Octavia wagon vs Passat Wagon

[rathalian]

aslsw - where did you end up taking the Skoda (I assume Octavia) out for a test run and what where your thoughts re on road handling/feedback/comfort etc?

[Spook]

Question: would the Golf wagon be comparable to the Octavia wagon? Any particular reason for not including it in the comparison?

[gregozedobe]

aslsw - where did you end up taking the Skoda (I assume Octavia) out for a test run and what where your thoughts re on road handling/feedback/comfort etc?

If you want a rough road to try out road noise, bumps etc then the southern section of the Sutton Road is an "excellent" challenge (the Queanbeyan end, near the driver training track, where they have heaps of lumps, bumps, potholes and repairs on repairs). That piece of road was what finally sold me on an Octavia RS over a Golf GTI.

Test drives are the only way to tell which car suits you best.

I can't speak too highly of Lennock Skoda.

Yep, I was very happy with Colin and bought my RS from him

I live in Canberra and have found every visit to both of our VW dealerships (aka Skoda) to be painful. The level of service in at the Honda dealership was second to none, however the VW dealers seem to be lumped with an attitude not becoming the $ I want to spend.

I'm happy to shop around OZ and would love to get some feedback (or pointers to a forum thread) re some solid dealers to liaise with remotely when purchasing either an Octavia or Passat (the verdict is still out)

Did you talk with Colin at Lennock Skoda ? He is in a totally different building to the Lennock VW guys (Skoda sales is around the corner and down the road a little bit).

[aslsw]

aslsw - where did you end up taking the Skoda (I assume Octavia) out for a test run and what where your thoughts re on road handling/feedback/comfort etc?

We were told we had to stay within the ACT, so no really bad roads. We took it out for a whole day (both wife and I had the day off together) and tried to use it like a normal car ie. not trying out really bad surfaces. So it was up the highway to the city, around the city and Parly Triangle, then around the lake on the smaller roads. Mix of surfaces ie. good quality highway, recently relaid, filled potholes. This was all in the TSI (before I realised I could afford something better).

We also had it overnight, so it was around our own suburb and area.

The only thing that ever stood out for me was the road noise - particularly on the newly relaid surfaces. It is noticeable, even coming from a Commodore wagon which has a big boot as an echo chamber.

However, totally sold on comfort - it's much firmer than the fat 'n lazy Aussie cars, but we like that. It feels like you could drive all day and get out feeling fresh (I climb out of the Commodore these days like an old man). We were also sold on the classy interior - it has all mod cons but doesn't become fussy (Mazda 6) or overwhelming (Accord).

Power was a bit startling at first. I'm used to the Commodore taking a while to get wound up but the Octavia jumps like a startled rabbit if you put your foot down.

I finally took the RS for a spin in December - road noise again was the most noticeable thing. But I just can't go past the complete package.

I admit that I haven't done a full test eg. on some dodgy roads. But I figure most of the time it will be the every driving we do (home > work > friends > home) so I wanted to be happy with that. Now that my sister-in-law is moving from the farm, my need to travel on dirt is miniscule.

Still worried about the towing capability. My wife has taken to camping while I was away, we went to the coast last weekend and took clothes in the back of the wagon and towed the trailer with camping gear. Hopefully, the Octavia will be able to cope.

Finally, I can back up the good comments about Colin at Lennock Skoda.

[JP-009]

Finally, I can back up the good comments about Colin at Lennock Skoda.

I also had a good experience while dealing with Colin.

[space-godzilla]

Thanks guys for the feedback. I was aware the Passat is built on a different platform however these two cars share some common features, in particular for me the DSG gearbox (I love them)

I dropped into one of the Canberra VW dealerships today and saw the 2010 Passat packages, great shame to see they dropped the 2.0 TFSI and 103KW TDI although the price of the 125kw TDI has dropped albeit @ 51k IMHO given competition they are struggling.

I live in Canberra and have found every visit to both of our VW dealerships (aka Skoda) to be painful. The level of service in at the Honda dealership was second to none, however the VW dealers seem to be lumped with an attitude not becoming the $ I want to spend.

I'm happy to shop around OZ and would love to get some feedback (or pointers to a forum thread) re some solid dealers to liaise with remotely when purchasing either an Octavia or Passat (the verdict is still out)

I can pretty much back up everything that people have been saying about Colin at Lennock Skoda. I was interested in a 2008 RS demo that they had on their lot about six months ago and while it was a little hard to get his attention initially, he really went all out to make the deal work, including working with their financing guy to stay within my stated fortnightly budget. He let us take the car for the weekend (Sat afternoon to Mon morning) and that really helped my wife decide. In the end, we bought the Skoda from Colin and we are very happy with it. We downsized from a petrol Prado and although I miss the little fridge that it had, I think that we've about halved our fuel bill with the diesel RS.

Having said all that, when I was looking, I did e-mail Brian Young at Central Coast Eurocars in Gosford (they also had a 2008 RS demo at that time) and he was very helpful.
But they seem to only be advertising two cars currently and $34,990 seems a little expensive for a 2008 Octavia.

Yes, driving on the coarse chip that they seem to be repaving Canberra roads with recently can be a little noisy but I don't really notice it. And it's probably no worse than in my 2008 Civic.

My sister in California has two Passat wagons and she and her husband love them. Unfortunately, I've never driven one while I've been there for a visit so I can't really compare the RS to a Passat.