Thanks, all for the replies.
I do not have any hang-ups on Skoda at all.. although I am old enough to remember those times when they were the butt of jokes.
I'm interested in a good quality car.. a friend has an S reg Passat and it is a fabulous car for ride, comfort and even economy.. being a diesel.
Is the Octavia the equivalent to a Passat?
Someone mentioned doing a search on 'Volkswagen coil packs' I do not intends to buy a petrol 'anything'.. VW or whatever. However is there an issue with VW coil packs as well as my Renault?
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Every taxi driver in Madrid has an Octavia diesel. They can't all be wrong.
Strangely last time I was in Luxembourg (2 years ago) all the hire cars were white Citroen Vel Satis's. Apparently Citroen knocked them out at a hell of a discount. Very odd sight as the plane banked over the car park.
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Strangely last time I was in Luxembourg (2 years ago) all the hire cars were white Citroen Vel Satis's. Apparently Citroen knocked them out at a hell of a discount. Very odd sight as the plane banked over the car park.
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A Citroen Vel Satis? Would that be some kind of a hybrid?
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Not really, the vast majority of the licensed (white with red flash on door) fleet in Madrid are Seat Toledos but you do see a decent number of Peugeot 406s, Octavias and Passats.
Luxembourg is still knee-deep in Vel Satis though. obviously they were not exciting enough to sell in Belgium...
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Yes there was a problem with coil packs on Volkswagen *group* so that included VW's and Audis. It got so bad that VW ran out of spare coil packs and broken down customer cars were parked up for weeks. Of course a great number of those on the spares shelf were also faulty. This problem did not only affect VW as the supplier supplied a lot of car manufacturers.
If yours has the coil pack on the plug then ALL need to be changed, dealers tend to change just one, and of course as they all came from the same batch the others WILL fail. So your car could break down 4 times for the same problem when it shouldnt have to.
The great coil pack scandal should now be a thing of the past but it was a major problem.
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Thanks for the advice..
I really like the renaults for safety, and comfort.. but after seven consecutive clio's and not too good longevity built-in, I want a change. i.e Head on my first diesel clio, gearbox starting to whine on two of them, front calipers (brakes) holding on after stopping hard and releasing with a 'clunk'.. (a Bendix problem apparently) I stuck with Renault mainly because they started going wrong just about time to replace them: about 2-2 1/2 years old and then getting a new one. I can honestly say I never abused any of them, ran them in long after the stated mileage and always had them serviced properly.
Now with the latest one i had a breakdown and renault changed 'A' coil pack. it soon broke down again and they changed all four. It has lasted about 13 months and the same again. However i'm paying for them, now it is out of warranty. My local garage (stopped going to Renault dealerships) is replacing them all the time on Renaults (slight exageration there, probably) and I guess I'm tired of it. Some will have had good results.,, and that's great.
Thanks for the resoonse though.
Sooty
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Is the Octavia the equivalent to a Passat?
The Octavia is based on the Golf rather than the Passat.
There is no doubt that Skoda and Seat are cheaper than their VW equivalents.
Opinions are divided on the quality of interior trim.
There is no doubt that second hand VWs still command a premium. Its irrelevant whether this is justified or not - they just do!
Which is the better buy in the long term is a matter of conjecture.
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Sooty
I bought an Octavia tdi a few months ago. It's a fine car, averaging about 54 mpg running around and 60 mpg on a long run. Does everything I need a car to do, huge boot, good seats, goes, stops and handles tidily. Lots of extras, climate, abs, multi cd etc. There are two others in our street, all tdis, no complaints to date, one has done over 120000 miles. Don't get any grief with the badge either (thought I would, but seems to have moved on). The trim is fine, but compared directly with VW or Audi, is indeed slightly less luxurious, eg no sun visor vanity lights, damped grab handles etc. But I can live without such things! All the mechanicals I've looked at to date are stamped Audi/VW, including the wheelbrace! All in all a decent car IMO.
