[noopster]

Super review, StarrySky! Your attention to detail is amazing. So you actually had your car custom-built to your requirements, eh? Is that standard where you are? I'd imagine it adds quite a bit to the cost and delivery time.

The Octy Combi with the 1.6 TDI engine looks like a perfect car for India and I wonder why it's not a part of Skoda's portfolio here. I seem to remember the first generation Octavia having a Combi variant- have spotted a few in Bangalore and Mumbai. Having said that the Octy in India straddles the D/luxe segments and may not be quite the budget option as in Europe!

[psispace]

Congrats on a very immensely practical car!

The combi variant is very rare in India due to the large price differential from the sedan variant.
I see a few well maintained (and not so well maintained) versions on the road now and then (older generation). Even the old estate version of the Tata Indigo looked good.
Poor sales, however, ensured that these are not available even as an option now.

Just seeing the space inside these cars show how good they will be as a family tourer.
With the advent of smaller cross-overs and minivans to address this need (to some extent), I think the 'estate - station wagon - combi ' versions of cars won't be seen here any soon.
Pity.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by VeluM

Congratulations on the car

You mentioned the rear suspension setup which is different in India for the 1.8TSI, but didn't say if yours comes with an independent rear suspension or not?

Thanks for the wishes!

My car has the torsion beam suspension at the rear. Among the diesel Octavias here, only the vRS and AWD models have multilink rear suspensions. Among the cars I evaluated, only the Volvo V40 came with a multilink rear suspension.

Originally Posted by VeluM

Is 30k Kms the service interval, even for the first service??

Yes. My car is on a variable service plan where the first service can be done as late as 30K or 2 years, whichever is earlier. However, the car has a service reminder which can give an alert if an earlier service is required based on some diagnostics done by the car itself. Currently the service reminder shows this:

Originally Posted by noopster

Super review, StarrySky! Your attention to detail is amazing. So you actually had your car custom-built to your requirements, eh? Is that standard where you are? I'd imagine it adds quite a bit to the cost and delivery time.

Thanks Noopster!

You could say the car is custom-built and to be frank it felt nice to get updates from the dealer like "Your car has a confirmed build date", "Your car has been built", "Your car has been shipped" etc

But, this is pretty much the standard here for all the cars I evaluated, even if you do not want to add any factory-fit options. It doesn't add anything to the cost. But it can add quite a bit to the time depending on the options chosen. For me it took 3 months from confirmed order to the factory to delivery and this is about the average time for any new factory order.

If you want a car earlier, you can ask the dealer if he has anything in stock (for eg: due to cancellations or a demo car). I did not try this route. Problem with having so many options that we can add is that dealers don't prefer to maintain any inventory.

[vinayrathore]

Congrates StarrySky for an informed and practical purchase. Loved the detailed description of all the bits and pieces that led to it.

Car variants in Europe are not the same as we know them in India. Premium cars can have non premium but practical options as standard and even the base variant can have a supposedly premium but important saftey feature as standard. Definitions of premium and base are totally different in India. On a recent Europe trip, I drove a BMW 116D with M Package and it too had fabric seats and a 6 Speed Manual transmission. Fabric seats are to enable heating on the seats and has nothing to do with 'non-premiumness'.

Then comes the customization options. My cousin in Zurich recently bought a 5 Series Stationwagon with a rare combination of Coffee+dark wood interiors, ACC+Drive Assist, a higher than normal engine tune et al. You can literally tailor make a car from the many choices you have from factory.

Not sure when the Indian customer will get equal treatment as the west.

[NKR]

Hi , first of all congratulations on your new car. Have a safe and happy ride. Thanks for a great review. It is interesting to note the difference level in equipment of the Octy in India and in the West. We too own a Laura and wish that all these equipment were there too.

I was on the look out for an estate and Skoda could not provide one in India. They used to provide estate version for first Gen Octys,but there were no volume sales so they discontinued it. The practicality of an estate is great. Yeti though an excellent vehicle did not have many essential features that an estate or a cross over have, especially an Auto Gearbox. All Laura/Octy/Yeti owners having a manual gear box will agree with me that driving in slow moving traffic is difficult. I finally bought an X1.

Once again congratulations

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by NKR

Hi , first of all congratulations on your new car. Have a safe and happy ride. Thanks for a great review. It is interesting to note the difference level in equipment of the Octy in India and in the West.

Thanks! Regarding the features, there are features in the Indian Octavia which my car lacks. I would've dearly loved to have the memory seats and auto-tilting ORVMs. I think this is just a reflection of what the market demands. On a 20L+ car, Indian market probably expects leather, sunroof etc. Here maybe it's the extra airbag and the emergency braking system that market expects, so some other features get left out.

But yes, the options list is very long here and the limitation is usually just the budget. The 1.6TDI version I have does not have a L&K variant. But it is possible to spec it up to nearly L&K levels.

