More Than Metal - Skoda Octavia On Air

Story of Jaka Cvajnar aka octaviamk4onair

Chapter 1 - How it all started

I don't want to copy the last person, but my love for cars also started with Need for Speed: Underground and Fast & Furious.

I remember my dad owning a coupe. I can't remember exactly what car it was anymore, but I do remember one winter when my brother and I built a body kit for it... out of snow. I must have been around eight years old, yet I still remember that moment like it happened yesterday.

I can still picture the red coupe parked outside. My brother and I used pieces of cardboard to make supports for spoilers, hood scoops, and a body kit, then packed snow around them until they looked real. Looking back, those were amazing times.

Fast forward another 10–12 years of gaming and watching Fast & Furious movies, and I was finally old enough - and had saved enough money - to get my driver's license and buy my first car.

Enter the 2003 Fiat Punto Mk2b, a facelifted five-door with the legendary 1.3 JTD diesel.

By then I'd already had my license for over six months and had been driving my mum's Punto Mk2 while searching for the right car to appear on the market.

Then, one evening, I saw it online. An already "modified" Punto. My heart stopped. It was the ONE. There was just one problem... It was too expensive. I couldn't sleep that night.

The next day I showed the advert to my brother. He looked at it for a minute and simply said, "Just message him with what you want to offer." I couldn't do it. Even though I was the older brother, I was too scared. I didn't want to lose the chance to own my dream car because of a lower offer.

My brother, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less. He grabbed his phone, messaged the seller with a much lower price, and wrote: "We'll give you €1,0xx and come pick it up tomorrow." A few minutes later... "OK." We just looked at each other. We couldn't believe it. The next day we drove out to see it and met one of the sketchiest guys I've ever bought a car from. Looking back, the whole situation felt like something straight out of a movie.

But we bought it anyway.

The drive home turned into the worst storm I've ever driven through to this day. Heavy rain, terrible visibility, and two excited brothers hoping the cars would actually make it home. It did. The next morning it was sitting proudly on my driveway. My first car. My first project. And the beginning of a journey I never imagined would become such a huge part of my life.

Punto build amd goodbyes

One of the things I loved most about Fast & Furious was the underglow. So naturally, that became the very first modification I made to the Punto.

Not long after, I took it to my very first car show. I somehow ended up winning 1st place in the "Night Style" category, mainly because hardly anyone else entered. Did I care? Absolutely not. To me, it was a win, and I was over the moon. That was the beginning of my obsession with LEDs. And when I say obsession... I mean obsession. If there was a place where I could install an LED strip, it got one. Inside, outside, under the seats, in the boot—you name it. By the end, the car had well over 55 metres of LED strips and an entire book full of remote controls to manage them all. It was ridiculous. It was over the top. And I absolutely loved it. The Punto became known for one thing above everything else-its lights. Of course, the LEDs weren't the only modifications. I always liked taking things to the extreme, so the car slowly transformed into something completely different. With all the body kits, custom parts, and countless little modifications, it was almost unrecognisable compared to the day I bought it. But no matter how much changed, the lights were always the heart of the build.

One winter, the car spent months at a friend's workshop while we completely rebuilt it. New body kit, new look - everything. It was by far the biggest transformation the car had ever gone through, and I couldn't wait to show it to him. Unfortunately, my dad passed away suddenly just before we finished.

He never got to see the completed build.

I know everyone reaches that point in life eventually, and I know there's never a "good" time to lose someone. But I still wish I'd had just one more month. Just enough time to pull up in the driveway one last time, see him walk around the car, give me that familiar pat on the shoulder, smile, and say, "Good job, son."

That is something I'll always wish had happened.

Unfortunately, the Punto was also my only car.

It was my daily driver through every season, including harsh winters, and I wasn't exactly taking great care of the underside. Rust slowly started creeping in, but I kept focusing on making the car look better instead of keeping it healthy.

By the time I realised my mistake... It was already too late.

I still remember the exact moment it hit me. One day I was trying to repair part of the underglow, so I grabbed my jack to lift the car. The jack went straight through the floor. I tried another lifting point. Same thing. Another one. Another hole. That's when reality finally sank in. I'd spent years perfecting everything people could see, while completely ignoring the parts that actually kept the car alive. Around the same time, the turbo was beginning to fail, and just a few days later, two tyres got punctured. That was it. Game Over.