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>>Is the Octavia the equivalent to a Passat?>>
I've already posted that the Skoda Superb is based on the Passat...:-)
The Octavia and Seat Toledo are basically saloon versions of the Golf (VW equivalent is the Bora); the earlier Audi A3/4s were also a variant on the theme.
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Loads of Octavia diesel automatics as taxis in Israel. The ones I get into have all done over 300,000 km and seems to run fine.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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I have to ask though, with Skodas going for the same prices as VWs on the used market, why buy the copy when you can get the "real" thing?. Unless you depise VW badges or blue dash illumination etc.
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I have to ask though, with Skodas going for the same prices as VWs on the used market, why buy the copy when you can get the "real" thing?. Unless you depise VW badges or blue dash illumination etc.
Quick search on Autotrader:
c.6k = T reg VW Golf Diesel
c.6k = X reg Skoda Octavia Diesel
Plus the Octavia has a much bigger boot. You could compare against the VW Bora, but that is a saloon.
In response to the original post, i have a 110,000 mile 110bhp diesel Octavia which has been great. If you want one, i'd recommend the SLX / Elegance, to get the CD player and climate control, and the 110 bhp enine rather than the 90 in the GLX / Ambiente.
Mine is starting to lose power and develop a flat spot, do a forum search for "TDi power loss" and you should get more information. The engine is used in the Audi A4, VW Passat, Golf and Bora and Seat Leon / Toledo, plus the Ford/VW Galaxy / Sharan, and has posed interesting problems for owners. It seems to me (and i could be wrong) that they seem to suffer from niggles (MAF sensor etc) which take a couple of attempts to sort out rather than single catastrophic failures.
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>>Plus the Octavia has a much bigger boot. You could compare against the VW Bora, but that is a saloon>>
The Bora's boot space is 455 litres, that of the Octavia 528 litres (new model 548 litres).
Both are saloons and based on the Golf - however, the Octavia is slightly larger overall than the Bora, hence the increased boot space.
Even so the Bora doesn't come anywhere near the Jetta, sold here until 1992, which had a 23cu ft boot, one of the largest of any car in any class; it was so deep I sometimes had to climb into mine to retrieve items which had ended up at the back of the luggage area.
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Both are saloons...
The Octavia is a hatchback that's shaped like a saloon.
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>>The Octavia is a hatchback that's shaped like a saloon.>>
Same as the original early 1990s Toledo then - that was based on the VW Jetta.
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"Quick search on Autotrader:
c.6k = T reg VW Golf Diesel
c.6k = X reg Skoda Octavia Diesel"
The original post asked about diesel Passats and the following thread concluded that the Skoda Superb was the Passat equivalent so thats what my "Quick search on Autotrader" centered on. The cheapest diesel Superb was a 52 reg with 155,000 miles for £7995. Car with less scary mileages were all £8500-£9500 and above. Using that price as a guide I did a search for diesel Passats and found quite a few 52 reg cars at that price which prompted my original post that if the "copy" costs the same as the "original", why buy it?. Especially when you consider that VWs command higher re-sale values and Skodas were once considered the butt of automotive jokes.
For the record, I have never considered VWs a better quality car and have never heard a Skoda joke in my life.
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Errr I may have read this wrong but...
On the one hand you say that Suberbs and Passats go for similar prices second hand, and on the other you say that VW have higher resale value?
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>>Err I may have read this wrong but...>>
Presumably based on the statement:
c.6k = T reg VW Golf Diesel
c.6k = X reg Skoda Octavia Diesel
i.e. the older VW commands a similar price tag.
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I don't determine re-sale values, just stating that the general consensus is that VWs have a higher re-sale and that Skodas are automotive jokes, regardless of what the facts may be. Because of this perceived value, the VW would be the better choice as it would likely mean higher residuals and an easier time selling it on in the future.
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I see what you mean, but the Fabia and Octavia are actually relatively expensive cars to buy used.
As for an ex-taxi (presumably), 155k mile, 2 year old Superb going for £8k - I can't see a C Class with that mileage and history going for much more, although there aren't enough 2 year olds with mega mileages to compare.
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