Few more observations after having done another couple of hundred kms:

- The engine is really very quiet for a diesel. It can barely be heard inside the cabin at cruising speeds. I am sure some of this is because of the studded tyres I am still running. They do make a lot of noise. I read in some sites that Octavias sold in Scandinavia have greater sound dampening, maybe as a result of some extra padding to keep the extreme cold weather out. I am not sure if this is true, but I am inclined to believe it. There is no comparison to the Punto I owned earlier, but I am tempted to say that in terms of engine noise heard inside the cabin, this car is probably on par with the C250 CDI back home.

- With warmer temperatures setting in, the mileage has also gone up. I did a motorway run yesterday of about 80km, spending most of the time on cruise control at 120kmph and sometimes even a little bit higher. The mileage was around 19.5kmpl.

- ACC brakes harder than I'd like even at city speeds (50kmph or less). This is perhaps understandable since it is programmed to maintain about a car length distance even when the car comes to a complete halt at traffic lights. I prefer to brake myself, slightly more progressively and crawl up behind the car in front.

- As the manual mentions, ACC has limitations detecting stationary cars at traffic lights. If the road is fairly flat and straight, then it detects stationary cars reasonably well. But if the traffic light is on a curve or on a slope, then the limitations seem to come into the picture.

- I like that the MID has a "Since refuelling' trip data that automatically resets itself once the car is refuelled.

[NKR]

You are very right. The Market requirements dictate what equipment is fitted on a car. It is only quite recently that many of the hatchback manufacturers in India decided to have airbags in many models- that too after failing the Crash tests quite miserably.

The NVH levels in Octy is good but some cars of the segment have better levels. In your case it must be extra cladding that offers better NVH levels- good for you. Personally I like the grunt of the diesel.

The Octavia has always been a frugal sipper and good to know that you are getting a good mileage. Impressive 19.5 Kmpl for 120Kph drive .

[shankar.balan]

Ooh! What a lovely car this is! I have ALWAYS loved the Octy Combi right from the first one I saw in India some ten years ago. Always wanted one but could not afford it then.
Much later, kept looking for an used one but in India these cars are not always well handled so desisted.
Now I ve got the next nearest thing, the Yeti.

But the sheer immensity, boot space, comfort, handling and quality of the Octy has always appealed.
Good buy! and in your part of the world these have a well deserved reputation of quality.
All the best for a long innings and many miles ahead!

[StarrySky]

I had an appointment a couple of days back to replace my winter tyres with summer tyres. I was on time for the appointment and a mechanic was waiting with my summer tyres at a bay reserved for me. I was out of there in about 10 minutes after replacing the tyres.

Now my car looks is running on OE alloys and tyres and looks as it was "configured":


Two of the winter tyres that were replaced:


I measured the noise levels inside the car using the Sound Meter app from Google Playstore. No idea how accurate the app is, but here are the results:

Idle (on the left) and cruising at 40kmph:


Change to summer tyres from winter tyres did not bring any dramatic change in noise levels. Here are the results from before and after the replacement. The measurements were taken while cruising at 70kmph on the same road at around the same time (I took them while going for the tyre replacement and while returning):

[StarrySky]

The low-fuel light came on and I filled the tank up today. This is my 2nd fill-up and gave me a chance to calculate tankful-to-tankful FE for the first time.

Distance covered: 598km
Fuel filled: 39.09L
FE: 15.3kmpl
Average speed (as per MID): 34kmph

The MID gave a FE figure of 17.7 (don't remember exactly, though). So there appears to be about 2-2.5kmpl difference between MID and "real world" FE figures. The (in)accuracy of MID is a disappointment. My Punto's MID FE figures used to be within a few decimal points of the real world figures. However, for a first refill, the mileage itself is not disappointing to me. The car has still run less than 1000km and so I fully expect this to go up.

Originally Posted by StarrySky

I did a motorway run yesterday of about 80km, spending most of the time on cruise control at 120kmph and sometimes even a little bit higher. The mileage was around 19.5kmpl.

This mileage was as per MID and I really doubt this now.

[StarrySky]

Last Sunday seemed like a good day to go on a short trip. Weather-wise, it did not turn out to be exactly as we had hoped, but all of us enjoyed the 80-km round trip outside the city.






We continued the outing with a 40-km trip inside the city. A combination of driving conditions, convenience of the DSG and comfort levels in the car made the Sunday drive a fatigue-free experience. The MID mileage for the whole trip was 21+kmpl.

My running during the past month has been restricted mainly to weekends, so progress has been slow on the odometer. However, the change of location of my office means that I will now be using the car more frequently. With the summer almost here, I am also hoping to make a few more trips outside the city in the next 2 months.

A few occurrences in the last month:
- MID reset: One day, right after I started the car, the MID reset itself. The time settings, other settings, driving data were all reset. I have no idea why it happened.

- I was travelling in a construction zone with a friend in the passenger seat and there was a level difference on the road. I didn't brake in time and the car fell a bit hard - and the front passenger door lock opened!! I immediately got a warning on the MID, so I warned him. Thankfully, the door didn't fly open.

- A strange rattle came up inside the car. I thought it was coming from the passenger side of the car and those in the passenger seat thought it was coming from my side. Fortunately it turned out to be nothing more than sunglasses left in the sunglass holder - which is exactly in the middle of the front seats.

