Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI estate

Sharing--rather reluctantly--our long-term Octavia with editor Tony has shown me that driver comfort is a very individual thing. Every time we swop over cars, it takes the Octavia driver a good few minutes to adjust the settings back to personal preferences. It's not just a case of moving the seat, steering wheel, wing mirrors and rear view mirror; we also change the radio stations stored, turn traffic alerts on, adjust the lumbar support and move the arm rest to suit. Good job then that the Octavia can be easily tailored to drivers' individual needs, allowing us to concentrate on comfortable and easy driving.

The only thing I would criticise are the stereo push-buttons used to scroll up or down through radio stations and CD tracks or fast-forward or rewind cassettes--these are quite hard to operate and a bit fiddly.

On the fuel consumption side, I'm getting an average consumption of around 44.2mpg which falls a little short of the official combined figure of 51.4mpg quoted by Skoda but accurately reflects the state of our stop-start motorway network, which makes up the majority of my journeys.

Speaking of which, the Smartnav navigation system has been in constant use of late which has provided the perfect opportunity to test out its new functions developed in response to customer feedback. These include a new Automated Route Summary which, once a route has been requested, gives a summary of the main roads that will be used, an ETA and any relevant traffic conditions. This can be provided automatically every time you receive a route or provided on request.

In the case of our system, however, Smartnav has been providing a route summary three or four times in the first five minutes of a journey--somewhat annoying if you're travelling on a number of roads! Luckily it can be silenced at the touch of the button. Overall, it's definitely a good function and I particularly appreciate Smartnav's addition of updated ETAs throughout journeys.

Another helpful new function is 'Take me to my favourite destination'. Once drivers have designated a favourite destination via the Smartnav website, the system will automatically route you to this destination--without having to phone the Smartnav call centre--just by pressing the button twice. Good news when you want to get home fast!

While I remain impressed by Smartnav, recent trips have shown me that the system can sometimes be ambiguous when it comes to finding the right road. This is particularly true of built-up areas; the lack of a screen means there is no visual means to check which specific turning you should take. I experienced this during the last bank holiday while travelling to Romsey with my other half; Smartnav told us to turn right so we picked the most obvious road. Unfortunately it soon turned into a canal towpath much to our, and various pedestrians', surprise and led to some hasty reversing and a rather red face.

DRIVER'S LOG

OTR PRICE: 17,980 [pounds sterling]

ENGINE: 1896cc four-cylinder turbocharged diesel

TRANSMISSION: Six-speed man

POWER: 130bhp @ 4000rpm

TORQUE: 310Nm @ 1900rpm

C[O.sub.2] RATING: 149g/km (18%)

2004/5 BIK: 3211 [pounds sterling]

DELIVERY MILEAGE: 127

CURRENT MILEAGE: 20,505

OFFICIAL COMBINED: 51.4mpg

ACTUAL COMBINED: 44.2mpg

INSURANCE GROUP: 11P

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