My 2022 Skoda Octavia ownership review: Pros & cons after 20,000 km

I won’t shy away from admitting that it lacks muscle character from its predecessor, the MK3.

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It started post my marriage in 2022. I got a new job in one of the E-commerce giants in Bangalore and we had to shift our base from Mumbai. I owned a 2019 Polo GT TSI 1.2 DSG then and I was quite happy with its performance. A few months later there were quite some launches from VAG’s stable including Tiguan and Octavia. With no need per se to change my Polo GT, I was still interested in exploring them both – It was heart over head essentially. With a handful of reviews on various channels and forums, I decided to go for Octavia as my only criteria was to upgrade my Polo in terms of performance and performance alone. Then comes convincing my wife to take this financial plunge at which she was completely against the thought of replacing our reliable workhorse Polo GT, which in itself is an amazing car to own. After a few more months of wearing her down with my persuasion and conviction, she reluctantly agreed to upgrade our wheels with just one condition – we get to test drive the Jeep Compass Model S as it was my wife’s favourite then – sunroofs fancied her.

Cut to Jeep’s dealership for a test drive a week later, we had a lukewarm experience with the car – Electronics on the test drive vehicle were not functioning including the sunroof which was a bummer for my wife and I was quite happy about it, to be honest as the vehicle lacked performance, especially coming from Polo’s experience. To be fair with Compass – it wasn’t supposed to be sporty – it does best what it’s supposed to do – A great practical SUV which wasn’t on my checklist for a car purchase.

Post Jeep’s getting out of the picture completely, we went to Skoda’s nearby dealership immediately and lucky for us, there was a white L&K test drive vehicle available with them. Immediately we went for a short spin and was I amazed! It was leap years ahead of Compass (No offence to Compass as I love the car for the purpose it is supposed to deliver) in terms of performance and that’s what sealed the deal instantaneously – We didn’t even want to explore any cars further.

To gain BH registration benefits, We booked Octavia black L&K from my hometown, Nagpur as Karnataka at that point did not offer BH registration for private employees.

On auspicious Ganesh Chaturthi, 31st August 2022, we took the delivery of this magnificent beast and the delivery experience from Skoda’s dealership in Nagpur was outstanding. The only fly in the ointment was the omission of the Canton sound system in my July 2022 mfg model – I might have missed it by a week or so as I saw a few June 2022 make models having Canton installed in them. My dealer had no clue about this and to his defence, it’s not a running model for Skoda and it makes it even more difficult for a dealer based in Nagpur to have this info beforehand. We did not want to ruin our delivery experience and couldn’t have blamed anyone so we went on with the process nevertheless.

20,000 km later if I were to pin down a few pros and cons, they would be as below:

CONS:

• Some might have wanted a sunroof or ventilated seats or a better mileage out of it but these were never on my list to begin with. Yes, If you were to compare it individually with what competition offers at this price point – Sure, these are things one would expect from a 35L car.
• One thing which is a Con in disguise could be a soft suspension setup – it brings down the performance a notch or two but at the same time makes the ride super smooth on-road undulations in the city – My parents and wife are extremely happy about it.
• Touch-based climate controls – Ah! I hate it. I won’t indulge much on this as enough has been said about it by multiple owners across the brands in various forums and channels.

PROS:

• AFS headlights performance is stupendous, you can’t complain a thing about it and I can say this with my experience as most of my long-distance rides have been during nighttime including some country roads in North of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and expressways of Karnataka Maharashtra corridor.
• 2.0 TSI is a hoot to drive especially with a configuration in Octy. It’s the most trusted and used mill of VAG’s stable and the reasoning justifies it.
• Red carpet-worthy looks and road presence – though subjective and I won’t shy away from admitting that it lacks muscle character from its predecessor MK3, MK4 in itself is a beast to look at. And to add to its element, the lack of MK4 Octavias in the country makes it even more exclusive to own – it adds to its elusive and sporty-elegant character a bit more. I have been asked and complimented about this car almost everywhere I go.

Mods I have done so far:

15,000 Service experience:

• Centre – JMD Skoda , Bhandup (Now closed)
• Glovebox changed under warranty (Locks broken) SLA – 30 days.
• Coolant Pump C error in system log so changed the pump under warranty. SLA – 10 days.

Nugh’ said and now let pictures do the talking.

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