Skoda Octavia [2001-2010] User Reviews

after using it for 6months and 10000 kms i find this car to be the fastest in terms of response, handling speed and mileage.

 max i did was 210 kmph and normally i do 140-150 kmph ( no loss of confidence) unless you find a more powerful car overtaking you and till date no one has. i wonder why the only competion i get on highways are skoda owners only

fuel economy (diesel)is 6.5-7 lts for every 100 kms on high ways at 100-140 speed.this is a auto tranmission mind you.

in the city 7-8 lts at start stop start traffic in mumbai.

oh i forgot the difference between sales and service from the dealer JMD is huge.Sales ,the guys need to know more about the products they sell still full marks to them.

the service is awfull . the guys dont know what they are doing, ask them anything technical or report them about any problem they would negate as if the problem dont exist.this is after the first service.

skoda.... are you hearing

over all superb car to own show to your envious friends

 

fuel economy, handling,auto transmissionless leg room for co driver

the best performance package you can get at 16 lakhs.a real drivers car.turbo can be remapped to do upto 240 bhp with free flow exhaust costing around 47k at PETEs.i even managed to nail a C200 kompressor on the highway.poor guy was struggling to catch me.
turbo swoooooooooshhhh no competition on the highwayrear leg room

very good sports sedan. well worth every penny. extremely silent & smooth engine. It dosent get any better than this.Amazing pick up....the turbo sounds great....great braking....efficient handlingfuel economy....less leg room at the back.

I have the Skoda Octavia 1.9 for the last 4 years.I love the car but hate some things in it.

PROS

01)The Car has amazing fuel economy,gives 15 to 18 in the city & 20 to even 25 on the highway if you drive properly.

02)Is a solid vehicle handles well on speed.

03)Great looks resembles a BMW.

04)Performance & pickup is excellent

CONS

01)God help you if you have even a minor accident with this car,no no the car is very safe but the repair bill will make you wish that you should have died !!

02)The Spares are are not costly they are EXHORBITANT. One side view mirror 8000/ Suspension repair 32,000/- Rear Windscreen 9000/- Front Headlight 10,000/-

03)I had a minor accident the front right fender was changed,The part of bonnet dented painted,1 headlight changed & front bumper repaired.The bill 51,000/-

04)The rear seat is cramped,not ergonomical at all,instead take consolation in the fact that the boot is like a footbal field enormous!! Whoever has heard of the philosphy of making the boot bigger than the interiors (Well almost!!)

05) The Car drives very well great pickup but the brakes leaves a lot to be desired. Even low end cars like Honda City & Ford Ikon have better brakes!!

Summary: The Car is Good but has its disadvantages however difficult to find another comparable alternative in this class!!

Amazing fuel economy,Fantastic pickupCramped rear seat,Exhorbitant Spares,Poor Brakes,Very Bad Dealers

Heres a review after 12 years The car was bought in 2008 its the silver rather a metallic silver colour It has been 10years since we bought it and i m still proud to have an amazing car like the skoda octavia Beyond the car being manufactured in czech Republic the home of skoda, its perfectly adaptive on thE indian roads. IN these 10years out car has never broken down. Here a question comes to many of their minds that the roads might have been good or he just have had beem lucky. Nope we have driven the car on the konkan roads infact our first trip was to tarkarli Malvan, Sindhudurg that also in the monsoons The car outperformed amazingly with those bilstein suspensions giving us a cushion ride With the stock tires and a full tank. EVERYONE in our family loves travelling and so have been explored the entire konkan, Goa by road all the ghats, Kolhapur, Mahabaleshwar The car has never been a disappointment. I m proud to say in 10years the car is driven 97000kms completely intact with stock original. Parts No Modifications Just changed the tyres at 53000kms Yeh and also the car has standard interiors U can wrap that better half of the dashboard to look premium. There are lot new cars at the moment in the market but this beast still is a tough competition to the new generation cars. Its speed, Torque, House power is still appreciating till date, and the superior Build quality. I wont say the car is just unbreakable But depends on the driver as well Yeah the authorised service centers charge u hefty lot more but the problem persists. So try an aftermarket service station the saves alot on your pocket with the genieune parts.

