[StarrySky]

It's been more than 6 months since I last updated this thread. Meanwhile, the car has covered an additional 5000km, including a 5-week "rest" period while we were in India for our vacation. Since I used up all my vacation for our trip to India, we did not have any long road trips this summer.

I was worried about leaving the car unused for 5 weeks, but I need not have worried. The car sprang back to life at the first crank.

A couple of weeks back, the oil change service reminder popped up, indicating that oil change is needed in 29 days. I booked a service appointment the next day and the first available date was the 20th of October. While booking, the service centre gave information about several extra (paid) services like pick-up and drop, interior/exterior cleaning, replacement car etc. I ordered interior cleaning along with service. I also asked them to check the noise from dashboard which had become quite audible and frequent.

On the day of the appointment, I took the car to the service station at about 8:30am, parked it and went to the reception. They already had the details of my appointment with them. They confirmed the details and my contact details and took the car key. They said they would text me when the car is ready. No meeting the SA or explaining anything to him.

By about 4:30pm, I received their text as promised. At the service centre, I approached the reception. They asked my car's registration number and when I gave it, the guy there had a sheet of paper with him with the details. He informed me that oil change was done, they had changed the key battery (I had a warning in MID to change the key battery) and also changed the wipers. About the noise from the dashboard, he told me that the technician found two noises. He had done something about one of them, but didn't have time to fix the other. He said I could book another appointment later if the noise persists. He then handed over the car key to me. I wondered what would've happened if some crook had walked into the service centre and given the number of one of the cars parked there as his own car

That was it for the first service, without having met any technician. The service was done with just above 15550km on the odo and exactly 19 months after taking delivery.

From the odo, they had done a test drive during the service for about 12km.

The interior was very clean, they had done a good job there.

Post-service, I don't feel much difference in the way the car drives. I don't hope for any increase in FE post-service, since it has become cold and the FE will soon nose-dive. I just hope it won't dive as low as the 8.37km/l on a full tank that I once did last time.

[StarrySky]

It's been about 18 months since I last updated this thread. During this time, the car has done about 19K more kilometres and has completed 3 years with us. The odo today stands at around 34750km. The car has been completely reliable and even the infamous 7-speed DSG has been well-behaved. Touchwood!!

Due to various reasons, we haven't had a long road trip for a long time. This means that the last 19K kms have been done mostly within city limits. That doesn't mean that the car has been running in bumper-to-bumper traffic at crawling speeds. The MID shows an average speed of 38km/h for each tankful every time I fill up.

But yes, there is the occasional rattle from somewhere in the dashboard. Like all irritating rattles, it is really hard to reproduce at the service station. However, it shows up infrequently and I have learned to ignore it now. The other slightly annoying this is that the suspension is a bit noisy while going over bumps. Other than the rattle, the interiors are still in very good shape. I haven't had any trouble with the AC sliders or knobs as some of our members have.

Even though the car is an automatic, the brake pads have lasted all this while and I don't feel the need to change them anytime soon. The only thing that has been replaced under warranty is the LHS headlight washer. It would sometimes keep sticking out after usage and I had to push it back in. It was replaced during the last service. I have also replaced the key battery thrice.

Coming to the service part, the car came with a service plan according to which the first service would be at 2 years/ 30k kms and each subsequent service would be at 1 year/ 30k kms. However, the way things are going, I am having to visit the service station twice in 12 months.

My first service was in October 2016, 19 months after I took delivery. This was an "Oil Change Service" (prompted by the car) done with the odo at around 15500km.

My second service was in February 2017, almost 2 years after delivery, with the odo at just above 19000km. This was an "Inspection Service". Again, this was prompted by the car when it was close to 2 years of ownership.

My third service was in February 2018, with the odo just below 33000km. Again, this was an "Inspection Service" prompted by the car when it was close to 3 years of ownership. However now, the "Oil Change Service" will probably be due sometime within next 3 months. The car has now done about 19000kms after the last oil change. It will probably do at least another 2000kms before the oil change is due. So, the oil change intervals are quite long.

Here are a couple of the latest pics of the car.

[StarrySky]

The oil change service for my car was carried out yesterday. I dropped the car off at the service centre at around 8am and the car was ready after service by 10:30am. The odo reading at the service was 38775km. The previous oil change was carried out with the odo at 15574km in October 2016. So, the oil change interval was 23201 km.

The car went through two winters during this time. I did not perceive any roughness in the engine or any perceptible drop in mileage, even in the last few days before the oil change. I am really impressed by the long oil change interval. I did check the oil level a few days before the oil change and the oil level was adequate (between min and max levels). The half litre can of oil that the dealership delivered with the car three years back is still unused.

[Gannu_1]

Gotta love usage based oil changes! How much do they charge for the service? Just curious.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

How much do they charge for the service? Just curious.

It's a lease car, so I don't get the bills

But I do get to see the total bill amounts on the leasing company's app. Based on that, the first oil change service (which was also the first service for the car) cost €212. The inspection service after the 2nd year cost €126. The inspection service after the 3rd year (which also included 30k km service) cost €516. The bill for the latest service isn't available on the app yet.