I knew it was time to let go of my first love.

I removed most of the body kit and sold it to a guy from Hungary who drove all the way to my place just to buy it. Neither of us spoke the other's language. There wasn't much talking.

Just pointing at parts, exchanging cash, a few smiles...and a few tears from me.

Later that same day, the Punto was loaded onto a truck and taken away to be crushed. Watching it disappear was harder than I expected. It wasn't just a car anymore. It was years of memories, friendships, late nights in the garage, car meets, road trips, and the place where I learned almost everything I know about modifying cars. Even today, I still have a few random parts from it sitting somewhere in my basement.

I don't think I'll ever throw them away.

After saying goodbye to the Punto came what felt like the longest car search ever. What now? What should I buy? I couldn't decide.

At the time, one of my best friends owned a beautiful Nardo Grey Octavia Mk2 vRS. We'd driven it to festivals in the Netherlands several times, and although I'd never really liked station wagons—they just never looked as sporty to me—his car slowly changed my mind. I caught myself thinking... "Maybe a wagon isn't so bad after all." That was my starting point. An Octavia. A vRS. A wagon. Now I just had to find the ONE.

Months went by. Nothing. I wasn't a fan of the facelifted Mk3.5 headlights, so I narrowed my search down to either a Mk3 or the brand-new Mk4 that had just been released. The Mk4 completely stole my heart. The sharp lines, the aggressive front end... everything about it looked perfect. There was only one problem. It was way out of my budget. Still, I couldn't stop looking. Since the model was so new, there weren't many used ones available in Slovenia, so I expanded my search to Germany, where there were far more to choose from. After just a few days, I found one.

Race Blue. Gold aftermarket wheels. Air suspension. It looked absolutely incredible.

Everything was arranged. We'd agreed on a price, organised the trip to pick it up, and I'd even sorted out the money-borrowing some of it to make the purchase possible. Then, at the very last minute... The seller backed out. I was furious.

After weeks of searching, I'd finally found my dream car, and it disappeared just like that.
So... Back to searching. A few days later, another one appeared.This time it was being sold by a dealership.The specification was unbelievable.

It had so many options that some of them weren't even available in Slovenia at the time. Did I need all of them? No. Did I want every single one? Absolutely. The colour wasn't my first choice, but the price was simply too good to walk away from. So I bought it. While I was waiting for the car to arrive, I couldn't help myself. I was already ordering parts. Maxton Design body kit. Lowering springs. And plenty of other modifications. The funny part?

Most of the parts arrived before the actual car did.

The moment the Octavia finally arrived, I barely had time to enjoy it.

After just two days, it was already sitting in a workshop getting its first upgrades.

I loved the car from the moment I saw it, but the wishlist I'd built over months of searching was incredibly long..and incredibly expensive. So I had to take things one step at a time.

One thing I wanted more than anything was a proper set of wheels. Unfortunately, my wallet had other plans. That's when I made a deal with myself.

I was a smoker back then, and instead of buying cigarettes, I decided to put that money aside until I'd saved enough for the wheels I wanted. And somehow... I actually did it. I quit smoking for over a year and saved enough money to buy them.

To this day, it's still one of the achievements I'm most proud of. Yes, I did eventually started smoking again a few months later...

But that experience proved something to me.

When I truly set my mind to something, I can make it happen. Eventually, the new wheels went on the car. And just like that... Everything changed. The car finally started becoming my car. Every little modification after that added another piece to its personality, and I loved every minute of it.

Not long after, it was time to see what the new Octavia was really made of. Just like we'd done with my friend's Mk2 before, we decided to take mine on the ultimate road trip-a festival in the Netherlands. There were five of us in total. Four guys. One girl. And enough camping gear, food, drinks, and random essentials to survive a small apocalypse.

Every inch of the car was packed.

When we realized there still wasn't enough room, we bought a 600-litre roof box and filled that to the absolute brim as well. Looking back... I'm pretty sure the car was well over its legal weight limit.

