Skoda Octavia Scout: month 3

Arrived: May 2008
List price (including options): £20,240
Average economy: 44.9mpg

The Skoda Octavia Scout has been -

To the garage for the first time during my ownership. It was an unscheduled halt as the service indicator has not yet prompted a dealer visit for vital fluids. Instead, the trip to Newmarket Garage, Bannockburn (01786 813433) was to rectify a couple of problems that had manifested themselves. The first was the rattle from under the dash binnacle that I've mentioned before, but more pressing was a water leak. I spotted this when I jumped into the car one stormy evening in an airport car park. The pitter-patter of rain on the roof was matched by the drip from the headlining around the front interior light. All I could do was mop up the worst of it and cover the power socket underneath, which was getting soaked.

We're loving the -

Dealer service from Skoda. The morning after I found the leak in the Scout, I called my nearest dealer, Newmarket Garage, and they booked the car in for the very next day. They provided a spotlessly clean courtesy car for free - no hire fees here - and telephoned later the same day to say they'd identified a faulty windscreen seal and would I mind hanging on to the courtesy car for a couple more days? No problem, and even when I wasn't around to pick up the Scout, Newmarket delivered the car to my home and collected the courtesy car. They'd even valeted my Scout inside and out, as well as replacing the water-marked headlining as part of the fix. On top of this, the dash rattle has disappeared, so cruising in the Scout is now back to being a hushed pleasure.

But not so impressed by -

One minor irritation that is beginning to grate is the Scout's stereo volume control. There's nothing wrong with the quality of sound or ease of use, and it even has steering wheel controls, but every time I get back into the car the volume has returned to a base setting that is generally too quiet. It's a tiny point, but I have to knock the volume up a few notches each time I start the car. Why doesn't the volume just stay where I last set it? A scour of the owner's manual will hopefully provide an answer.

We're looking forward to -

A lot more miles with plenty of business driving on the horizon, as well as a short holiday sometime soon. I mentioned a vacation that may involve towing a caravan with the Scout's £230 optional detachable tow bar and after a trial run with a trailer I used for carting garden rubbish to the dump I feel confident enough to tow something larger. I'm also (greedily) hoping the Scout's economy might further improve as it's jumped to a 44.9mpg average with no effort on my part.

Alisdair Suttie