My new Octavia vRS
Discussion
Couple of weeks into ownership now and I have to say I'm absolutely chuffed with it. 245hp petrol DSG.
It was ordered in late October - a staggering 30 week lead time. Funnily enough I hadn't even seen a new vRS in the metal before it arrived, let alone diven one. But as a motoring journo I've driven every other VWG car from the new Leon to the Mk8 Golf GTi and having had a previous generation vRS I was pretty sure I was going to like it.
First, some pics:
Having had a Mk8 Golf GTi press car for a couple of weeks in March I was really worried - the infotainment screen that controls everything was an absolute nightmare - slow, laggy, awful to use along with the stupid touch slider thing below it, and the steering wheel buttons the same.
Well thankfully as ever, Skoda do things better. The climate controls are permanently at the bottom of the screen, there are very nice proper tactile buttons on the wheel and you can turn off Start/Stop very quickly as there are a couple more buttons on the dash.
Coming from a Leon Cupra 290 it's obviously slower, but this is a much less frenetic car. Still quick enough when you want it to be though. Handling is better than the Golf for me, it knows its role as a fast cruiser rather than a b-road basher.
Biggest issue I have is the awful enhanced sound in the cabin - in normal mode it's pretty intrusive and in Sport it's really loud. It's just really silly, sounds like a bad recording of a big V8 engined car. Will dig into the menus and see if I can turn it down/off.
Overall, bloody happy though.
It was ordered in late October - a staggering 30 week lead time. Funnily enough I hadn't even seen a new vRS in the metal before it arrived, let alone diven one. But as a motoring journo I've driven every other VWG car from the new Leon to the Mk8 Golf GTi and having had a previous generation vRS I was pretty sure I was going to like it.
First, some pics:
Having had a Mk8 Golf GTi press car for a couple of weeks in March I was really worried - the infotainment screen that controls everything was an absolute nightmare - slow, laggy, awful to use along with the stupid touch slider thing below it, and the steering wheel buttons the same.
Well thankfully as ever, Skoda do things better. The climate controls are permanently at the bottom of the screen, there are very nice proper tactile buttons on the wheel and you can turn off Start/Stop very quickly as there are a couple more buttons on the dash.
Coming from a Leon Cupra 290 it's obviously slower, but this is a much less frenetic car. Still quick enough when you want it to be though. Handling is better than the Golf for me, it knows its role as a fast cruiser rather than a b-road basher.
Biggest issue I have is the awful enhanced sound in the cabin - in normal mode it's pretty intrusive and in Sport it's really loud. It's just really silly, sounds like a bad recording of a big V8 engined car. Will dig into the menus and see if I can turn it down/off.
Overall, bloody happy though.
selwonk said:
I've got a metallic silver estate arriving in a couple of weeks. It will be my second vRS. Is the new LSD noticeable? My only complaint when I had the last one was the inability to put the power down to the front left which resulted in axle tramp.
Not had any wet weather to test it yet, but doesn’t seem too bad. My previous Cupra 290 was absolutely dreadful for it though, so anything is going to feel better 
Placed an order for a petrol manual estate 2 weeks ago ... just a 25 week order time to survive! Replacing an A4 V6 diesel Quattro which has been reliable, but oh so risk averse. Very excited to get back in control of my driving again and with more space too. DSG will not be missed at all!
blank said:
Looks great. I have an estate on order to replace a Leon Cupra. Shame it's 2wd and "only" 245PS but I'm still looking forward to it.
Do you have any idea what the service schedule is? I can't find it online. I know the oil changes will be variable but things like DSG oil...
Ha, I came out of a Cupra 290 lease. That was FWD too, but definitely felt a lot quicker. The shove in 3rd was incredible. Do you have any idea what the service schedule is? I can't find it online. I know the oil changes will be variable but things like DSG oil...
When it gets going the vRS is still mighty quick, but it’s certainly a fair bit more relaxed to drive.
No idea on servicing, it’ll tell me when I need to 😁
Beefmeister said:
Couple of weeks into ownership now and I have to say I'm absolutely chuffed with it. 245hp petrol DSG.
Good. I have the 150 BHP petrol DSG. Nice car, but I have
noticed a couple of quirks:
1. Normal operation Stop-start light is off. Switch S-S off, and
the light comes on. Backwards logic ?
2. I've still yet to find out how to permanently switch off S-S.
Dealer twiddle possibly ? For my money, they could remove the kit.
3. With the bonnet in it's normal location, you can't lift
the windscreen wipers, so no inspection or cleaning. I think
I'll have to lift the bonnet to clean the WW.
Minor quibbles.
50+ mpg means I don't visit local garages anywhere
near as much and the bank manager is back on speaking terms with me.
dcb said:
Good.
I have the 150 BHP petrol DSG. Nice car, but I have
noticed a couple of quirks:
1. Normal operation Stop-start light is off. Switch S-S off, and
the light comes on. Backwards logic ?
Yes this is normal - the light is to tell you the standard feature is disabled, like traction control
2. I've still yet to find out how to permanently switch off S-S.
Dealer twiddle possibly ? For my money, they could remove the kit.
You can’t officially - it’s there to ensure the car meets the emissions regs. However someone with VCDS will likely to be able to turn it off (it can be done on older VW group models so assume the latest cars are the same)
3. With the bonnet in it's normal location, you can't lift
the windscreen wipers, so no inspection or cleaning. I think
I'll have to lift the bonnet to clean the WW.
You need to put the wipers into service mode. Turn the ignition on (not the engine) then off again. Then press and hold the wiper stalk down until the wipers move and they should stop at the top
Minor quibbles.
50+ mpg means I don't visit local garages anywhere
near as much and the bank manager is back on speaking terms with me.
See the bold - hopefully this helps you out.I have the 150 BHP petrol DSG. Nice car, but I have
noticed a couple of quirks:
1. Normal operation Stop-start light is off. Switch S-S off, and
the light comes on. Backwards logic ?
Yes this is normal - the light is to tell you the standard feature is disabled, like traction control
2. I've still yet to find out how to permanently switch off S-S.
Dealer twiddle possibly ? For my money, they could remove the kit.
You can’t officially - it’s there to ensure the car meets the emissions regs. However someone with VCDS will likely to be able to turn it off (it can be done on older VW group models so assume the latest cars are the same)
3. With the bonnet in it's normal location, you can't lift
the windscreen wipers, so no inspection or cleaning. I think
I'll have to lift the bonnet to clean the WW.
You need to put the wipers into service mode. Turn the ignition on (not the engine) then off again. Then press and hold the wiper stalk down until the wipers move and they should stop at the top
Minor quibbles.
50+ mpg means I don't visit local garages anywhere
near as much and the bank manager is back on speaking terms with me.
SteBrown91 said:
See the bold - hopefully this helps you out.
Thanks for that, although a "service mode" on something as trivial aswindscreen wipers does make my teeth itch ;->
Mind you, you can see why they have done it - a lot of the wiper mechanism
is tucked outside the main airflow, thus helping the great god of MPG.
Another minor grumble:
When flashing up messages on the main screen, do it for more that 0.1 seconds,
to give the driver time to read it.
Something about "Warning: Workshop ..." doesn't stay on the screen
long enough to read the sentence of text. Poor design.
Presumably there is somewhere that these messages are logged ?
Maybe I can read them without getting a code reader ?
When flashing up messages on the main screen, do it for more that 0.1 seconds,
to give the driver time to read it.
Something about "Warning: Workshop ..." doesn't stay on the screen
long enough to read the sentence of text. Poor design.
Presumably there is somewhere that these messages are logged ?
Maybe I can read them without getting a code reader ?
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