Just Had A Test Drive In......

doog442 · October 6, 2008

Having driven the petrol VRS a few years ago, today had a test drive in a VRS diesel......OTR price knocking on £20k. Having driven the IS220D there is one thing i want to say to all you diesel owners. This car is in a completely different league.

If the Lex was a championship team hovering around the verge of the premiership (but not quite making it-according to some),the Skoda is a Div 2 team going no-where.

Okay they are offering 1K off a new one but with current Lex offers that means its roughly the same price as a base IS220D.

Good points: Big boot and big back seat...and its quick...if you like the sound of a massey ferguson emanating throughout the cabin as you floor it!

Bad points: Was i on the set of life on mars?. Okay I shouldnt have got straight out of an IS200 but hell this thing was like stepping back into the 70's, allright 80's and those early diesel models. It sounded like a tractor,the road noise was unbelievable,the cabin drab,grey and angular. The dash was awful and the stereo was so poor and tinny that I was quite frankly..appalled :o you know when you drive a new car and urgently try and turn up the base only to find its on max :shutit:

The rattles and 'creaking' of body panels would have you IS220d owners suicidal This was like driving a coffin on wheels. I appreciate that this is meant to be a sporty long distance cruiser but long distance in the sporty type bucket seats will have you feeling like you have gone 10 rounds with a Leeds Utd football fan

As the salesman said to me 'its not a Lexus is it' not in a million miles,never been so glad to get out of that shed and back into my IS200

I daresay the Superb, as they call it, may be more refined and the thing i drove is a little souped up, (in a diesel kind of way ) but pricewise Skoda appeared to have overstepped the mark.How the hell it justifies its reviews and price I really dont know.

The strange thing is, with the vRS petrol it kind of works,or did when they were knocking them out at 15K two years ago..a hot hatch with a big boot and cheap for the' experience'..not this......

by the way,big poster in showroom 'Octvaia now comes with electric rear windows as standard' i need a bit more than that to tempt me :winky:

Paradroid · October 6, 2008

I could well imagine the refinement levels (road noise/engine noise) would be poor compared to a Lexus. Also, Lexus audio puts most European makes of car to shame!

But, I've been in the new shape Octavia briefly and I remember being really impressed with the interior, dash looked very high quality to me. Puts VW to shame, it was more Audi than VW to me.

I can never understand why VAG diesel cars sell by the bucket load, the engines are rough and have narrow power bands. I've not driven the IS200d so can't comment on that one, but the only diesel engine I've been really impressed with is the BMW 4cyl 2.0 diesel.