Skoda Octavia - any good?

andyfromotley

Simple question really. Thinking of buying a year old 1.2tsi s. It gets great reviews, but i rarely trust this journos... much more interested in what MSE's think.

cheers

Andy

Jamie_Carter

It's a VW/Audi, so it's well engineered. The problem is it's a dirty smelly polluting car

Jamie_Carter

All manufacturers have good and bad points. Yes if you want an ultra reliable car you buy a Toyota, but that's not what the OP asked about.

As for an M3, why did you even mention it? They are hardly the same class of vehicle are they?

Jamie_Carter

It's like chalk and cheese

loskie

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/
briskoda is a good source.

Octavias are good however I would suspect that the 1.2 is underpowered and potentially overstressed.
These small high output engines concern me re longevity.

Herzlos

Most of the taxis here are diesel Octavias, so from that I'd assume they are regarded to be pretty decent (and good value). I'm not sure the 1.2TSI would change that, but you'll probably not get the same fuel economy.

JP08

Not sure about the current designs but earlier Octavia diesels have shared the problem of sticking vanes in the variable boost turbo putting the car into non boosted "limp" mode. Not too much of an issue in a 2l (we had an '06 2l) - would still hold 70 but next to no acceleration - but I'd imagine that on a 1.2 the rice pudding skin would not even be wrinkled, let alone pulled off.

For what it's worth we traded in the Octavia for a Toyota Auris 1.2 as mentioned above. Only a couple of months so far, but very happy with the new one.

peter12345678910

loskie wrote: »

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/
briskoda is a good source.

Octavias are good however I would suspect that the 1.2 is underpowered and potentially overstressed.
These small high output engines concern me re longevity.

But lighter and smaller cars, though you may not be able to pick up anybody from the airport unless they are travelling light.

BeenThroughItAll

peter12345678910 wrote: »

But lighter and smaller cars, though you may not be able to pick up anybody from the airport unless they are travelling light.

I might be missing something, but what are lighter and smaller cars, and compared to what?

forgotmyname

Lubricate the vanes on a turbo??? Maybe you need to read up on how a turbo works and where the vanes are in relation to the oil being pumped through it.

JP08

I suspect bearings is more appropriate than vanes, in which case the comment about oil changes is probably valid.

I think that VAG turbos have some variable vane technology. There is some evidence of this getting gummed up as per my earlier comments, though this is not a lubrication issue. Some methods of cleaning said gunk from the turbo are available on the internet. Most of them involve Mr Muscle oven cleaner. I never had the nerve to try them though.