2011 Skoda Octavia Scout (No, I'd never heard of one too)
Discussion
I'm sure this will sound quite normal to the PH fold; we were looking for a new car for my partner, who wanted another 4x4. She's a big LR fan (old school stuff) and owned a Disco 2. We were considering a number of different cars so I did what anyone would do and punched 2k into Auto trader and set transmission to 4x4.
After scrolling through the usual suspects I noticed there were two cars listed under Skoda. I assumed it was most likely be a few cheap yeti's, and I was half right.
Sat under a very ropy and 230k mile Yeti sat this Octavia.
A scout. An Octavia Scout. Have you ever heard of one? I admit I never had. Now I worked for VW for about 11 years so I know them fairly well, and I've had VAG stuff for daily drivers for years.
I turned to Google and quickly found out the Scout is Skoda's version of Audi's all road. It came with a metal undertray in place of the usual plastic one, underbody protection down both sides to protect the brake and fuel lines, and rear protection too. It has unique front and rear bumpers, side skirts, wheel arches, wheels and few other bits and pieces.
The interior is unique and "hard wearing" according to Skoda. What is cool though its SO WELL THOUGHT OUT. There are cup holders everywhere, three cubby holes in the dash, cubby holes in the seats, tie downs in the boot.
It also came well specced, with auto lights, wipers and auto dimming mirror, air conditioned glove box and centre arm rest, cruise control, and mine even came with a handy rubber boot matt.
Being a face-lift mk2 Octavia it has the gen 4 Haldex. I'm a huge fan of Haldex and think it's a great tool for on road and the occasional trip off it.
So, as you can tell it peaked my interest. At the same time I also came across a Freelander 2 for my partner which she absolutely loves, so I decided after a bit of man maths it would be financially better to swap into this from my then-current daily.
So cutting to the chase it was listed at a MUCH lower price than anything on the market. About half its retail value. The advert read well and the owner noticed the car was in limp mode. He had the codes read and was told it was an EGR fault, and on these they are a right PITA to change (read big bill).
We spoke on the phone and he sent over a load of videos and photos for me - a really nice chap. We came to an agreement on the price and I arranged for the car to be collected (it was over 200 miles away and I didn't fancy that trip in limp mode).
I got it home and it was even better than I expected; it came with full history and only two previous owners - the first being a Doctor who purchased it from new and had it maintained by the same Dealer he purchased it from for his ownership (10 years and 111,000 miles). I purchased it from the 2nd owner.
It also came with a spare set of steel wheels on winter tyres which was another added bonus.
Using my diagnostic stuff I ran output tests on various things and found the anti shudder valve was unresponsive. I unplugged it and no limp mode! So I bought a replacement and threw it on.
The second issue I've found is the haldex is a little unresponsive. It works, but logs a fault with the pressure valve so I'll need to look a little further into it, but for what it owes me it's still way under its value so I'm over the moon with it and a perfect partner to my high comp 205 Gti (that has its own thread on here)
After scrolling through the usual suspects I noticed there were two cars listed under Skoda. I assumed it was most likely be a few cheap yeti's, and I was half right.
Sat under a very ropy and 230k mile Yeti sat this Octavia.
A scout. An Octavia Scout. Have you ever heard of one? I admit I never had. Now I worked for VW for about 11 years so I know them fairly well, and I've had VAG stuff for daily drivers for years.
I turned to Google and quickly found out the Scout is Skoda's version of Audi's all road. It came with a metal undertray in place of the usual plastic one, underbody protection down both sides to protect the brake and fuel lines, and rear protection too. It has unique front and rear bumpers, side skirts, wheel arches, wheels and few other bits and pieces.
The interior is unique and "hard wearing" according to Skoda. What is cool though its SO WELL THOUGHT OUT. There are cup holders everywhere, three cubby holes in the dash, cubby holes in the seats, tie downs in the boot.
It also came well specced, with auto lights, wipers and auto dimming mirror, air conditioned glove box and centre arm rest, cruise control, and mine even came with a handy rubber boot matt.
Being a face-lift mk2 Octavia it has the gen 4 Haldex. I'm a huge fan of Haldex and think it's a great tool for on road and the occasional trip off it.
So, as you can tell it peaked my interest. At the same time I also came across a Freelander 2 for my partner which she absolutely loves, so I decided after a bit of man maths it would be financially better to swap into this from my then-current daily.