Exterior Simply amazing design. You see this car from beauti prospective while designers has looked from engineering prospective. If you don't belive me, simply stand at any side of car and look at that area and try to justify with aerodynamics you will understand the reason of that curve or flat body section. I couldn't find any exterior body section that is made for beauty its just engineering beauty is accidental :)

Ok. I think you still don't believe me. I know, lets see in detail this car was desinged in late 2000 and the same bodyline were till 2005 I believe. So old isn't it ok now lets compair with cars from 2014/15 a car model from 2014 that is just inspired by Skoda Octi 1.9 that is Maruti Ciaz :) what I told Ciaz yes its Ciaz. My close review of Ciaz bodyline and its fitment are very identical to Octy and that is just well justify. If something is simply amazing, why to rework. That is what Maruti engineers have done. Octi bodyline is piece of engineering.

And guss, maruti couldn't give body metel that Octi is build of. Yes the steel engineering known as german steel. Ok you again feel I am mad for Octi take a fact. I had a hexablade in my rear trunk below carpet. Once I was cleaning the car and found completly junked & melted hexablad on trunk surface. I was hurt becuase I knew its not only hexablade but that must have melted by my car body below it. So I thought lets clearn and go for fix. I cleaned and to my surprise! there were no single rust on car body. Hexablade were looking like my car body had eaten it :)

Second fact I had rear spoiler, previous owner of car had fitted it. It was loose so I went to denter to fix it. When the mechanic open the spiler he found its one of tightening nut was rusted and broken and there was mud stuck in between spoiler and body. I crossed my fingers due to rust expected there :) wow only mud no rust.

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) Ok, interior. To be honest, best quality meterial is used across inside. Sun is bad for car interiors, but not true for Octi. It simply doesn't care about sun. Ok, lets fact. I had mobile holder and its base was stick on dash. One summer day melted it, dash was spotless. :0

But, dash design is simply not Indian test. its different and I wish to have it different. Back sheat is not well designed. Seems like this car is made for just driver and its copassanger, definitly not for regular back seat copassanger.

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox What to talk about this engine, we all know people from Europe has used this car for 7 to 9 lacks KM, I dont know how they drove this KM but yes car took it easy. I can't show confidence in this simply because no car in India(whether its Indian or International)is found to be have this mileage. So I just count max 3 lacks KM is what I would be able to drive this with all my effort.

Wait I have fact in this also. Due to some reason (my experiments :0) I broke injector and half part was stuck in head unit. I and my machanic both tried all way to take out the broken part but was failed, we decided to open head ( we hadn't anyother way :0) so we open the head hell suprises when opening this simple engine(sorry so simple engine) but again the nuts holding the head were like magic steel stretchable nut any steel would have been broken with the force we used while opening those nuts but guess they were like new after opening ( I read a lot before opening head and while whole repair process, many suggested to replace the nuts but we decided to reuse it and we were correct).

My machenic with his long experience said now we have to take head on leathe but wait he said what the heck it this, after 1 lacks KM its head doesn't have hearline spot to clean on leath :) no need to leath. WOW, we asked to bring cold drinks and just set for sometime with happy and suprise talks of how other cars get these cut in head cylinder after even 50K KM.

I asked him to check bearings by opening oil tub from below engine, again happy talk. Crank bearing were intect, like new. Turbo was smooth and no big finding except carbon buildup and very minor bearing cut. we know this will be compensated by engine oil once it will go into turbo. Now we have facts to support 7 to 9 lacks KM life though I still can't digest this. Yes. 

Ride Quality & Handling Stable, steady and ready to take high speed, but be careful while you take 100+, car will feel easy but mind it its just very high speed and anything coming your way will be catastrophic with its 3 start safety rating thoguh I feel its 5 start on safety but I wont challege ancap data.

Final Words As Final word, I want to only talk about what others are really bothered its maintainance cost.

I would say its cheapest to maintain than tata sedan. What !   I said cheaper than tata. YES.

