the Mondeo is the chintzy interior.

I agree the Mondeo's interior is not all that wonderful. Excellent car apart from that and the Volvo 5-cylinder turbo in the XR5 is a wonderful engine. So smooth.

The thing that really surprised me about the Fords though, and must go down of one of the biggest "WFT?" design decisions that a car company has ever made is that the XR5 focus is NOT available with cruise control! What gives? $18K Kia's and Hyundai's come with cruise...is it so hard to fit to a $35K sports car?

[K1W1]

Not necessarily - I was quoted a 3-4 month wait for an Accord Euro when I was shopping around...seems red and manual is not a popular combination

Traditionally Honda dealers have died with manual Accords the typical Honda buyer just does not want one. That would be the reason for the delay rather than the red colour.

[redline3345]

It's not the RNS 510 equivalent however but the RNS 310 equivalent so smaller screen, less features, no hard drive etc.

Maverick
Are you sure about that? Reason I ask is that I have just paid a deposit on a new RS (but haven't signed the contract yet), and the dealer did not mention anything about 2 different Sat Navs, and in fact stated that I will be able to upload music etc to the hard drive in the Sat Nav via media in or Sd card. I have emailed the dealer and await response - might have to go back the negotiation table....

[K1W1]

and in fact stated that I will be able to upload music etc to the hard drive in the Sat Nav via media in or Sd card.

Get it in writing.
Unfortunately Skoda dealers are notorious for leading customers astray and features on new model vehicles. They don't know the full details so they just "assume" what is going to happen.

[Maverick]

Maverick
Are you sure about that? Reason I ask is that I have just paid a deposit on a new RS (but haven't signed the contract yet), and the dealer did not mention anything about 2 different Sat Navs, and in fact stated that I will be able to upload music etc to the hard drive in the Sat Nav via media in or Sd card. I have emailed the dealer and await response - might have to go back the negotiation table....

Pretty sure, let us know how you get on with the dealer.

[Jake02]

Maverick
Are you sure about that? Reason I ask is that I have just paid a deposit on a new RS (but haven't signed the contract yet), and the dealer did not mention anything about 2 different Sat Navs, and in fact stated that I will be able to upload music etc to the hard drive in the Sat Nav via media in or Sd card. I have emailed the dealer and await response - might have to go back the negotiation table....

By that it sounds like he means the Columbus (what is traditionally called the RNS 510 in VW circles) will be standard on RS models, possible the Amudsen (RNS 310) on other models maybe, to that I say let's bloody hope so! The Amudsen does have an SD Card hole but you can't store music on there, only play it.

[K1W1]

The Amudsen does have an SD Card hole but you can't store music on there, only play it.

The pedant in me wants to say that you are wrong but I know what you mean. What you mean is that you can't store music in the head unit, what you wrote is that you can't store it in the SD slot.
These days you can probably put a 32GB SD card in the slot and have access to over 50% more music space (the Columbus only has 20GB user accessible space) for way less than the cost difference between the two systems anyway.
Does the Amudsen system suffer with slow SD card start up like the Bolero?

[Jake02]

The pedant in me wants to say that you are wrong but I know what you mean. What you mean is that you can't store music in the head unit, what you wrote is that you can't store it in the SD slot.
These days you can probably put a 32GB SD card in the slot and have access to over 50% more music space (the Columbus only has 20GB user accessible space) for way less than the cost difference between the two systems anyway.
Does the Amudsen system suffer with slow SD card start up like the Bolero?

Oops, sorry, I thought others were thinking along the same lines as I was, apparently not. Thanks .

[dArK5HaD0w]

so wat happens if u place ur order pre-jun, and the car won't b built until another month or two?
do i get to re-negotiate my satnav upgrade pricing option? hehehehehe

i checked the skoda website (Å koda Auto - The new Å koda Octavia - Comfort), and it says the octavia will now come standard with amudsen satnav. no mention of the rs getting the columbus as standard.

i ordered my rs with the columbus satnav - i better get that one, not the lower spec'ed amudsen satnav!!!


they also mention that xenons are now standard for the rs! i had ordered my rs with xenon upgrade option.......can i go back and re-negotiate on this?!?!?!

they also mention that 17" are now stardard for both the rs (tdi & tsi)!!!! i better get mine with 18s!! according to the PDF document - "NewOctaviaRS_Catalogue_ENG". but the website states them to have 18s - Å koda Auto - The new Å koda Octavia - RS
WTF!?!

hmmm.......

[brad]

so wat happens if u place ur order pre-jun, and the car won't b built until another month or two?
do i get to re-negotiate .....

i would think you could but it's swings & roundabouts, so what you save on std xenons, you might have to pay for 18" rims.

[woofy]

I think I've mentioned it before, but when I ordered my Mazda 6 in April 06, I paid the extra for the warranty extension. When it came time to pick up in June, all cars delivered at the time came with rego, dealer delivery and warranty extension free. I not only didn't get any kind of compensation for "paying" for these earlier despite being 100% eligible, even though my sales doc had warranty and the extra amount listed individually, they still wouldn't refund that bit either despite Mazda HQ covering it all. I wrote to Mazda HQ and their reply was it was up to the dealer....so got nowhere.

[monkeysrus]

I odered an RS last week, after reading this and other info and sent off an email. Now have in writing my standard nav will be columbus.

Might have to get it ameded into the contract.

[Jake02]

so wat happens if u place ur order pre-jun, and the car won't b built until another month or two?
do i get to re-negotiate my satnav upgrade pricing option? hehehehehe

i checked the skoda website (Å*koda Auto - The new Å*koda Octavia - Comfort), and it says the octavia will now come standard with amudsen satnav. no mention of the rs getting the columbus as standard.

i ordered my rs with the columbus satnav - i better get that one, not the lower spec'ed amudsen satnav!!!


they also mention that xenons are now standard for the rs! i had ordered my rs with xenon upgrade option.......can i go back and re-negotiate on this?!?!?!

they also mention that 17" are now stardard for both the rs (tdi & tsi)!!!! i better get mine with 18s!! according to the PDF document - "NewOctaviaRS_Catalogue_ENG". but the website states them to have 18s - Å*koda Auto - The new Å*koda Octavia - RS
WTF!?!

hmmm.......

You realise thats the international website!? Not even close to Aus specs!