- The "Front Assist" was activated once. It wasn't any sort of emergency, but the system flashed a warning maybe a second before I reacted to the situation myself. Since I was in control of the situation, I thought the system triggered too early, so for a moment I didn't like the car telling me when to brake (hurt ego ). But early reaction from the system can only be a good thing, especially when there is a real emergency.

[StarrySky]

Last weekend was a long weekend due to Midsummer day celebrations, so we took the opportunity to go on a slightly longer trip. We were not alone on this trip, and it was planned together with two other families. In all, we were a group of 6 adults and 5 children, with each family in their own cars.

The route we chose was the "Green Gold Culture Route" (Vihreän Kullan Kulttuuritie). This route goes through East Finland, also called Lakeland due to its many lakes. The entire round trip was about 851km. We started on Friday afternoon by aroud 1pm and got back home by 10pm on Sunday. Driving-wise, we covered about 258km on Day 1, another 200-odd on Day-2 and nearly 400 on Day-3.













Stats for the trip:
----------------------------
Distance: 851km
Speeds: 80kmph or above for about 70% of the time, 120-130kmph for about 20% of the trip.
AC usage: 50% - strange as it may sound, the summer weather allowed us to drive without AC for quite some time, especially in the evenings.
Cruise Control usage: Nearly 90% (yes, I used it within city as well)
FE: 21.7kmpl (tankful-tankful method). I filled up before we left for the trip and completed the trip without refuelling.

I was very happy with the performance of the car during the trip. Fast when it needs to be and quite frugal too (for an automatic). The FE I achieved on a tankful during the trip was higher than I ever got on the Punto for a tankful. The stability on the highways at 120+kmph was excellent. But, more than the highways I enjoyed the country roads where the speeds were lower (80kmph), but the elevation changes and curves gave a better driving experience, not to mention far better scenery.

The downside was lower back pain that I got after the trip, although we took 3 breaks on Day-3 while covering about 400km. I am still not sure what caused the back pain - my driving position or uncharacteristic physical activity in the form of football and hockey during the trip

[StarrySky]

We are in the middle of school summer vacations and I had a planned vacation coming up during the first week of July. When I was looking at road trip routes in Finland a while back, I came across the name of Tenontie, which is a road that runs along the Norway border, on the shores of River Tana (or Tenojoki as it is known in Finland). I quite liked the idea of going up north, but it seemed a long way away. I've never done a long road trips and I was also worried about how my kids would like it. I was also concerned about doing a long trip alone. Even so, when my vacation week was finalised, I started planning the route that we could take. Then during the mid-summer week, we had an 851-km 2-day trip, which went quite well. I gained the confidence to go on a longer trip and finalised our vacation plans.

And so we went on our first big road-trip

We drove on some very enjoyable roads...


...which took us past the Arctic Circle:


We went off the beaten path in some places...


...to see sights like this:


We searched for good place to watch the midnight sun...


...and found the midnight sun greeting us right outside our cottage:


We went to the Norway border...


...which is also the northernmost point in the country:


We had some guys blocking our road...


...but still went on to see sights like this:


...and this:


In short, we loved our first big road trip

[StarrySky]

Trip Statistics:
--------------------

MID Data of the trip:


The average FE for the trip worked out to be 20.93kmpl by tankful-tankful method.

Best FE achieved (as per MID) during the trip:


Longest we drove in a single day during the trip (last day of the trip):


Refuelling Statistics during the trip:
----------------------------------------------

1. First refuelling stop:
--------------------------
KMs driven: 831
Litres consumed: 41.12
FE: 20.21kmpl
AC usage: 70%
Averge speed (MID): 82kmph

2. Second refuelling stop:
-----------------------------
KMs driven: 407
Litres consumed: 22.45
FE: 18.13kmpl
AC usage: 100%
Average speed (MID): 77kmph

We had really cold weather during this section (7-9 degrees celcius) along with rain and cold winds. This could've played a part in the low FE.

3. Third refuelling stop:
-----------------------------
KMs driven: 882
Litres consumed: 41.31
FE: 21.35kmpl
AC usage: 70%
Average speed (MID): 69kmph

4. Last refuelling stop (after the trip):
-------------------------------------------
KMs driven: 847
Litres consumed: 36.96
FE: 22.92kmpl
AC usage: 80%
Average speed (MID): NA (I forgot to save the data before refuelling)

Distance driven on each day:
---------------------------------------
Day 1: 281 km
Day 2: 357 km
Day 3: 30 km
Day 4: 244 km
Day 5: 23 km
Day 6: 518 km
Day 7: 329 km
Day 8: 564 km
Day 9: 617km

[Dieselritzer]

Dude, are these places real? What a beautiful place to live. If I post the pics outside my office based in Chakala, Andheri, one of the busiest parts of the city, you'll start praying for me. ;-)

The quality of roads is just brilliant. Just a question, a sign board read always use head lights, I understand they wont be stupid to put up any sign boards, but what does it really mean?