Ownership Verified: My sort-of german Estate

Perc

Very Odd Looking Vehicular Object
Joined
Mar 31, 2008
Messages
6,772
Location
Finland
Car(s)
Passat Alltrack
I hadn?t planned to change cars again this early, but suddenly it happens. After three Volvos I was ready for something new, lighter and less thirsty. I love dual clutch boxes, turbos, estates and I?ve always liked ?kodas. Seemed like a no-brainer then. :)

So, another grey wagon. A different shade of gray from the last one though. :p It?s my first ever new-new car, a 2012 Octavia 1.4 TSI. It?s got quite a lot of kit in it too, for its class anyways. Turning xenon projectors, bluetooth, rain sensing wipers, parking sensors, dual zone climatronic and of course the 7-speed DSG box. Xenon and rain sensing wipers are two things I have coveted for quite some time. I was originally considering a diesel, but it doesn't make sense until about 20,000 km due to the road tax. An Octavia 2.0 TDI would be more than 500 euros a year to tax, while this one is about 80. :) I also didn't expect to ever buy a brand new car when a totally new model generation is waiting in the wings, but I've seen pics and it doesn't look like I'm missing much. The new Octavia will also be significantly larger, which I didn't really want this time around.

You can?t get away from the fact that the 1.4 TSI has some 90-odd horses and 120 newtons less than my previous car, but there's also about 0.3 tons less weight to worry about and way less drivetrain loss. The little turbocharged 4-pot has a very wide powerband and does a great job of moving the car along. During normal driving the engine almost never exceeds 2,000 rpm. The little guy inside the dashboard just swaps in cog after cog after cog and you don?t even notice unless you look down. :) I was expecting it to shift back down as soon as you try to accelerate, but it usually sticks to the gear and pulls sufficiently well even if it's puttering along like 1300 rpm.

DSG is almost?like driving a normal automatic - the shifter is a normal tiptronic thing with PRNDS and a manual +/- gate. The biggest difference is that you need to be a bit more careful when pulling away from a stop - it?s way easier to get accidental wheelspin when you don?t have a torque converter. You can also feel the ?little DSG guy? slipping the clutch for you when you take your foot off the brake. It also applies a bit of throttle while creeping to keep the engine from stalling.

The pre-facelift version of this car looks a bit strange, but I personally think the facelift could be called handsome, even. It certainly looks a lot more grown up than the Golf it?s based on. I prefer it to the slightly frumpy looking Superb as well. It?s still a Golf inside though - it?s plenty spacious enough but certainly no V70.

You can also tell it?s a lower-end brand within VAG - it doesn?t have any fancy LED arrangements on the outside, not even if you option it with xenon. The daytime running lights are simple 5-watt incandascent bulbs inside the foglight housings. I was also a bit surprised to find that there isn?t any sound insulation under the hood bonnet, and there?s a stick to hold it up instead of a spring or gas strut. The interior has hard plastic in places, but it seems well put together and typically ?german? in that the designers haven?t been allowed to have fun at work. :p Check the new Focus for a polar opposite.

I don?t really plan to mod it in any way, except that I have to do something about the mediocre high beam. I suspect this is a ?koda vs. VAG thing again, but the high beam is just a halogen bulb. The xenons don?t flip up like on VW?s. I was going to put in a pair of Philips Extreme bulbs today, but had to admit defeat on the drivers side. After reading the fine manual it turns out the entire headlight assembly pops out on a quickrelease so I?ll give it a shot tomorrow. I was originally going to put xenons in the highbeams, but there?s a box of electrics in the way where one needs to drill a 25mm hole to get some wiring out. The wiring for the highbeam bulb was also awfully thin, so I don?t really want to power xenon ballasts directly off of them. Not sure what I?ll do in the end.

You?ll have to excuse the crappy pic and boring backdrop - it was dark out already by the time I got the car. The dealer plate holder will be gone as soon as possible, along with the one on the back and the sticker on the rear glass.

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Edit: And verification via ID3. Didn't feel like posting my knob on the internet. :p

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The pic looks like it's out of a brochure. Very nice. I expect more pics tomorrow in daylight. :)
 
I love your proof pic :D
 
Goddamnit. Can't un-see. :lol:
 
I was just out in what passes for "daylight" on a gray November day, so here are some more pics. Again a boring backdrop, taken on a car wash parking lot. The weather isn't cooperating.

fram.jpg


bak.jpg


sidan.jpg


The interior is, like I said, pretty boring. Typically german low-end. The lack of sunlight and crappy camera (and photographer) doesn't really help either. :p

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I must say, the Philips ExtremeVision H1 bulbs was a noticeable upgrade over the standard (but brand new) Osrams it came with. I've tested every "extra powerful" version Philips has put out over the last 5-6 years, but I've always had H7 and the difference hasn't been particularly noticeable.




Swapping headlight bulbs is also a lot easier if you Read The FucFine Manual first. Turns out you just undo a plastic wingnut and tug on a metal lever to pop the entire headlight housing out. Complete access to everything.

I guess the hordes of angry owners of cars released around the turn of the century had taken effect by 2008 when this facelift came. The second generation Megane is horrible to swap bulbs on, for instance. As is the Mk4 Golf, if I'm not mistaken.
 
I love the engine, on the other hand. It's just 122hp but it pulls from low revs like an electric motor even.

The dashboard design as a whole isn't the greatest out there, but the facelift does *look* a bit nicer than the 2004 design. Something tells me they know that the switchgear design isn't really ideal, since symbols pop up in the radio display when you turn things on and off and change the temperature. I love that it has two "auto" settings though, Auto Low and Auto High. Auto High runs the fan slightly faster. Useful if you get in the car with wet clothes, etc.
 
Swapping headlight bulbs is also a lot easier if you Read The FucFine Manual first. Turns out you just undo a plastic wingnut and tug on a metal lever to pop the entire headlight housing out. Complete access to everything.

:nod: it's a piece of Czech cake. Looks weird when headlight-less though:



I love the engine, on the other hand. It's just 122hp but it pulls from low revs like an electric motor even.

:nod: It's a great deal more powerful than you expect from the peak power figure because a lot of power is available from low-down. The Astra is only 25% down on peak power and weighs about the same, but low down it feels like half the power.

 
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