What all you need is very 1- Reasonable part price and 2 - Road side mechanic.

1 - Reasonable part price - First try to check with Chedda Motors in Opera house, Mumbai. They are geniune on price dont ever ask original as word just ask imported part will work. Generally parts are from Vika which is Chinese but with good quality, Volio from France, Bosch or theres migh be there If you can reach to Opera house just try with different shops. Try bargain, since its old model car shopkippers just take on right price and infact they take bargain also. As a fact, once my alternator broke and I got quoted 12000 but managed to 6000/- only.

2 - Road side mechanic - Anyone can repair this car, its so simple to repair but wait dont waste time reparing bad parts I was never successful reparing any gone part so just replace it and save time and frustration. And great if you can see you tube video on that raparing you will get one video on your work for sure repair video on Skoda Octi or VW golf are same both very similar.

Go to machanic with your knowledge of youtube video and be open in talk while he repairs but let him take lead. But wait, I am always open to go to Skoda service station in case of mess :) They will fix my mess. Though I never been to them, I just took all on me and my mechanic.

Again, its super simple to repair and repairing skill of common car works so let your mechanic feel comfortable while reparing your car Just instruct him, not to fix broken part or gone part Give him new part from step 1 above or else he will do what they are famous to do CHEAT :)

Areas of improvement Skoda should have supplied original parts in market open sell and not have discoutinued this model.

My experience with Skoda service station is that parts are not expensive but labor is anyway I dont go they anymore. 10K or their charge for lower arm bushing is 2K when I do it outside that is cheaper than Tata Sendan that is 2.5K outside. :)

Happy owning Skoda Octi 1.9 TDI.

Bobby.

EverythingAll features those came after this car was designed and build

Hi,

My 2008 1.9 L Diesel Octavia Rider has been sparingly used - 35K kms done in 9 years.

All of a sudden, on a drive in Bangalore, it spluttered with heavy emission of white fumes, & engine vibration & noise. The car had no previous history of these symptoms. (Previously, it has driven smoothly & powerfully with the only minor issues being need to change brake pad, oils etc).

Now doing it's time in a Service station, the suspicion around faulty fuel injector, to issues around the engine are being investigated.

Another issue encountered is rodent biting through wires in the bonnet - that has been a recurring issue - this has led to electricals  - A/c, indicators not working as a result.

Can anyone help with their similar experience with Skoda Octavia & how they resolved this issue. Who is the best mechanic to help in this situation.

Overall, the Skoda ASS seem inconsiderate - when it comes to trying to resolve this issue methodically & efficiently - they're money minded & want to maximise their bom estimate.

Thanks,

Vivek.

Smooth & powerfulPoor, expensive after-sales service

I have been using octavia rider since 4 years.

Robust machine, excellent mileage.

It is dream car for highway users because of very good safety features & mileage.

Bit heavy for city use.

But always check the reputation of dealer in your city.As aftersales  service is utmost important for your peace of mind.

Very good fuel economy around 20 to 25 Km / L in diesel on highways, Feels like you are in a vaultLess leg room in the rear, Poor & irresponsible service back up

Exterior Very outdated by current standards, in fact it feels like a 10-15 year old design platform of a VW Jetta, reskinned by Skoda and partly build in India. (VW may not be known to be as reliable when compared to better Japaneese marques, as per JD Power and a majority customer surveys undertaken in N America over the last decade!!).

 

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) Its nice with leather, but cabin leaked twice!

 

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox Nice fuel economy but maintenance costs far outweight fuel savings!

 

Ride Quality & Handling Comfortable on highways but tireing to drive in city!! Does not like changing direction easily and very hard ride for certain Indian road conditions!

 

Final Words I have lucikily got rid of mine in time and bought a Toyota Corola for regular use, with which I am very very happy compared to the Skoda!

Skoda makes the Octavia very hard to love!!

 

Areas of improvement Spare costs, service attitude and improve the build quility!!

 

Fuel economy!Service, poor but heavy build, bad electricals, leeky,