Buying & living with a used 2005 Skoda Octavia 1.8T: Pros, cons & more

What has continuously shattered my mind is how it absolutely embarrasses basically any new car < 35l except probably the new Octavia.

BHPian yashb1551 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Before I start with this first post of mine on Team-BHP, I’d like to give a little introduction. I’m a 19 year old engineering student who’s been into cars for a long long time. Thousands of hours of Automotive Youtube does mean that I understand cars from a technical point of view and well the engineering side also helps. This is a lets say journal about my automotive journey with my first car.

In 2021 on December 24th my brother and I set out in the morning to Pune to look at a car for me. 2 owners, 96000km and 16 years old. 4 days ago I had abandoned the plan of buying a Gen 1 Honda City and plopping in a R18 Honda civic engine and gearbox I had lying around due to my dad’s concern of the car being too old and the legality of the engine swap. I thought fine let’s go get something a little crazy then. I knew exactly what I wanted and I fired up good old olx to find something suitable and let’s just say that I did.

After entering Pune something caught my eye on the road. It was a 2002 Honda Accord 2.3vti in white. It looked like it had been sitting there for a while but I pulled the taxi pullover paid him and sent him off. After asking around the car was for sale and apparently it runs and drives perfectly. The owner is supposedly some rich guy who offloaded all his old cars to this mechanic to sell so that’s that. The car was jumpstarted and it started up fine although with some squeaky belt that went away in a bit. The car was given a nice wash and then we took it for a drive. The front seat is power operated but it wasn’t working and I was sat in a very awkward position. Upon driving it I expected a lot more immediateness and eagerness with the throttle as I’m used to driving a 2008 Honda Civic. This Honda however wouldn’t rev above up 6000 rpm and at that point we decided its got some problems probably an ECM that’s gone kaput so we moved on.

We finally reached the dealership we originally intended to go to and there she was. The hood was open and the Corrida Red paint was looking pretty.

From the side it had on 16″ Vrs Spyder wheels and a spoiler on the back. After an extensive 45 minute test drive and pushing the car hard and a full visual inspection later this was the case.
The engine seemed in very good condition. It pulled cleanly all the way through out the rev range didn’t get caught out even once.
It idled perfectly at all times.
Temperature needle stayed bang on 90.

Cosmetically there was a small dent on the boot in the top left corner and the it needed a new RHS side mirror. Mechanically all it needed was some brake work but apart from that it looked like an 18 year old’s dream. So the decision was made and a bank transfer of 1.7 lakhs later it was mine.

This is the car the next morning parked on the street:

Details about the car:

Skoda Octavia 2005 1.8T Rider in Corrida Red.
150bhp and 220nm of torque courtesy of a fat old turbo.
5 speed manual transmission.
97 thousand abusive Indian road kms for a very sensitive object.

3 days after getting the car I decided to to take it to the mechanic for a service where it got all the usual stuff done except an oil change as the drain plug was stuck. The brakes were doing pretty bad due to uneven wear and so I got the brakes skimmed as well. The odo stood at 96,700 kms and just about a year later it stands at 1,06,000 kms. After having driven the car for 9k kms for various purposes and a wide variety of roads, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no other I’d want right now.

I started using the car basically as a daily driver. I used it to travel from Vashi to Juhu everyday for college and its actually decent comfortable even by modern standards. There is a thud from the suspension over a large bumps taken at speed but otherwise the ride is extremely pliant. Just the right amount of stiff in front of me. On the engine side things are very very good. Although there’s not a lot of low end torque it’ll never really get caught out while taking off from low speeds. The turbo starts building boost at around 1700rpm but it only kicks in at about 2200rpm and that is when shit hits the fan and you realise what you’re really sitting in. With the stock exhaust there was absolutely no engine noise just the turbo whistle. That has since changed with a cat-con delete and a Remus Exhaust.

Floor it in 1st gear and you’ll be dealing with a lot of torque steer which continues for a second as you slam it into second and then you’re flying through the air with an almost silly turbo whistle for company. What has continuously shattered my mind is how it absolutely embarrasses basically any new car < 35l except probably the new Octavia. I've run this car a number of times against various cars and the only cars that have just about kept up are the Compass 4×4, Virtus GT, 325i. There are countless other cars like the Creta turbo that have been absolutely demolished and I was left quite surprised as I didn't think that a 17 year old Skoda would gap a modern 148hp DCT car like it were standing still.

