Initial impressions of my new Octy RS 162TSI

[Spinifex]

A bit of feedback for anyone interested: I picked up my new Octavia RS Wagon 162TSI 3 weeks ago, and last weekend, I gave the wagon a good run through some mountains (for the Brisbane locals here, Nebo, Glorious and through to Somerset, then back to Samford, and then city driving before home.)
The car performed flawlessly and brilliantly. A good spread of revs, gears and load points. From gentle cruising to giving it a bit of stick to load things up - perfect way to run a new engine in, as was suggested to me by my engine-builder in my previous STi Liberty.

I haven't looked at all the data yet, but I think I achieved an average of 7.9L/100 over 300km, which i think is pretty good considering the spread of revs and work it was doing. Will keep an eye on the consumption figures to see if things improve further with time. I notice on the fuel flap it only recommends 95RON minimum, which I suspect is all the dealership filled it with prior to delivery. I topped it up with 35L of 98 BP Ultimate before the run, and 98 is likely to be all I ever run in it, unless there's simply none available.

Suspension-wise - I'm definitely impressed that it handled so well. It certainly wasn't an AWD Liberty by comparison, but that's to be expected. The suspension crashes a bit over the hard stuff and there's definitely a fair amount of road noise inside the cabin - being a wagon resonates that noise a little, but it's no noisier or harsher over bumps than the "old-man car" I traded in for the Octy (a diesel Mazda6 sedan) which suffered from horrendous road and wind noise, and was as harsh on the road as my Bilsteins-fitted Liberty!!!

The Mazda was so uncomfortable to drive with crappy seats with insufficient support for big people (I'm 6'6 and 115kg) I could only drive for about 30mins before aching and feeling like a cripple. After solid 2hour stints in the Octy, I just didn't want (or need) to get out to rest - only to pee! And I felt as refreshed and comfortable as when I started the drive. Adaptive dampers would make the full package in this car I'm sure..... pity I just missed out on that, according to the rumours I've read in here. (Wonder if you can retrofit that?)

Brakes - very solid feel when cool but definitely had some fade after a few spirited downhill sections. With ACC on (on flat sections of highway, not the mountains!) it takes some getting used to with manual braking, as it's prefilled the pedal pressure, so when taking over the braking manually with what you consider to be normal pedal-pressure, you tend to headbutt the windscreen! But overall pretty good brakes. I'd never say any car doesn't need bigger or better brakes though.....

Tyres that came with the car are Potenza something's. I couldn't read them in my dark garage last night when I got home so I'll check that out later today. Very solid feel, no squirming or understeer/oversteer during some pretty spirited driving. Lost traction a few times in the front, but that's the torque beating the TCS through some corners.

Electronics - everything in the cabin works well once you get used to the new control positions. I've only put the wipers on instead of blinkers once so far!
Didn't get much time to play around with controls myself while piloting, but my passenger was fiddling around with things as we went.
A few concerns/questions: as mentioned in previous posts, annoyed that the "screen blank after 10secs" setting unticks itself every time the car starts. Either a bug or deliberate?
There's significant glare off the infotainment screen under certain sunlight conditions. Makes viewing the reverse camera screen or satnav almost impossible in some instances. Better anti-glare coating on the screen might help, or perhaps angling the screen slightly towards the driver?
The reverse camera is certainly lower quality than what the Mazda had. I've played with the contrast and brightness settings, but it's quite difficult to see clearly when reversing at night. Obviously the reverse lights aren't positioned very well for the camera to utilise, or the camera is just cheap? Definitely better resolution in the Mazda but it's a minor thing. (EDIT: Have fiddled with the contrast and brightness on this and improved it from the factory setting, but it's still very low-class compared to the Mazda's camera view - not sure if that's a cheap camera, or cheap screen)

Voice recognition is as hopeless as any other car I've driven with it. I realise it must be a difficult thing to program but I don't have a weird accent, I speak like anyone else and they just can't understand what I say. Especially when giving an address to the satnav. Unless I've missed it and it's available, there should be a tutorial or "learning" program set in voice-activated cars, where you can run through a selected list of commands and speak them, so the voice-recognition can "learn" your voice characteristics.

