OCTAVIA III Owners discussion thread

[afterdarker]

I drove from Brisbane to Sydney yesterday and would have had the wipers going, no exaggeration, for at least 8 hours solid. Just continuous rain. At one point, I pulled over near Ballina as it was coming down so hard conditions on the highway were just too dangerous. Could not take Bluetooth phone calls as the rain coming on the roof was too noisy. Got home and the car interior completely dry, the car ran faultlessly throughout the most severe rainstorm you could encounter. But I did not cross through any big floods.

[GTR27]

Well it's reassuring to hear your opinions. That's brave GTR! If that were me I'd probably have turned around I hope your car is okay too. I don't think I was driving in Brisbane in the 2011 floods but I haven't seen so many cars strewn around before yesterday. There was a bit of steam coming out of the front grille last night and it does look a bit like (on an RS) the radiator(?) hangs kind of low but I don't think that would be an issue. Car seemed fine today, I just get concerned at how most car manuals (including this one) say to avoid driving through water higher than the bottom edge of the car - I hope that is just conservative advice!

Manufacturers have to be conservative, because idiots always push boundaries. However, happy to say no ill effects (aside from foggy inside of a single fog light.) Door seals must be good too, because I'm positive it was up over the sills in height.

I wouldnt normally cross water in a car, however 2hrs to drive home, our other car is on loan to the FIL, and wife was stuck at train station for 45 mins in the rain, as well as kids at kindy. Lucky kindy, train station and home were all on the other side of the water, so one crossing only was required (wouldnt risk it with wife/kids in car). A soggy, angry wife is much more fearful than a waterlogged car. At least I can replace the car!

[forcey]

i ordered mine 16th February and was told today that it was built on the 17th of April now it's waiting to be allocated a spot on a ship.

Hey gadget, this is why it's a lot quicker than anticipated,
Skoda Octavia RS production doubled to cut nine-month local lead times

Mine may be on the same ship, although am thinking of ordering the Performance model instead, mainly for the Diff??

[woofy]

Yeah I asked about lead times as that production thing was about but the dealer last month said it knocked about a month off the typical times, and orders placed in April still had Nov ETAs.

[lucmor444]

Just following up an earlier question - what is the 'normal' time expected from build date to delivery to owner in Australia?

[GeeMatt]

Just following up an earlier question - what is the 'normal' time expected from build date to delivery to owner in Australia?

Not sure there is such a thing as normal. My timeline is in the sig below, although it covered christmas period.

[techdave]

Just following up an earlier question - what is the 'normal' time expected from build date to delivery to owner in Australia?

I'm in Melbourne, and it's about 10-11 weeks for me. My car was built on Feb 6 and I got the car at the end of April.

[lucmor444]

Thanks techdave/geematt

[woofy]

About the same lately, 6-7mths from order to getting it still. They think maybe a month was shaved off for us, but the shipping is the killer here. They seem to be treading carefully with getting in too many prebuilt ones as well.

[chriskan]

Got a notice up on the maxi dot today that the oil change is due in 30 days on the vRS. I've done ~5500km. Dealer wants $423 for the oil change, seems a bit steep and I thought first service was at 15k or 1 year...

Any downside of going to a VAG specialist?

UPDATE: ok so dealer just emailed to say 1st service is 15k or 12 months and it seems like the pre-delivery didn't reset the service timer, as the build date was June 2014. Is there an easy way for me to reset it or does it have to be reset at the dealer?