Is the skoda octavia the new 'farmer's car?

Muckit

Well have the volkswagen jetta and passat been knocked off the top spot by their first cousin?

Or perhaps you've started to notice an even more popular alternative in your area?

patjack

Muckit wrote: »

Well have the volkswagen jetta and passat been knocked off the top spot by their first cousin?

Or perhaps you've started to notice an even more popular alternative in your area?

My only problem is the clearance with the Skodas, maybe they are not as low now as they used be. You are right though they are proving very popular with farmers.

The Carina E used be a great farmers car round these parts, till a few on the go.

Milked out

Our former ai man had an octavia, raised it a few inches and drove on said twas a super job then alrite.
Our farm car here has stopped up, will have to get something g to replace it as drawing feed and everything else to calves etc will eventually make ****e of our "good" car ( 07 passat but good for another 100k miles id say) don't really need a jeep for towing but 4wd would be handy as go thru fields and yards when cattle are at grass. Any 4wd vans around I wonder?

twin_beacon

my dad is on his 5th octavia! ultra reliable cars, all bought new, except the current one, which is a '12 reg, bought in 2014. His previous one was bought new in 2006, and had very high mileage when sold. It was a decent car, and decent spec. the '12 reg is very low spec however, in fact, I would have expected a much higher spec "base" model from skoda. No center arm rest and the wing mirrors are not colour coded, they are just black.

Pros:
Cheap considering the parts that are in the car.
Few electrics, less to go wrong
ultra reliable.
very good MPG
Massive boot.

Cons:
Not very exciting, seen as a "dad" car or a "farmers" car. This would put younger men off the car (me included)
Few electrics, some people like them
Very few extras as standard.
Adding a tow bar is expensive, as its not wired for the lights by default (was the case on the 06 model anyway)

for some, the pros will outweigh the cons, and vice versa. The Octavia isn't for me however, its just too basic, and there are very few produced with a higher spec, as most people that buy one, don't want the high spec models.

as for the ground clearance, the current model is pretty low compared the Insignia I drive. For the record, I would not get an Insignia again, but thats for another day!

MickeyShtyles

Milked out wrote: »

Our former ai man had an octavia, raised it a few inches and drove on said twas a super job then alrite.
Our farm car here has stopped up, will have to get something g to replace it as drawing feed and everything else to calves etc will eventually make ****e of our "good" car ( 07 passat but good for another 100k miles id say) don't really need a jeep for towing but 4wd would be handy as go thru fields and yards when cattle are at grass. Any 4wd vans around I wonder?

Ya can get the caddy in 4wd (4Motion) but I'd say its an Awd sorta job!

tipptom

Surly the Toyota Avensis is the most popular car?

Harry Palmr

I remember when the farmers car was a Pug or if a bit bit posh a Merc 300D or 300 converted to gas.

kay 9

Alot of corollas and avensis around here. Most are getting 4x4s of some description anymore. Trailers are getting bigger & heavier as are livestock it seems.

Reggie.

It's mostly vans and audis around here

Timmaay

Audi s3 quattro here, don't think I could ever go back to likes of a boring tdi octiva/jetta etc again ha. Petrol engine is killing me tho on running costs ha, wouldn't mind a nice 08/09 325d coupe which would be under the C tax band, and therefore a very generous tax right off, they are too steep in price yet though.

tipptom

kay 9 wrote: »

Alot of corollas and avensis around here. Most are getting 4x4s of some description anymore. Trailers are getting bigger & heavier as are livestock it seems.

The oul Jeep may be around the back but Mary has the Avensis round the front to drop the lads of to training and go to matches which she only has to fill with diesel every 2 months!

Bullocks

Around me the farmers car is damn near extinct. They are mostly driving land cruisers and if they are flush looking they like the wife to drive another land cruiser with 7 seats and 3 televisions hanging off the seats for the kids !
The father ( fulltime farming ) is driving an X trail and finds it handy for good wear and a bit of trucking around and I drive a patrol so I pull the cattle trailer

td5man

Vw mechanic beside me is on his second octavia, says they're far better than vw.

Nekarsulm

The 130 hp engine has a bigger capacity sump, it's about 2 inches lower than the others. So they get holed a lot easier.

Sam Kade

Muckit wrote: »

Well have the volkswagen jetta and passat been knocked off the top spot by their first cousin?

