Sharing my experience with my Octavia -
I own an Octavia 1.8 TSI since jan 2016. It is an amazing car to drive ; no doubt .

One fine day in July 2016 the car did not start and the reason being battery failure . Sent the car to service centre to get the battery replaced under warranty. Sometime in early 2017 the second battery too went . This time I did not go to service centre and instead got a new Exide battery with DIN 64 (I think). Car drove beautifully well but at times the sunroof used to rattle which I did not bother much . Car continued to drive beautifully.

One fine day in August 2017, the most feared message popped up - Gearbox Error. I was able to start the car but only the odd gears would engage (1-3-5). Drove to service centre , and after diagnosis it appeared it was the mechatronics failure and they got that replaced under warranty. Had dropped my car there for exactly 10 days. During this time I was given another Octavia as a loaner car. Once I got my car back, It again continued to drive beautifully.

Yet another one fine day I noticed colour change in the left DRL which had become pale and I ignored as that was not any showstopper. Later gradually the colour became orange and so did the right side DRL. It was then I decided to get that also replaced under warranty.

I have enjoyed driving Octavia till date, love the space, the engine note, the pull, quick gear shifts, handling on corners. For the price that one pays, Octavia is an excellent car to drive but this comes at cost . Cost being you live in fear of whether the car will break down again! Not sure if this is true for all German cars.

Other cars in this segment lack the soul. Overall I feel Octavia is the best in the segment if you are an enthusiast. If not, then any other car will do and you will have peace of mind.

Guys If You Remember The Then Newly Launched Octavia 2014 came with non-led taillights , Which soon received a minor update of taillights to led ones Has Anyone replaced it with the led one's if so at what cost?

Just realized that my Octavia doesn't have a dedicated channel to slide the parcel tray as mentioned in the official review:

"If the parcel shelf gets in the way of fitting some bags in, just snap it off and slide it into the dedicated channel"

Picture from TBHP review:

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Pictures of my Octavia. I could not physically check how my parcel tray slides down etc as I am travelling.

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Looks like it is there. Look at the 3rd image, there is a small groove just above the red hook.

adi_petrolhead is your man:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post3704253

2nd Service Update

The car completed 29400km last week and went for the second scheduled service. As the workshop at Noida shut, i had to send it to Jai Auto in Gurgaon close to my work place.

Had absolutely zero issues to report. The car has the 4 year service pack so the actual service bill was a big fat Zero!

Got the tires rotated, balanced and aligned from the workshop itself. Paid 2k for it inclusive of all taxes. Was pleasantly surprised that the SA got the 3M interior cleaning done as goodwill gesture. Interiors came back looking factory fresh.

The battery was showing signs of weakness in the third week of May- so i have replaced that with a similar spec Amaron. Apart from that, nothing to report!

There is marked difference in Skoda after sales attitude and its showing. Hope it remains this way. In the meanwhile, my wait for the Kodiaq petrol continues!

Rohan

Good to hear, Rohan!

What were these signs of weakness in the battery? My OEM was replaced under warranty during the first service itself and the replaced one is now roughly 18 months old. Am a bit nervous about it as we have a couple of long overnight drives coming up.

Any signs I can look out for?

Keep your eye out for these two signs:

- The windows were rolling up/down a little slower than usual
- There was a slight hesitation while cranking the car irrespective of the time of the day. i caught the instrument cluster lights flickering and that confirmed it for me.

Rohan

Providing an update since the matter is finally closed now.

After several follow-ups, finally I was told the water pump has arrived on May 29th evening and I left my car at the service center on May 30th and also asked them to do the 4th year paid service since it was also due in 2 weeks. The servicing and water pump replacement was done and I got my car back on June 1 evening. When I went to take delivery I was told the invoice was not ready since the warranty claim was pending but that I could take my car after paying the estimated amount and said they will refund any excess later in a few days.

After many follow-ups and reminders that my warranty was expiring June 15th, on June 14th I was told the invoice is ready. When I went there and got the invoice I noticed the discounts for the pre-monsoon campaign was not applied (even though they had told me I will get it automatically when I gave the vehicle for the servicing and repairs). They re-opened the job card again and said they will rectify it within a couple of days.

On June 20th when I called I was told it is ready and that I can collect the refund amount. When I went there today I was presented the same invoice without the discount and was told they could not give the discount since the warranty claim was still pending and since the job card is not closed during the campaign period. They offered a free car wash on my next visit in lieu of that. Arguing that the servicing was done during the campaign period and that I want the discount to be refunded did not help.

Overall am not very happy with the time taken and the way things are handled - too much time to confirm diagnosis, too long for part to arrive and irrational way of billing leading to me losing out on the discount that I should have received and multiple unnecessary visits to the service center.

The 4th year/60000kms service cost calculator for the Octavia 2.0 TDI CR AT shows ATF 5.5 liters and ATF filter being changed. When I got the invoice for the 4th year service I noticed that these had not been replaced. When asked about it, the service manager advised that since my car had run only around 30,000 kms they had not done it even though it was 4 years. I was advised that I can wait at least another year before I get them replaced given my usage, and it is a wasted expense if done this early.

Do any of you have any thoughts on this?

Thanks.

Another new day, another new discovery!

My coolant issues have been resolved thanks to BHPian Behemoth's mail ID of Mr. Dixit. That set the ball rolling.
In the meanwhile, my HU has stopped working, and parts have supposedly been ordered.

My car shall go into service next week. There's another peculiar issue i want to iron out.

There's paint peeling off from my hood I suppose. The spot mark shown in the picture below was 1/10th it's size at around Sept 17.
The Skoda guys are claiming it to be some liquid dropping damaging the hood. However, my local car polisher is stating that it's due to excessive heat from the engine.

My car only travels on Kolkata city roads, never more than an hour at a stretch, and have never faced any heat related error nor I believe the car's temp. crosses the halfway mark in the instrument cluster.

Any suggestion?

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You are welcome.

On the paint peeling, if it is due to internal paint weakness, you will tend to see a bubble form (due to failure of primer coat) and then the paint will peel away in a film type layer.

If it is due to external factors, like acid contact or abrasion, the effect will be more abrasive.

If the paint peel area is increasing, you may need to get the whole bonnet repainted asap, as otherwise corrosion may start (since it is already monsoon). Though Monsoon is not a good time to get repainting done as it is very difficult to dry the paint and also maintain a low humidity environment during the painting process.

You could also wait till the monsoon is over and get it done when the weather is more conducive for a better painting job.

Hi guys. Bought a preowned octavia diesel dsg last week. Trouble started in the 1st week of ownership itself. The problem is whenever i try to drive hard with aggressive upshifts and downshifts, i get a glowplug flashing light and the car goes into limp mode. After restarting everything is fine. Car is 2yr old and 25k kms run and under extended warranty. Any leads on what could have gone wrong.

Visit the nearest Skoda Workshop and ask them to run test scan using VAS machine.

Error would be recorded in ECU which scan will put forward.

Let us know what issue is thrown up after the scan.

I got it checked with my friends scanner. It shows oil pressure switch malfunction. Is this covered under warranty? Or should i try cleaning it first before going to the skoda service center. The car was serviced at 24k kms and now stands at 27k. Any specific reason for the failure or its just a one-off incident.