The H&R lowering springs were definitely earning their keep. But none of us cared. We pointed the car towards the sunset and started the journey.

Everything was going perfectly... Until we reached the German border. We were pulled over. The officers immediately noticed how low the rear of the car was with all the weight inside.

What followed was nearly three hours of discussions, inspections, police officers coming and going, and us trying to explain that we were simply on our way to a festival. In the end, there wasn't much we could do. We got a fine and were escorted back across the border into Austria.

Most people would probably have turned around and gone home. Not us. We unloaded almost everything from the car into a taxi, drove back to the border, crossed into Germany, and then stopped at the first safe place we could find.

There, we loaded everything straight back into the Octavia. Problem solved. Well... Sort of.

That's the short version of the story. The full version is absolute chaos and still makes us laugh every time we talk about it. Despite everything we put it through, the Octavia never complained. Not once. It carried five people, enough luggage for what felt like an entire campsite, and somehow survived hundreds of kilometres there and back without missing a beat. Mission accomplished.

That trip made me appreciate the car even more.

It wasn't just something I spent money modifying.

It was reliable. Comfortable. Practical. And it never let me down, no matter how ridiculous my ideas were.
Over the following months, I kept enjoying every opportunity to drive it. There was always something to improve. A small modification here. Another upgrade there. The project was slowly becoming everything I'd imagined while I was searching for it.

Little did I know...Everything was about to change.

I spent the next few months enjoying every minute behind the wheel. The car was finally becoming everything I'd imagined. There was always another modification waiting to be installed, another idea to bring to life, another excuse to head out for a drive.

Then came 24 February 2025. The day everything changed. It was just an ordinary morning.

My wife and I were driving to work on the highway, just like we had done countless times before.

Suddenly, traffic came to a complete stop.

A car ahead of us had broken down—apparently it had run out of fuel. (Who runs out of petrol on the motorway? 🤣) There was nowhere for us to go.

The lane beside us was full of traffic, and nobody was letting us merge. So we stopped and waited. A few seconds later... Everything went black. Out of nowhere, a Volvo V60 slammed into the back of us at around 100–110 km/h. Even though I'd left what I thought was a perfectly safe distance to the broken-down car in front of us, the impact pushed us straight towards it. Well... Not quite. In the split second before the impact, the Octavia's anti-collision system actually accelerated the car slightly to reduce the force of the crash.

Then the front collision sensors detected the vehicle in front, and the steering assistance turned the car to the left. That single moment probably saved us from one collision...but nearly caused another. When the car finally came to a stop, we were trapped between the crashed vehicles behind us and the other car on our right. The front left corner of our car ended up just centimetres from the other ane, where traffic-including trucks-was still moving at highway speeds.

Sometimes I still think about that moment. If we'd stopped just a little further to the left... Or rolled forward just a little more... One of those trucks could have hit us at the side at over 100 km/h. Who knows what would have happened then. We were incredibly lucky. It's strange. Sometimes I still wonder whether all those crash avoidance systems can occasionally create a more dangerous situation than the one they're trying to prevent. Personally, I'd rather hit the car in front than have a fully loaded truck slam into my driver's door. But thankfully... We'll never know.

After the initial shock wore off, another battle began. The insurance company. Weeks later, the verdict finally came. Total loss. That was almost harder to hear than the crash itself. I knew how much time, effort, and money I'd put into that car. Then came the valuation. Let's just say... I wasn't impressed. After what felt like endless discussions with the insurance company, I finally received the payout. It was enough to buy the wreck back... But nowhere near enough to repair it properly through an official dealership. One estimate came back at around €25,000. That simply wasn't an option. So another search began. Not for a new car this time... But for someone willing to save this one. Luckily, being part of the car community has its advantages. You know people... Who know more people... Who know the right people. Eventually we found someone willing to take on the challenge.

After stripping the damaged panels, inspecting the chassis, and checking what could actually be saved, we realised something surprising.

The damage looked much worse than it really was.

One unexpected hero was the tow hook. It absorbed an incredible amount of the impact and acted almost like a second crash beam. Once we saw how much it had actually protected, it suddenly made sense why the Volvo looked even worse than my Octavia. Considering Volvos have a reputation for being built like tanks... That says a lot. After sourcing second-hand parts and doing the maths, we realised something that had seemed impossible just weeks earlier. We could actually rebuild it. So...That's exactly what we did.