So cutting to the chase it was listed at a MUCH lower price than anything on the market. About half its retail value. The advert read well and the owner noticed the car was in limp mode. He had the codes read and was told it was an EGR fault, and on these they are a right PITA to change (read big bill).
We spoke on the phone and he sent over a load of videos and photos for me - a really nice chap. We came to an agreement on the price and I arranged for the car to be collected (it was over 200 miles away and I didn't fancy that trip in limp mode).
I got it home and it was even better than I expected; it came with full history and only two previous owners - the first being a Doctor who purchased it from new and had it maintained by the same Dealer he purchased it from for his ownership (10 years and 111,000 miles). I purchased it from the 2nd owner.
It also came with a spare set of steel wheels on winter tyres which was another added bonus.
Using my diagnostic stuff I ran output tests on various things and found the anti shudder valve was unresponsive. I unplugged it and no limp mode! So I bought a replacement and threw it on.
The second issue I've found is the haldex is a little unresponsive. It works, but logs a fault with the pressure valve so I'll need to look a little further into it, but for what it owes me it's still way under its value so I'm over the moon with it and a perfect partner to my high comp 205 Gti (that has its own thread on here)
Yes, they're very popular as Paramedic fast response vehicles (or were), the rarer one is a Golf Alltrack, that's on the mk7 platform. It's the EGR cooler than can cause problems, it can be emulated away or mapped out. They are nice engines the CR, that's a facelifted version, in a nice colour too, they're more often white. Enjoy.
Skyrocket21 said:
Yes, they're very popular as Paramedic fast response vehicles (or were), the rarer one is a Golf Alltrack, that's on the mk7 platform. It's the EGR cooler than can cause problems, it can be emulated away or mapped out. They are nice engines the CR, that's a facelifted version, in a nice colour too, they're more often white. Enjoy.
Yeah they all seem to be white - understandable for paramedics! Believe it or not its actually a silver. I SWEAR it's blue
On the face of it they are attractive cars but we were burned by having a used Scout with the 1.8 TSI engine (there was a petrol). At little more than 35k miles it was using almost as much oil as petrol and Skoda UK did not want anything to do with it. The plain Mk2 4x4 1.9 TDI we had before was a far better car.
We've paid £4k for our '10 Scout 2.0 diesel a couple of years ago. Apart from needing a new throttle pedal assembly (a new one on me, £200 fitted even at rural rates!) a couple of front suspension arm replacements (rural roads, £34 each fitted) and the odd electrical glitch (usually caused by a blackened fuse, £0 for a piece of sandpaper) it's played a blinder. The missis gives it a hard time round here too.
Chicken Chaser said:
Are the TSIs known for burning oil? I had a sniff around a 16plate 1.4TSI with only 40k on the other day (family so know it's genuine) and it was half full on the dip. Sounded rattly too. I thought they were pretty well regarded.
Some of them are. When I looked into it there was a hoo-har in California over Audi TSIs burning oil at eye-watering rates. I think the 1.8 that found its way into our Scout came from an Audi line but at the time Skoda would have been selling so few petrols in the UK that I reckon they chose to ignore it citing that one litre every 250 miles was within their tolerances. Seems a bit unusual.Anyway, it had the makings of a lovely car but soon became a bit of a brick.
We bought a 2010 1.8tsi new and loved it in fact I would probably still have it now !
When new the 1.8 was a lovely engine but like others have said it was a time bomb.
It had started to use oil and failing chain tensioners meant you had to have them changed or faced a scrap engine.
I chopped it in 2015 for a 280 Superb but I’ve never been so sad to see a car go.
Still have the Superb.
When new the 1.8 was a lovely engine but like others have said it was a time bomb.
It had started to use oil and failing chain tensioners meant you had to have them changed or faced a scrap engine.
I chopped it in 2015 for a 280 Superb but I’ve never been so sad to see a car go.
Still have the Superb.
I ran a 2005 Octavia 4x4 estate with the 2.0 FSI petrol engine for nearly six years and 90k as a daily driver - part ex'd it against a new VRS TDI when the 4x4 was on 163k- I still have the VRS 7 years and 110k later.
The 4x4 was basically a Scout without the plastic trim and sump guard. It was a fantastic family car and performed very well in snow - on more than one occasion it was one of the only cars that could get in or out of our village - I used it to go to the shop in the next village for groceries for the pensioners.
The 4x4 was basically a Scout without the plastic trim and sump guard. It was a fantastic family car and performed very well in snow - on more than one occasion it was one of the only cars that could get in or out of our village - I used it to go to the shop in the next village for groceries for the pensioners.
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