Octavia 3 wagon manual 103TSI Ambition ownership

[GTR27]

Awesome reply! You are right that it's hard to find figures for the 1.4 and manual. Briskoda is all 1.6 or 2l diesel, or vrs. Very few seem to buy the 1.4

Sound like the driving you do is very similar to mine (short trips, then long country drive). Avg speed in town is similar too, I find avg speed helps when quoting economy as it's a better indicator of the type of driving you do.

One thing, you said you filled 47l but it said 120k to go.... I thought it was a 50l tank? Still, the range on such a small tank seems more than acceptable!

Very thorough reply, thanks again!

[brad]

And there’s no 5k battery to replace prius style.

How many batteries do you think have been replaced? The Prius Taxis up in QLD have crazy mileage on the original battery pack - like 300k-600k

1.6d is very popular in Europe. Diesel isn't very popular by comparison in oz, so no surprise really. More configs = even more delays...

Not to mention the extra spares you have to keep (even at a basic level) and the extra training to the mechs. Even the sales people are incapable o remembering too many variations.

[Gerrycan]

How many batteries do you think have been replaced? The Prius Taxis up in QLD have crazy mileage on the original battery pack - like 300k-600k


Not to mention the extra spares you have to keep (even at a basic level) and the extra training to the mechs. Even the sales people are incapable o remembering too many variations.

It is just a different paradigm in Europe with relatively high fuel prices and Government incentives for purchasing cars with officially (if not actual) low carbon outputs. That is also why (some) manufacturers fuel consumption claims are now so ridiculous as they 'work' the test more rather than achieving real advances in fuel burn.
Australia simply does not need so many engine options.

Incidentally you are right about the Prius batteries lasting a long time. This is achieved with NMH batteries by never running them below 30% or above 80%. The Lithium batteries in all electric cars deteriorate a lot quicker though because of the demands imposed on the batteries.
Think we are going a little off thread now.

[Gerrycan]

One thing, you said you filled 47l but it said 120k to go.... I thought it was a 50l tank? Still, the range on such a small tank seems more than acceptable!

Very thorough reply, thanks again!

It is officially a 50L tank but I would expect it to be closer to 55L . I am just grateful my gauge is more accurate than reported by some others.

[Mysticality]

At 750rpm idle with nothing on, my 125TDI (170TDI ) will pull 0.5L/hr, with lights, LED light bar, high beam, a/c and stereo (+ sub) on it will pull 0.7L/hr.
Mk2 Octavia is built on Mk5 Golf platform (so is the Mk6), which is why my heavy Golf R32 brakes were a direct fit.

I was surprised when they didn't offer more manual transmissions, as that seems to be why a lot of people bought Skoda (me included!) ... Who else does manual on most if not all of their model lineup? Nobody.

Good to hear the Octy 3 headlights are actually useful! Octy 2 are terrible, especially with the high beam being a square that lights up only the road, useless for roo's and such - but I guess useful for small UK lanes surrounded by hedges!

Great review!
Look forward to hearing more!

[Gerrycan]

At 750rpm idle with nothing on, my 125TDI (170TDI ) will pull 0.5L/hr, with lights, LED light bar, high beam, a/c and stereo (+ sub) on it will pull 0.7L/hr.
Mk2 Octavia is built on Mk5 Golf platform (so is the Mk6), which is why my heavy Golf R32 brakes were a direct fit.

I was surprised when they didn't offer more manual transmissions, as that seems to be why a lot of people bought Skoda (me included!) ... Who else does manual on most if not all of their model lineup? Nobody.

Good to hear the Octy 3 headlights are actually useful! Octy 2 are terrible, especially with the high beam being a square that lights up only the road, useless for roo's and such - but I guess useful for small UK lanes surrounded by hedges!

Great review!
Look forward to hearing more!

Funnily enough those diesel tick over consumption figures are identical to what I got on the 1.9D which sat at a fairly high 900 rpm.
There was an Audi 1.9d Blueline version that ran down to 700rpm.

Interesting you found the Octy 2 headlights wanting as well, mark you they were nowhere near as bad as a Hyundai Santa Fe Mk1 I had which were simply awful (even with a bulb upgrade). I usually had to latch onto someone going at reasonable speed in my direction and rely on them to illuminate the road ahead.
It really annoys me that most car reviews do not mention headlight efficacy, which I consider a really important safety feature.
Since I am ranting I might as well mention that most car headlight upgrades are very inconsiderate of their blinding effect on approaching road users. AND some cyclists with their super-bright 1200 lumen LED lights which are meant for off-road illumination are ridiculous (and I am a cyclist)... it's alright I feel better now.

[dArK5HaD0w]

Good to hear the Octy 3 headlights are actually useful! Octy 2 are terrible, especially with the high beam being a square that lights up only the road, useless for roo's and such - but I guess useful for small UK lanes surrounded by hedges!

Interesting you found the Octy 2 headlights wanting as well, mark you they were nowhere near as bad as a Hyundai Santa Fe Mk1 I had which were simply awful (even with a bulb upgrade). I usually had to latch onto someone going at reasonable speed in my direction and rely on them to illuminate the road ahead.

i have heard not so good reviews regarding the standard (halogen) octy 2 headlights.
however, i have the factory fitted xenon and i actually find them pretty good, even when compared to others.

fitting hids in a non-xenon headlight cluster will NOT yeild the same result.
the actual project (for the low beam) unit itself in the headlight cluster for a non-xenon config is different to that found in a xenon config.

without looking for headlight washers, u can tell by looking at the headlight cluster if it has factory fit xenons or halogens.

the high-beams on the otherhand - not so good, as already pointed out.

[GTR27]

At least the new octavia 3 xenons are bi-xenon (high and low) but I have heard they arent the best bi-xenons out, but any xenons factory fit > std headlights. If you're really desperate, you can get higher lumen output xenon globes that drop straight into the factory xenon mounts.

[Gerrycan]

Must be nice not having our limited budget.....sigh.

[GTR27]

My budget was quite limited also. You could have gotten xenon's on an amb+ manual wagon for <30k driveway. Ours with a tech pack and 18s was 30.5, but we added a sunroof later to make it ~32k