Rebuilding the Octavia wasn't something that happened overnight. It was already summer by the time we really got started, and as anyone who's ever rebuilt a car at home knows, nothing happens quickly. You wait for parts. You discover new problems. You solve one issue, only to find another hiding underneath. It was a long process, filled with late nights, improvised solutions, and more than a few homemade "engineering" moments. 🤣

Luckily, once again, knowing the right people made all the difference. From sourcing parts to sorting out airbag modules and everything in between, there were countless moments where someone's knowledge or willingness to help kept the project moving forward. Little by little... The Octavia started looking like itself again.
Then, more than a year after the crash, the day finally arrived. It was road legal again. Registered. Back where it belonged. The only thing that still refuses to work is the hands-free boot opening with the foot sensor.

One day I'll get around to fixing it... Or I'll finally admit defeat and let someone else figure it out. 🤣 But that's a problem for another day. During all those months of rebuilding, I realised something.

After buying the wreck back and paying for the repairs, I was actually going to have a little money left from the insurance payout. Now... Most sensible people would probably save it. We didn't.

My wife and I looked at each other and basically came to the same conclusion. "Well... if we're rebuilding it anyway, why not make it even better than before?" Financially? Probably not the smartest decision. Emotionally? Absolutely the right one. There was something else the insurance payout gave us that I haven't mentioned yet.

Because it came as one larger sum of money, it also became the starting point for something far bigger than just rebuilding the Octavia.

It helped us begin building our forever home.

Well... renovating it, but to us, it's the same thing.

The very first paperwork, plans, and everything that came with turning that house into our future home all started because of that insurance payout.

Looking back, it's strange how life works.

The crash that nearly took away one dream ended up helping us begin another. By the end of 2025, our lives revolved around three things. Rebuilding the Octavia. Building our forever home.

And preparing to welcome our son into the world. Three new beginnings. Three new lives. I don't think we realised it at the time because we were too busy living through it. But looking back now, that year changed everything. Than it was finally my chance to install something I'd dreamed about since the Punto days. Air suspension. Back then, putting air ride on the Punto would never have made sense. This car, though... It deserved it.

And once I started, there was no stopping. A full exhaust system. More Maxton Design parts. Countless little upgrades. One modification after another.

By the time everything was finished, I'd actually spent a little more than the insurance company had paid me. Do I regret it?Not for a second. After the structural repairs were complete, the Octavia went straight from one workshop to another to finish everything properly.

I barely had it back for three days before it was off getting another upgrade. Some things never change. But while all of this was happening... Something far more important happened. For quite some time, my wife and I had been trying to start a family. It just wasn't happening. Looking back now, I think the stress probably didn't help either.

Then the accident happened. Suddenly our lives revolved around insurance companies, repair estimates, money, replacement parts, and simply getting through one day at a time.

Without even realising it... We stopped worrying about everything else.

About a month later, we found out we were expecting. To say we were excited would be an understatement. It was one of the happiest days of my life. The only day that tops it... Was the day our son was born. Ironically, he arrived before the Octavia was repaired. When I look back at that period, the timeline still makes me smile. Crash. Pregnancy. Our son is born. Car repaired. Not exactly how I'd planned things... But life rarely sticks to the plan.

Today, the Octavia is better than it has ever been. It's become everything I'd hoped it would be. More than just my pride and joy... It's a reminder of everything it has been through with me. Sometimes people ask me why I care so much about cars. Why I spend so much time, effort, and money on what is, to most people, just a machine. The truth is... I don't love cars because they're made of metal. I love them because of the memories attached to them. The people I've met because of them. The places they've taken me. The lessons they've taught me. Every scratch tells a story. Every modification reminds me of a different chapter in my life. The Punto taught me how to dream. The Octavia taught me how to rebuild. And somewhere along the way... Those cars helped shape the person I've become. So yes... Maybe my life really does revolve around cars and the amazing community that comes with them. To most people, they're simply a way of getting from A to B. To me...

They're chapters of my life,my lifestyle.

And I wouldn't change that for anything.