Skoda Octavia Hatchback (2013 - 2020) 2.0 TDI CR Elegance 5d Owner Review

I had one of the first 2.0 Elegeance octavias as a company car for 3 year from 2013 to 2016. The Elegeance spec is full of features to begin with but as I was going to be doing over 30k per year in the car I added AFS headlights (an absolutely excellent option in all situations and looks great as well) Race blue metallic (other than Rally Green, Race blue is the best colour) and the winter pack (heated front seats, heated front windscreen and heated washer nozzles - again an excellent enhancement). I used this car in a whole manner of situations for 3 years encompassing both long motorway drives, city drives, remote drives. I found the car to be absolutely excellent for any situation. The engine was actually more economical than stated in the book in general and had plenty of power and was very flexible in traffic or on the open ride. I found that the elegeance model had a great ride quality and handled bumps very well and therfore was the model for me. I had the beige half leather interior in this first car which in hindsigt I would have gone with the black colour, simply because beige requires more cleaning if you are an engineer like me. After 96k in 3 years in some trying conditions the car still felt very much like new and there was very little to evidence the number of miles under the car's belt. In my ownership I had only one problem which was a water pump failure (splines) at 80k. This was quickly rectified by the dealers with no complaint or objection. I have found skoda service to be absolutely amazing and much better than Mazda who previously maintained my 6. The capacity and flexibility of the octavia were legendary and I even ordered another one as a replacement car. From a practicality point of view the hatch does have a bit of a lip on the boot which the estate does not have, so my only slight criticism is that I would go for the estate going forwards. Other than that, excellent cars!!!