New Octavia vRS
Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 11:10 am
My vRS is in for a 40k service today and I was pleasantly surprised to be given a brand new freshly PDI'd one as a loaner, instead of the usual poverty spec Fabia.
This one is a diesel DSG saloon and were it not for the missing radar cruise control and not being an estate would be identical in spec to my own.
Things I immediately liked:
Black door mirrors, set it off nicely.
Alcantara instead of leather seats in a revised pattern and design are a bit nicer, although they feel the same to sit in.
Larger touch-screen display (NAV sd-card was missing so dunno if this is the upgraded nav or not), if you can overlook it's fingerprint central.
DSG gearbox now a 7-speed instead of 6. I guess this is the same box as the petrol one.
Sport driving mode calibration massively improved. My car is un-driveable in Sport mode unless you switch the gearbox back to normal, as it will select the lowest gear possible regardless of anything. You sound like an 85 year old practicing ritual clutch abuse, and it will not select 6th unless you're doing highly illegal speeds. This is the one thing that annoys me about my own car because I like the sharper throttle response but that goes away if you select normal or manual gearbox. Anyway, this is 100% better in every way. Will happily go into 7th at 55 ish and just goes down the gears more readily if you give it some throttle. Like a lot.
Things which I don't like:
It does not remember the driving mode you were in. Mine goes into sport and just stays there, and even remembers the gearbox was left in normal. This went back to normal mode when I stopped for fuel. This would annoy me disproportionately. Possibly it's curable in settings or VAGCOM.
Dashboard buttons have a shiny surround, which is too reflective and somehow looks cheaper.
The OE tyres are still horrendously noisy. I binned mine at 200 miles for Eagle F1s which made a huge difference.
The speedo/rev dials have been tarted up a bit, and have too much colour. Anyone with any sense would pay the £400 for the full led display anyway which does away with all that.
Those headlights. I'm erring on the side of don't like, with that funny split with body coloured metal between. More acceptable on a black car I think. Looks even more odd with the four DRLs on along the bottom of each segment.
To drive, other than the improved gearbox behavior, it felt identical to my car. This is a good thing, I like the way my car drives *a lot*.
So would I swap mine for one? Well, if it was a petrol, blue or black and an estate, and with a couple of options (led display, active cruise), I'd be very tempted. But it's 10 grand more expensive now than when I bought mine 3 years ago (before haggling, natch). That's like, a whole extra motorbike. So probably not. If they did another 0% finance deal though I'd give it some serious thought.
This one is a diesel DSG saloon and were it not for the missing radar cruise control and not being an estate would be identical in spec to my own.
Things I immediately liked:
Black door mirrors, set it off nicely.
Alcantara instead of leather seats in a revised pattern and design are a bit nicer, although they feel the same to sit in.
Larger touch-screen display (NAV sd-card was missing so dunno if this is the upgraded nav or not), if you can overlook it's fingerprint central.
DSG gearbox now a 7-speed instead of 6. I guess this is the same box as the petrol one.
Sport driving mode calibration massively improved. My car is un-driveable in Sport mode unless you switch the gearbox back to normal, as it will select the lowest gear possible regardless of anything. You sound like an 85 year old practicing ritual clutch abuse, and it will not select 6th unless you're doing highly illegal speeds. This is the one thing that annoys me about my own car because I like the sharper throttle response but that goes away if you select normal or manual gearbox. Anyway, this is 100% better in every way. Will happily go into 7th at 55 ish and just goes down the gears more readily if you give it some throttle. Like a lot.
Things which I don't like:
It does not remember the driving mode you were in. Mine goes into sport and just stays there, and even remembers the gearbox was left in normal. This went back to normal mode when I stopped for fuel. This would annoy me disproportionately. Possibly it's curable in settings or VAGCOM.
Dashboard buttons have a shiny surround, which is too reflective and somehow looks cheaper.
The OE tyres are still horrendously noisy. I binned mine at 200 miles for Eagle F1s which made a huge difference.
The speedo/rev dials have been tarted up a bit, and have too much colour. Anyone with any sense would pay the £400 for the full led display anyway which does away with all that.
Those headlights. I'm erring on the side of don't like, with that funny split with body coloured metal between. More acceptable on a black car I think. Looks even more odd with the four DRLs on along the bottom of each segment.
To drive, other than the improved gearbox behavior, it felt identical to my car. This is a good thing, I like the way my car drives *a lot*.
So would I swap mine for one? Well, if it was a petrol, blue or black and an estate, and with a couple of options (led display, active cruise), I'd be very tempted. But it's 10 grand more expensive now than when I bought mine 3 years ago (before haggling, natch). That's like, a whole extra motorbike. So probably not. If they did another 0% finance deal though I'd give it some serious thought.
