Skoda Octavia Hatchback (2013 - 2020) 1.4 TSI Elegance 5d DSG Owner Review

I went from a BMW 320i on a 56 plate which I kept for over 7 years and took to 143K miles. It was a lovely car but the Skoda Octavia has been excellent. The VED is £30 a year which is nice bonus. It's very roomy and comfortable, the boot is huge. The DSG gearbox is very good and doesn't have the fuel consumption penalty that many torque converter based automatic geaboxes have but it isn't as smooth and you do have to learn to modify your driving technique to get a smooth drive. The economy of the car is amazing. My old naturally aspirated 2.0 litre drank fuel in comparison and had significantly less "get up and go". The 1.4TSi engine is a peach, very very torquey with a flat torque curve and so economical. On trip from the South Coast to Glasgow fully loaded with 4 adults I easily achieved 55mpg with the cruise control set to 74mph (70 mph actual speed). And that's from a petrol! My old car was well specced and so I'm used to all the toys it had and the Elegance just replicates those, dipping rearview mirror, electric folding mirrors, cruise, automatic lights/wipers etc. I miss the heated seats of my old car though. My only negative view of the Skoda is that the build quality doesn't match the BMW at all. There's a distinct lack of soundproofing and the vehicle is definitely noisier as a motorway cruiser than my old car. Rap the interior of the door on the Skoda and it's hollow and boxy sounding, the BMW was solid and there was leather everywhere. But the immense fuel economy, cheap VED and punchy motor more than make up for this. Plus I have spare tyre and jack now and cheaper tyres (no more run flats). The built-in SatNav isn't bad but is annoyingly slow and clunky to use compared to just using Google Maps on my phone, so I never use it unless my phone battery is dead or I'm out of data. I intend to keep this car until dies and as it's the lowest mileage I've ever owned, it should be good for another decade barring unforeseen problems. So far, no reliability problems at all. The only minor niggles are that the hatch needs to be shut firmly or it doesn't close (the dealer said they'd adjust that but I suspect they did nothing) and there's a loud squeal from the engine on start-up which the dealer also did nothing about. I bought the car from a Skoda dealer and their trade-in offer on my old car was a joke (within an hour on Gumtree I trebled it and sold it). The salesman was a typical 2nd hand car dealer in tactics. The interior was grubby when I test drove it and the outside had a couple of dings, I was assured these would be dealt with before I picked up the car. They weren't and in fact one alloy was kerbed and there was a brand new no-name tyre on that wheel which 4 days previously had been pristine. Also the car had obviously been stood around for a while as evidenced by the numerous cobwebs in the engine bay and the cracking between the treads on the rear tyres which were the originals that came with the car new. So I replaced both rear tyres as a safety precaution. Overall I have to say it's lived up to expectations and exceeded many of them.