[StarrySky]

After being in the family for 40 months and close to 39000km, the Octavia has been returned to the leasing company. It was a happy experience driving the car for these 40 months. It carried us in comfort everywhere and never spend a day off the road for repairs.

Likes:
1. Comfortable car, good ride, good NVH levels, adequate power for my use. Handles well too. In short, it's got all the basics covered.
2. Completele reliability in the 40 months I had it - come rain, snow or sunshine. I have used the car in temperatures ranging from +30 to almost -30 degrees celcius.
3. Loads of space (being a Combi definitely helped). Moved a lot of stuff in the car. We had to replace the flooring in one of the rooms when we bought our house. Most of the materials were transported by us in a van, but in the end we fell one pack of flooring material short. It came in a package 2.3m long. I was worried how to transport it. The sales guy in the shop asked, "What car do you have?" and I said "Octavia Combi". He said, "Then don't worry, it will fit in the car". And it did, though I had to place it between the front seats on the handrest and it came up to almost the dashboard.
3. Smooth DSG for most part, made even better by the adaptive cruise control feature.
4. Feature-loaded. Had almost everything I could think of at the time I got it.
5. Pretty good FE (in summer months)

Dislikes:
Really nitpicking here..

1. Some infrequent and unresolved rattles
2. Noisy suspension. It works quite well, but is noisy as if it feels the need to let everyone in the car know how hard it's working.
3. DSG is sometimes slow to respond, for eg: when I brake from a higher gear for a hump and want to pick up speed again after the hump, DSG takes a moment to figure out the right gear to be in.

Return Process:
A few things had to be done before the return:

1. I had to get any pending services done. The oil change service reminder had come up in the last couple of weeks before the return, so I got this done.

2. I had to get any dents/scratches etc repaired. There were couple of small paint scratches on the car, one on front bumper and one on the rear bumper. There were also a couple of scratches on the winter alloy wheels. I send the pictures of all the damages to the leasing company. They agreed that those were quite small issues and I could return the car as is.

3. I had to get the car cleaned (exterior and interior).

4. The car had to be returned with all original accessories ordered. Most of the accessories I ordered were factory options that anyway could not be removed by me. There were two dealer supplied accessories - winter tires and battery charger. I had to get the winter tires from the tire storage shop and put them in the boot before returning the car.

Since it was summer time and many businesses generally have shorter working days, I made the booking for full exterior wash and interior cleaning a few weeks before the return date. The appointment was booked for the date of return at 10:00.

The car had to be returned at a logistics company's stockyard about 40km from my home. I went to the tire storage shop just after 09:00 on the day and luckily they had already kept my tires ready for pickup as I had informed them about it a day before. I picked them up and reached almost half an hour early for the car wash appointment. The guys there started the wash early and by 10:45, I was on my way to the yard. I reached there in about 40 minutes. I was surprised to see the stockyard. It had so many vehicles, both new (to be transported to dealerships) and old (like mine). There were easily a couple of thousand cars in the yard. A security guard opened the gate for me. I went inside the yard and then she came to the car and asked me what I wanted. I gave the name of the leasing company and told her that I had come to return the car. She quickly filled up the registration number and odo reading on a form, put a seal on it, gave it to me saying "That's it!" and took the keys. It hardly took a couple of minutes. I was like, so soon? I don't get to say a proper goodbye to the car?? I asked her permission to take a couple of pictures of the car before I left. I think she understood and said with a smile, "Take your time! If you need me I will be in the cabin". I took a few minutes walking around the car, taking a couple of pictures and then left.

Maintenance Costs:
- Service Cost: €1005.58 (4 services in total)
- Tire changes during winter/summer: €478.56 (including tire storage charges)
- Inspection: €50 (Govt mandated inspection done by third party)
- Total: €1534.14

All of the above were paid by the leasing company. If I had to pay them as an individual, the costs would probably have been higher. Add to it annual taxes (paid by leasing company) and insurance (paid by my company), which would together cost around €750 annually (optimistic guesstimate). That gives a rough idea about the ownership costs (except fuel) if I were to buy a car.
Costs paid by me: Fuel, windscreen washer and the €30 for cleaning on the last day

Random statistics:


Some photos from the last day:

Getting a well-deserved wash:


Last pic of the odometer:


At the yard:


Being a lease car, I always knew I wasn't going to keep the car for a long time and I had this feeling that it's not "our" car. There was a possibility to buy the car at the end of the lease which I didn't consider at all. But, to be honest, I felt sad when I had to leave the car behind at the yard. An hour before when I was watching the car being washed, a lot of memories involving the car came up - the whole process of ordering the car, the excitement of getting a car in a foreign country, how small the kids were when we brought the car home, our various trips in the car, shifting house carrying lot of stuff in the car, how it never let us down.

So long, Octavia. Hope to see you around sometime in the future.