Or perhaps you've started to notice an even more popular alternative in your area?

Back in the old days it was the VW beetle my neighbour used his for covering barley one time when the tractor was at home

whelan2

My dad has a 05 skoda superb. Bought it new. Never been in a car with so much room in it. Very comfortable to drive. He says he will never trade it in. He had a carina before that

BnB

tipptom wrote: »

The oul Jeep may be around the back but Mary has the Avensis round the front to drop the lads of to training and go to matches which she only has to fill with diesel every 2 months!

Absolutely. Tis nearly all Avensis's out the front and Landcruisers round the back in these parts.

IH784man

A lot of its farmers buying them cars for the wife and have there own jeeps for the farming,or for a long trip to an out farm they'll just use the car around our part of the country

Reggie.

td5man wrote: »

Vw mechanic beside me is on his second octavia, says they're far better than vw.

Are they not made of the same stuff and company

td5man

Reggie. wrote: »

Are they not made of the same stuff and company

Both VAG he reckons skodas are a better car.

C0N0R

Timmaay wrote: »

Audi s3 quattro here, don't think I could ever go back to likes of a boring tdi octiva/jetta etc again ha. Petrol engine is killing me tho on running costs ha, wouldn't mind a nice 08/09 325d coupe which would be under the C tax band, and therefore a very generous tax right off, they are too steep in price yet though.

Gti golf here, must be the younger generation of farmers preferring petrol!

Bullocks

whelan2 wrote: »

My dad has a 05 skoda superb. Bought it new. Never been in a car with so much room in it. Very comfortable to drive. He says he will never trade it in. He had a carina before that

The father had one for awhile , a fine car and I'd much prefer it over the octavia

whelan2

Bullocks wrote: »

The father had one for awhile , a fine car and I'd much prefer it over the octavia

I offer to mind my dad's one when he goes on holidays

selectamatic

Give it a few more years and they'll get even more popular in 1.9tdi form! The newer breed of engines i.e the 2.0tdi and 1.6tdi are way more tempermental than the ol reliable sadly around the 12 mark skóda moved to the more modern engines. VW moved to the 2.0tdi far too quickly with the result that many early incarnations were problematic skóda delayed the move with the result that they became more reliable than vw. The avensis is another good one however big an all a toyota fan as I am, the move to bmw diesel engines could be a major negative if reliability suffers. The main problem with the octavia's, golfs and jetta's is the sumps are too low and far far too weak the aluminium in them is like paper you can get a steel shallow sump and they're a great job! When I had a "lowered" bora :P I made up a steel chequer plate sump guard and twas a serious job as long as ya didn't mind hopping it off the road when travelling fast on the usual country tracks that pass as roads :rolleyes: That said I feel there will always be a place for the older generation of "farmers cars" as long as there is farmers who don't want a jeep or van. A fella near us is after getting a straight diesel vento and I must say it's in great condition and really makes you appreciate the styling of the 90's, also the popularity of corolla's, gen1 avensis' and carina's etc is testament to how well they were built and so I don't see them vanishing off the face of the earth anytime soon

whelan2

Isn't there a fault with the new corolla?

Miname

Saab 93 and a Volkswagen transporter here. The Saab I love but it's lowered so not great around some roads. The transporter does the dog work. The old man has a Nissan note for tipping around in, he'll head up around the fields in it the whole time and apart from the appearance of it I have to say it's a great wee car. It's a 1.4 diesel and runs on the smell of diesel he'd have to nearly drive it constantly to burn fifty euros in a week.

Mad4simmental

The 2.0 tdi engine was only bad in early 08. It was a single overhead cam. Everything went in them from oil pumps to injectors.

The late 08 onwards is a good engine with the double overhead cam different bus completely.

Vw audi seat skoda all the one with a different badge.

Damo810

'08 Focus here, pure sow on petrol, but its not given a days bother here. Wanted to buy an old Vento SDI, as a run around but the insurance was mad....

Octavia's are nice, a huge amount of VRS's about, lovely looking cars.

kupus

Round where I am the old panda and Renault four are the go to farmers car. Cheap icheerful and easy fixed.
Panda 4x4 gets the premium choice though.

selectamatic

Mad4simmental wrote: »

The 2.0 tdi engine was only bad in early 08. It was a single overhead cam. Everything went in them from oil pumps to injectors.

