15,000 miles with an Octavia estate | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Sun 2 Sep 2012 18:50

15,000 miles with an Octavia estate - Avant

Having failed to find time to do a 10,000-mile running report, here we are at 15,000 miles in 16 months. Not much to report, which is of course good news.

Reason for buying: my first Octavia vRS (a diesel manual) was the result of realising that this was £7,000 cheaper than an A4 Avant with the same engine, with negligible loss of build quality. I was intending to keep it for the full 3 years of the PCP, but after 2 years the excellent Jewsons of Oxford offered a deal on a new one for £80 a month less than I was paying. No-brainer - I changed to a petrol with DSG as my annual mileage at 12,000 is a bit less than before.

As with the first Octavia, nothing has (touch wood) gone wrong or fallen off, and I have (at the risk of someone calling me self-congratulatory) just what I wanted - a Golf GTI with an estate body for less money and a lower insurance premium, which is almost as good to drive as the GTi itself.

The 6-speed DSG is smooth and problem-free so far, and the ride / handling compromise is pretty good, perhaps slightly on the firm side. The seats, special to the vRS, are very supportive.

The only real downside is the fitting of 18" wheels with 225/40 tyres - unnecessarily sporty for this type of car and unlike any previous FWD car I've had, useless in snow, necessitating winter tyres (205/55/16) which make very little difference to the handling with a slightly better ride. If Skoda offered this engine with Elegance trim and 17" wheels, I'd prefer it.

After three years of this one, I should be retired: we'll have to see what the budget is, but anotrher Skoda of some sort will be on the short-list.

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Sun 2 Sep 2012 19:33

15,000 miles with an Octavia estate - unthrottled

May I be first to congratulate you on your excellent choice of car?

Edit: No review is complete without a mileage report!

Edited by unthrottled on 02/09/2012 at 19:37

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Sun 2 Sep 2012 19:39

15,000 miles with an Octavia estate - Bobbin Threadbare

Sounds good Avant. Didn't realise you had the estate version. The vRS is a good looking car too; when I get tired of being so low to the ground in my car, the Octavia will be on my list for sure.

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Mon 3 Sep 2012 11:54

15,000 miles with an Octavia estate - tyro

Interesting report, Avant - especially to me, since there is an outside change that I might be in the market for an Octavia estate in the next year or so.

205/55/16? Does this mean that your winter tyres were on a seperate set of wheels, which were 16" wheels?

And if so, why not just change the 18" oem wheels for a set of 17" or 16" wheels?

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Mon 3 Sep 2012 15:10

15,000 miles with an Octavia estate - Avant

Yes - strange but true: it was cheaper to get 16" steel wheels (£52 each) and winter tyres (Kleber Quadraxer - £72 each) than to get winter tyres to fit the original wheels (£170 each). Also National Tyres of Henley put the 'summer' wheels on for me free of charge, whereas they would have charged £20 a tyre to fit tyres to wheels.

A word of warning - I shopped around for steel wheels, but the suppliers couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't interfere with the brakes: so I got them from Jewsons Skoda, who could.

Specify 17" from new? Possibly, but I'm not suerw how wise rthat would be as the vRS suspension is presumably set up for 18" wheels. I was surprised how little difference the 16" steel wheels made. The engineers on here may have a view on this which would be interesting..

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Mon 3 Sep 2012 16:17

15,000 miles with an Octavia estate - Ed V

I, too, would be interested to know what the experts think on fitting smaller wheels.

If the manufacturers won't listen to their sensible customers (aka "older"), then we may be better going the DIY route!

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Mon 3 Sep 2012 16:48

15,000 miles with an Octavia estate - tyro

Very interesting, Avant.

"Specify 17" from new?"

Not necessarily. One could always buy 16" wheels, run the vehicle on 16" wheels, and then when you replace the car, put the pristine 18" oem wheels back on.

"Possibly, but I'm not sure how wise that would be as the vRS suspension is presumably set up for 18" wheels."

Wise? I'm not sure what you mean - at least if I am correct in thinking that you were running around over the winter on 16" wheels on a car the suspension of which was set up for 18" wheels.

"The engineers on here may have a view on this which would be interesting.."

"I, too, would be interested to know what the experts think on fitting smaller wheels."

I'd be interested, too, since I am a fan of small wheels and deep profile tyres.

I run a Citroen Berlingo Mk 2. With the more powerful engines it was fitted with 15" wheels, with the less powerful ones, it was fitted with 14" wheels. The Berlingo Mk 1, which was almost identical to the Mk 2, had 14" wheels on cars with all the engines. It seemed to me there would be no problem fitting 14" on a Mk 2 Berlingo which had been supplied with 15" wheels.

I emailed Citroen UK and asked. They replied:

... your vehicle came with 15'' steel wheels when it left the factory. I'm afraid I can't recommend that you fit the 14'' wheels as we haven't tested the model's characteristics with this size.

But I am fairly sure that is lawyer's answer, not an engineer's!

Edited by tyro on 03/09/2012 at 16:50

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Mon 3 Sep 2012 23:48

15,000 miles with an Octavia estate - RicardoB

This is all interesting and so similar to a query that I am aiming to get an answer for.

My Laguna coupe is just right, although as it has 18" wheels with shallow tyres, you can't help notice some bumps. Although some might say it would spoil the look, I'm trying to see whether it'd be possible to use 16" wheels from the hatch or estate versions with sensible (and one would presume cheaper) deeper tyres.

A hopeful sign, I think, is that the spare wheel is a full size 16" steel jobby.

So, maybe, just maybe... And as others have said, keep the pristine 18" ones safe for the day when car changes - but at the moment, I like it so much that will possibly be some time!

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Tue 4 Sep 2012 10:02

15,000 miles with an Octavia estate - Mike H

I'm not convinced that wheel size is that critical to suspension performance. My Saab 9-5 Aero estate (265hp/420Nm) with manufacturer-approved upgraded suspension runs on 225/45 17s in the summer, but only 205/55 16s in the winter - once again, the manufacturer's recommendation. Ride is little different, the car feels just a little more planted and handles the twisty bit just that tiny bit better on the summers, but it's marginal.

@Avant, I posted last year about the appaling tyre noise that blights Octavias and is the biggest single turnoff for me considering it as a replacement for my Saab. You admitted at the time that it was present on your car, but you haven't mentioned it in your review. Does that mean you've resolved it, or just got used to it?

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Tue 4 Sep 2012 21:29

15,000 miles with an Octavia estate - Avant

It's never been a huge problem: there's less noise with the winter tyres but even with the summer ones (Continentals) it isn't excessive. Another question for the experts - is tyre noise purely a matter of tyre make, type and size or is it something to do with the car itself?

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