The satnav is very different to the TomTom in the Mazda and will take some practice and getting used to before I can judge it. I don't understand why they all seem to search alphabetically for the street name you input, throughout the whole country, rather than the closest one to your current location. If I search for smith street, it will bring up smith streets on the other side of the country as first preferences, rather than the one 5km away! But the TomTom was like that too. And I HATE having to nominate a suburb first. NOBODY give me their address as suburb first, then street, then number. I want to input an address the way people tell it to me...."30 smith street, jonesville" ...... not jonesville, smith, 30 !!!

One thing I love is the fact the satnav will not get "locked-out" from making manual inputs while moving. The TomTom would lock the screen from most inputs once you'd started moving (for safety, fair enough), but it meant that any passenger with you couldn't do the satnav programming on the move. At least in the Octy, my passenger did all the searching for addresses while I did the steering.

Can't work out why the Smartgate system isn't installed in Aus vehicles? It's listed in their literature/brochures, so why isn't it available? I downloaded a heap of Skoda apps intending to view/log driving parameters, but there's no way of connecting to the car to do it.

And I don't understand how you can sell a car with a dedicated "Traffic" button on the main controls... and NOT have it activated?
I know I can get it activated using a VCDS hack, but it seems pointless in the "top spec" of a model, to have something unavailable. It was the same situation with the Mazda - was originally marketed as having live traffic updates through the TomTom (through Suna), but then it never worked and was dropped from the facelift model.

Overall though - very VERY happy with my purchase! Best decision I've made in a long time and I'm sure I'll only get happier with the car as time goes on.

(Tried to post this 2 weeks ago, but for some reason it didn't work - so have updated a few things that I've since discovered answers to)

[Jondalar]

A good write up, agree with pretty much everything you say. OBDElven works well for traffic activation.

[Tuan]

Thanks for the write up.

Regarding the road noise - is it that obtrusive ? I have the sedan/liftback Mk2 and it did need a good dab of sound deadening to quieten it down. Could probably still use with some more under the rear seats if you ask me.

[Spinifex]

OBDElven works well for traffic activation.

Is that a user on here... or just code for VCDS programming thru the OBD2 port?

Does anyone know anyone in Brisbane who can perform this for me? Along with the auto-close-when-raining hack, it's about the only thing I would really like to have activated in the car.

I've seen some mention of members in other threads, but those were all from 2-3 years ago, and I haven't had a chance to try contacting any of them yet.

Anyone know current members/places I can go, who could assist?

[Jondalar]

Hi Spinifex,

It's a bluetooth dongle that lets you do VCDS type programming. I've got one bought from europe but not they have an Aussie agent. https://www.autoinstruct.com.au/prod...nostic-system/ cheaper than paying someone to do things for you.

Cheers,
Karl

[Spinifex]

That looks brilliant Karl..... unfortunately everyone in my house has apple devices

[Jondalar]

Yeah same here but fortunately there's a crappy old android tablet laying around that I won

[donweather]

Is that a user on here... or just code for VCDS programming thru the OBD2 port?

Does anyone know anyone in Brisbane who can perform this for me? Along with the auto-close-when-raining hack, it's about the only thing I would really like to have activated in the car.

I've seen some mention of members in other threads, but those were all from 2-3 years ago, and I haven't had a chance to try contacting any of them yet.

Anyone know current members/places I can go, who could assist?

You could try Jimmy from Alba European.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/f166/

Or Pete Jackson. I'll PM you his email address.

[Spinifex]

Thanks everyone. I'll sus all those options out.

Just realized my partner has an android tablet, so for $80-odd may just get the ODB11 and see what I can break!

can anyone categorically state if even connecting one of these devices/vcds cables, can be detected by a service agent or if it will affect warranty at all?
Obviously changing settings in the ecu will likely void a warranty, but if I'm just connecting a device to log diagnostics and not programming, then I don't want Skoda knowing this and immediately voiding the warranty.

[Mysticality]

On the subject of the brakes, I'm not particularly surprised that you can feel fade after a few quick stops - they're huge!
For comparison - the previous gen had brakes from the Mk5/6 Golf GTI - 312x28mm front.
The new gen's front brakes are 340x30mm, from the Mk7 Golf R.

I fitted Mk5/6 R32/R brakes (345x30mm) to my Octavia and instantly noticed the difference in weight hanging over the front, but it stopped more easily because of it... But, unlike the smaller units, they contain so much heat that they can't dissipate it all before you're back on them in the next corner! It sucks a little bit but hey, you win some you lose some!
Some nice Mk7 R two-piece rotors, braided lines and new brake pads would more than fix that issue.