The late 08 onwards is a good engine with the double overhead cam different bus completely.

Vw audi seat skoda all the one with a different badge.

Ay twas the early 2.0tdi incarnations I was on about skoda stuck it out with the 1.9tdi for most of their models till around the 11/12 mark now they're all back the same again using 2.0tdi and 1.6tdi. Interestingly enough you can still get a first generation skoda octavia in cheap tax form they were sold up until 2009 as so many had been built they had to be sold off despite a new model being in production since 2005, that for me is the ultimate "modern" farmers car.

f140

its all Passat and insignia country by me if the farmers choose the cars otherwise its the pajeros and landcruisers.

orm0nd

Mad4simmental wrote: »

The 2.0 tdi engine was only bad in early 08. It was a single overhead cam. Everything went in them from oil pumps to injectors.

The late 08 onwards is a good engine with the double overhead cam different bus completely.

Vw audi seat skoda all the one with a different badge.

forget the code for that engine (BXE or something) but it's an utter disaster , literally the engine just explodes, not viable to fix, it was in a good few audi, passats, & to a lesser degree the seat leon & sk octavia


had a 06 superb here for a few years, never gave any issues other than servicing

got the opportunity to buy a re possessed 132 Honda CR-V 2.2 dsl a couple of months ago & jumped at it, sold the superb privately

lefthooker

Sam Kade wrote: »

Back in the old days it was the VW beetle my neighbour used his for covering barley one time when the tractor was at home

There's quite a few A4's round here. I've had a few, My current is a 2.0Tdi 170bhp Quattro, fabulous car and hasn't given any trouble thus far. Not too heavy on juice either

Bullocks

Cars are a great talking point for farmers that don't know each other well . A conversation started with "how is that yoke on juice " ? can last easily a couple of hours
My father is brutal for talking about cars or anything motor related , he actually rang this morning at quarter to seven to see had i seen a loader on DD :rolleyes:

tanko

Bullocks wrote: »

Cars are a great talking point for farmers that don't know each other well . A conversation started with "how is that yoke on juice " ? can last easily a couple of hours
My father is brutal for talking about cars or anything motor related , he actually rang this morning at quarter to seven to see had i seen a loader on DD :rolleyes:

How did farmers survive before Donedeal?

Timmaay

tanko wrote: »

How did farmers survive before Donedeal?

Buy and sell!!

Reggie.

Timmaay wrote: »

Buy and sell!!

My father still looks through the buy and sell every so often

ganmo

tanko wrote: »

How did farmers survive before Donedeal?

Sometimes I glad my Dad isn't tech savy

colm_mcm

orm0nd wrote: »

forget the code for that engine (BXE or something) but it's an utter disaster , literally the engine just explodes, not viable to fix, it was in a good few audi, passats, & to a lesser degree the seat leon & sk octavia


had a 06 superb here for a few years, never gave any issues other than servicing

got the opportunity to buy a re possessed 132 Honda CR-V 2.2 dsl a couple of months ago & jumped at it, sold the superb privately

That's the 1.9 engine that does that!


Skoda did both the 1.9 and 2.0 TDI engines at the same time, same as VW/seat

selectamatic

Just seen this now and did a but of rooting on the aul interweb and sure enough there's a specific batch of 1.9tdi's that like to throw the toys outta the pram alright. It seems to be contained to the 105bhp bxe and a few other b coded engines bls etc. Never heard about it before in person but there are rakes of stories about it online surely there must be a design fault with the rods! I know a few people with early mk5 golf 105bhp 1.9tdi's and haven't seen one die yet but they might be a different batch of 1.9tdi's. The older pd engines that lived in mk4 golf's, bora's and b5 passats and b6 a4's were always fairly reliable if serviced within reason. The first of the 2.0tdi 140bhp engines gave a nice bit of bother too mainly when fitted to passats and a4's the oil pumps are a bit of a dodge along with a few other issues.
I'll say it again a gen 1 octavia in the cheap tax bracket could be a dinger :cool: to my knowledge they could be got with the 90bhp non pd engines now there's an engine that'll do 500,000 miles if ya change the belts and oils once a blue moon no fiddly VNT turbo's either. (for people who like to go BOOOO that last point may be a negative )

Nekarsulm

Half a million miles in a 90 brake octavia, and you would be praying for a rod through the block........