Czech this car out for yourself! (Skoda Octavia in general)

Member Name: bigdoug

Product:	Skoda Octavia in general
Date:	10/02/09 (144 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A Quality German Car at a bargain price

Disadvantages: You won't want to get out of the car at your destination

I had often admired from afar the German automotive art with examples from prestige makes including; Porsche, Mercedes, Audio, Volkswagen, and the mighty Trabant!

I wanted to buy into a reliable German Diesel like an Audi A4 or VW Passat. My ex. Boss had got himself an Audi A4 and always moaned about the £400-odd cost of its annual servicing. My two brothers had both recently changed their cars, one getting an Audi A6 and the other bought himself the VW Polo. I had heard about the VW takeover of the Czech automobile manufacturer Skoda and made enquiries about the Octavia that looked rather like the VW Passat but offered for sale at a fraction of the cost but still with benefit of that VAG diesel engine.

I looked in local newspaper as well as online on autotrader.co.uk and found that not as many Skodas were being offered for sale secondhand, no bad sign when looking for a car you wished to keep for sometime. From 2001 to 2008 I managed to wear out my Ford Focus 1800 petrol and as my annual mileage exceeded the 12000-mile service interval and the service light came on during the year in spite of annual serving - I decided after 7 years and 115,000 miles it was time to get something with a longer service interval. I noticed that some advertisements for the Skoda Octavia diesel reported the service interval to be 2 years.

I enquired by telephone at a local Skoda Garage about these reported running costs and he confirmed that the service interval could be set to 10,000 mile/ Annual service for £80. Alternatively you could select as I did, a variable service interval indicated by a service light on the car's instrument panel and the exact mileage was determined by how hard the car had been driven, but on average he quoted that it was around 17,000 miles with easily exceeded my annual mileage, after which the car is placed on a VAG diagnostic machine for £164. The Skoda Service manual recommended that if the service light does not light after two years then take it in for a service so as not to invalidate the 3-year warranty. Which also comes with 3 years free RAC membership to take you to your car's first MOT.

Once I had decided I wanted to buy a brand new Skoda Octavia Estate car for March 2008, I looked in the new car search tab of the Autotrader.co.uk and it returned the best prices for a company named Autofinder.ltd.uk - a UK-based car reseller that secures cars from 20 major manufacturers including Skoda with fantastic reductions. The prices were so competitive that instead of the basic 140 bhp 2.0 diesel, I decided upon the sporty 6-gear manual 170 bhp VRS estate in Race Blue with 18-inch Zenith alloys. All for an on the road price of £15,890 that included the first years Road Fund License, and three years RAC membership. One thing I spent some of the money I saved on the purchase price was Chip Shield - a plastic protective film apples to the front of the car to almost eliminate stone chips to the paintwork - at a worthwhile cost of £400. The day after I purchased the car I had to pass a gritting lorry - and it was not to be my only one either - and the car's paintwork still has no chips!

After 11 and a half months and 14,000 miles, the only maintenance required has been a small oil top-up once - this car still makes me smile every day just knowing I own a car this nice. The onboard computer does more against speeding than any amount of speed cameras by continuously displaying the current miles per gallon you are getting - a very effective way of making you ease off the accelerator pedal in order to consistently get 52 miles per gallon but still giving you the opportunity to swiftly and safely pass lorries by unleashing the power of the beast for short periods then easing off and get back to working on increasing the miles per gallon figure. The day I purchased the Octavia I followed a blue VW Passat and was amazed just how similar the two body shapes were.

This Skoda Octavia represents not only great value for money but is also a genuine prestige-class quality automobile that I am still proud to own.

Summary: A comfortable quality people's car with a German pedigree

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