Octavia 3 on dirt roads?

[KWICKS]

Renault? Hyundai? Subaru? BMW$

[occy]

I own a Prado and a Octy3 wagon. The Octy3 is fine on dirt roads, although the low profile tyres arent ideal and mudflaps are a must if you do it regularly.

I suspect very few people could tell the difference between the torsion and independent rear in a blind test.

[Gerrycan]

I just returned from a weekend away, did a lot of dirt track/firetrail driving in National Parks, including a muddy run up to the Whoota Whoota lookout near Wallis Lake. No problems even in the mud and rocks, if I was to do it again, I d probably reduce the tyre pressure. Bit harsh and bouncy at 36 psi. You really need mudflaps if your doing this regularly. Running the standard 225/40R18 Contis. The rocks chopped them up a bit.

Thanks Antiplastix, that was the sort of experience and reassurance I was looking for.
Your TDI Elegance runs the same torsion bar rear suspension as mine and that for me was the unknown factor.
I would be very cautious about reducing your tyre pressures too much on such low profile tyres on the rough, not from experience with cars only bicycles
As an aside why would Skoda would put multi-link on the 1.8tsi Elegance and not on the tdi Elegance??

I have been quoted about $100 from Skoda spares for front and rear mud-flaps which is reasonable compared to overseas prices, + about $150 fitting, so will install myself. Mudflaps were standard fitting on my Mk2.

The rear drumming mentioned by others is present in my car but I don't think it is as bad as experienced by some.
My own theory regarding this is that the boot floor forward of the spare wheel well is an extremely resonant area that cannot be easily damped even with application of dynamat. I think Skoda used a relatively thin but very high tensile steel on the MQB hence the unusual acoustic properties. That whole area needs to be braced underneath between the two main side supports for real improvement.

As I said, just my theory, but holding a suitable length of wood firmly in place underneath and banging the area markedly reduced the drumming resonance. Just got to figure out how to hold the material in place (temporarily but safely) to test while driving.