I'm sure DTD will be along as soon as he can with his opinion.
HF
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I'm sure that DTD, who has put 146k or so on his 2 year old SDi will have an opinion.
Until he does, quite apart from the remarkable slowness of the SDi (you say you're not bothered about speed, but this really is van-slow) there's the complete lack of kit such as electric windows, sunroof, air con, and so on. I *think* it has central locking, ABS and 2 airbags, but that's about it.
The SDi is a perfect taxi and a good buy if you believe in keeping your cars for 10 years or will naturally do a massive mileage. If you want easy resale, I'd say go for a TDi of some description, ideally an Elegance but an Ambiente would do. If that's not an issue because of other circumstances, then an SDi is a good, but slooooooooow car.
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I'm sure DTD will be along as soon as he can with his opinion. HF
I'm sure that DTD, who has put 146k or so on his 2 year old SDi will have an opinion. Until he does, quite apart from the remarkable slowness of the SDi (you say you're not bothered about speed, but this really is van-slow) there's the complete lack of kit such as electric windows, sunroof, air con, and so on. I *think* it has central locking, ABS and 2 airbags, but that's about it. The SDi is a perfect taxi and a good buy if you believe in keeping your cars for 10 years or will naturally do a massive mileage. If you want easy resale, I'd say go for a TDi of some description, ideally an Elegance but an Ambiente would do. If that's not an issue because of other circumstances, then an SDi is a good, but slooooooooow car.
I can't believe I missed this thread!
Well... If I say I'd have another one, no question, that should tell you a lot about how I feel about the Octavia.
Having just had a Nissan Primera as a courtesy car for a month, and getting the Skoda back today, I hadn't realised just how well designed the Skoda is. Spaces for bits and bobs, visibility, comfort are all superior. Economy on my (68bhp, non-turbo diesel) SDi is consistently in the low to mid 50s mpg. Performance, tbh, isn't actually any worse than the (88bhp turbo diesel) Nissan! I certainly wouldn't describe it as van-slow. The way it picks up from very low engine speeds is fine, apparently due to the higher compression ratio on the non-turbo engine.
The interior space is fine, the boot is just enormous, and it's all put together very well indeed. Some people find fault with the rear legroom in the Octavia, but IMO it's no worse than a Mondeo or Vectra in this respect, and you only have to move the front seats forward one notch for rear space to equal the Primera or Avensis.
The standard safety equipment is excellent, with 3x 3-point seatbelts in the rear, also 3x proper head restraints in the rear. All Octavias come with at least two airbags and ABS as standard.
The ergonomics are great, it's the little design touches that get you, such as the deadlocks that operate from either front door or the boot every time you lock the car, ie no separate conscious action is required to apply the deadlocks as well as the normal locking. The little dinky sunvisor in the middle above the rear view mirror which does its job very well. And the "fan" type washer jets, why don't all cars have them?
The only downsides to driving an Octavia are that the plastic tray under the engine is a little low, and can sometimes be caught on speed cushions. The cig lighter socket is located behind the handbrake, by your left elbow, which makes it awkward to charge your phone and impossible to use one of those cheap plug-in hands-free kits! And there's a gap under the driver's seat that your phone or lighter always seems to disappear down which you can't reach from the seated position, so you have to stop and get out to retrieve whatever you've dropped.
Oh yes, and the badge on the front puts a few people off...
But for economy, value for money, reliability, space, longevity and cheap whole-life running costs, there isn't much to touch it.
Dave.
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