The suspension setup is such that it’s not extremely soft but what really complements it is the damping which is executed beautifully in my opinion. It still provides a decent amount of comfort and leeway for sharp bumps and is actually decently absorbent. But in no way or form does it compromise the handling characteristics of the car. All you have to do let go off the gas for a bit, turn in, let the weight go to the outside and put the power on. The car settles beautifully and goes around corners like it’s on rails. One other thing the Octavia does beautifully is trail braking and it really enables you to enjoy the car on high speed runs.

What really lets you exploit the limits of the chassis is the hydraulic steering system. Heavy at slower speeds yes but it’s nothing you won’t get used to and you’ll be quite happy with that tradeoff when you go through a corner and it just gives you some mind blowing precision and feel and really let’s you understand exactly what the car is doing.

The weak point of the car at this point were the brakes. It has disc brakes all around but when I got the car the brakes were just about nearing the end of their life but they still stopped on a dime and without any drama. The ABS works well and is not too intrusive allowing you to really play with the brakes and throw the weight of the car around in tight corners.

Cons:

A bit of road noise filters in.
Rear seats are best for 2 people.
Parts are pretty expensive.
Needs work regularly.

Pros:

Beautiful power band that won’t leave you wanting for more.
Goes around corners completely flat and with no drama.
Brakes are really good compared to the speeds this car can attain.
Seats and seating position are very good you can sit very low.
The steering offers lots of feedback although is a bit heavy at slower speeds.
Massive boot.

The journey that I intend to have this car is a long one and it ends with the car being an absolute monster but that’s a long way down the line. Up until now I have added a Remus Exhaust to the mix and taken away the Cat- Con. The exhaust is really not that loud and in my opinion its perfect for my use case right now. It’s completely changed the sound of the car and the db levels are perfectly acceptable. And of course you have turbo noises and small blow off noises for added aural pleasure.

An area that I thought the car would not hold up well to was road trips with bad roads but the car actually has decent ground clearance and doesn’t touch on big speed breakers when there’s less than 3 people in it. The Mk1 Vrs actually had more issues with it’s front bumper scraping rather than the underbelly touching but mine is a rider so it has a shallower bumper. Anyways its gone over some rough roads and slick mud and it’s gotten out perfectly each time. On smaller roads the car doesn’t feel too big and is very easy to manoeuver. Driving at places like Karjat is extremely easy and you can just stay in the very long 3rd gear all day right from 20kph to 80kph. It really has been nothing short of the best first car I could’ve had. There is a lot left to cover but I’ll leave it here for now. As for future mods I’m planning on doing a downpipe some lowering springs and a stage 2 map in a few months.

Now coming to the achilles heel of the car namely the parts and the reliability and well it really hasn’t been that bad. Pricey but not horrible and undoable:

Timing kit and water pump was done at 98k kms about 15k for the whole thing.
It blew the fuse box one day and I had to tow the car back which was an enlightening experience. about 4k for the fuse box.
The fuel level indicator broke which had to be replaced.
The Ac compressor broke and had to be replaced with a new one. The rd bottle and temperature sensor also needed replacement. About 50k for everything.
One of the door locks has been replaced. 2.2k.
New brake rotors and pads all around. 20k.
Osram night breaker headlamps.
New clutch and dual mass flywheel- 25k.

Those have been the highlights apart from regular maintenance and a few things here and there but overall for me it has been worth it and I don’t think you can ask for anything else from a 17 year old German car.

In the past 1 year I have driven quite a lot nice cars like the G30 BMW 330i and the GLA 35 AMG which my dad has recently bought and these cars obviously take what my car has to offer and multiply it extensively in every aspect but every time I pin the Octavia’s throttle the brutal force that it exhibits and the feeling you get of having to manage every aspect of the car with no intervention from anything is an absolutely unbeatable experience.

Here are some pictures that unfortunately have been taken by me and my diminishing photography skills of the car on various outings and with that I think I’ll end this here with a lot more updates to come. Oh and also excuse the VRS badges. They’re needed they add 60 more bhp.