Octavia vRS owners in here!

[WJA96]

Yes, and SEAT and Skoda.

 

[Liverpool-Lad]

Yup, I think the water pump is made from plastic so thats prone to going, perhaps explaining the air of caution on the belt scenario. Penny pinching fools. Apparently the newer pumps are constructed of metal.

 

[Firestar_3x]

Thats what Im thinking...mmm

Can't belive how cheap those VRS's are going for, very temping if i was after a car of that size.

 

[g60dubster]

Briskoda is your best bet. Red cars are not sought-after second hand so bargain hard. Black and Silver are the preferred colours with yellow being a distinct no-no at resale time. A remap at 55,000 miles is likely to be at £300-£500 to have it done and then quite expensive when the clutch, turbo and head-gasket all need replacing. Jabba and Celtic Tuning won't remap cars with over 70,000 miles on the clock at all. This is because a 10,000 mile car still has 90,000 unmapped miles of life in it's major components but only 50,000 miles life left in the turbo, head gasket and clutch after it's been remapped. A 50,000 mile car potentially only has 10,000 miles left. People tend to blame the tuner when expensive parts go pop soon after an upgrade so you can't really blame the tuners for being reluctant to do higher-mileage vehicles.

Remapping higher mileage cars is only iffy if the car's not been cared for. Also some tuners take the k03 turbo past it's efficiency range to give more power, this has quite an effect on turbo life. Afterall my 1.8T 150 can be taken upto 190-210bhp yet to get 190 the turbo pressure is increased to 1bar which is the maximum efficient output of the turbo, I wonder what some tuners do to get the extra power??

I know of numerous 1.8T owners of various outputs that have been chipped for 50k+ miles and no more problems than none chipped cars. The pre-chip mileage varies from 10k to 80k.

The best thing you can do is put the best quality oil in and shorten the intervals, I use Motul 300v Power and change every 3k.

 

[Liverpool-Lad]

I wasnt really after something large but the amount of kit on them and the price/performance is staggering. So hence leaning toward one.

 

[WJA96]

Penny pinching fools.

I doubt it - they probably thought they would last longer - but the problem is that all they can do is test over big mileages rather than long timeframes and even with accelerated wear tests they probably didn't spot a potential issue - like the plastic went brittle over time or some water is harder than other water or maybe they cocked up the formulation on the coolant corrosion inhibitor or something - but I doubt they under-engineered it. Anyway - I think that's wuite cheap to guard against - the water pump is on the outside of the engine and the replacements are all metal now, so you could get it done for safety's sake as it were.

ALL cars have issues - even 'modern, well engineered' ones. You can easily frighten yourself out of buying anything if you're not careful. Bottom line is, it's a 4-5 year old, lowish mileage performance car. Caveat emptor.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Can't belive how cheap those VRS's are going for, very temping if i was after a car of that size.

I wonder why some people think you should buy a car purely based on size.

You know, if you buy an Octavia 5 door hatchback there is no law which requires you to have children and a dog. The doors are quite capable of remaining closed.

Why not simply set down what you want from a car - say, performance, handling, value, whatever, and then buy whichever one best fits that rather than restricting yourself to a certain size of a car only?

I'm sure Liverpool-Lad doesnt need the practicality of a 5 door hatch. But he isnt exactly paying more for that practicality, is he? It comes free, if you like, due to the curious way in which the used car market operates.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I doubt it - they probably thought they would last longer - but the problem is that all they can do is test over big mileages rather than long timeframes

Is this yet more evidence to suggest it is time, not mileage, which is a cars worst enemy? I'm still of the school of thought that would rather have a 100k 02 plate than a 50k W plate for the same money..

 

[WJA96]

Is this yet more evidence to suggest it is time, not mileage, which is a cars worst enemy? I'm still of the school of thought that would rather have a 100k 02 plate than a 50k W plate for the same money..

Yep.

 

[WJA96]

I wonder why some people think you should buy a car purely based on size.

You know, if you buy an Octavia 5 door hatchback there is no law which requires you to have children and a dog. The doors are quite capable of remaining closed.

Why not simply set down what you want from a car - say, performance, handling, value, whatever, and then buy whichever one best fits that rather than restricting yourself to a certain size of a car only?

I'm sure Liverpool-Lad doesnt need the practicality of a 5 door hatch. But he isnt exactly paying more for that practicality, is he? It comes free, if you like, due to the curious way in which the used car market operates.

I agree with you up to the point at which 'Social Expectations' set in. My last 4 'daily drive' cars have been large-ish diesel estates. My wife and I have no children and, due to company car tax and the fact my wife now has a large-ish estate herself, I bought a Skoda Fabia vRS to run about in. It's an absolute hoot - it's faster cross country than almost anything else I've ever driven (BMW 330d/Golf GT-TDi170 notably excepted), it's very refined on the motorway and it's really cheap to run. But my customer's think my business is in the toilet and my next door neighbours are twitching their curtains. Sometimes you just need the right car.

 

[Dogbreath]

I wonder why some people think you should buy a car purely based on size.

The VRS was top of my list of replacement cars until I found it wouldn't go down my driveway without modifying the house or the car. See, size is important sometimes Fox

 

[willd58]

I wonder why some people think you should buy a car purely based on size.

Because size more often than not, means compromise?

 

[Firestar_3x]

I wonder why some people think you should buy a car purely based on size.

Perhaps saying by buying a car of that size was the wrong way of phrashing it for the super sensitive and anal amongst us.

Let me break it down for you, if i found i needed more than two seats and a small boot anytime soon a VRS would be on my list, i don't need a huge boot so i don't want to miss out on all the fun a small 2 seater has to offer when i don't need to advantages a huge car has to offer.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Because size more often than not, means compromise?

Correct - buy small, lose power, buy big, lose... teenager with baseball cap image?

 

[Firestar_3x]

Correct - buy small, lose power, buy big, lose... teenager with baseball cap image?

Thats not true is it and you know it!

 

[willd58]

Correct - buy small, lose power, buy big, lose... teenager with baseball cap image?

More like, buy big, loose fun, gain practicality, buy small, gain fun, loose practicality.

Only fun barges i can think of are the seriously quick ones, like M5's, anything less, and id rather be a passenger than have to suffer the chore of driving.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Only fun barges i can think of are the seriously quick ones, like M5's, anything less, and id rather be a passenger than have to suffer the chore of driving.

There speaks somebody who has clearly never driven anything bigger than a Fiesta thats half decent, driving is most certainly not a chore in the right car

 

[willd58]

There speaks somebody who has clearly never driven anything bigger than a Fiesta thats half decent, driving is most certainly not a chore in the right car

Ah you got me!!!!

Give it a month, i went to look at some ST200's and ST24's yesterday. Didnt have time for a test drive. They looked rubbish in comparison to the Fiat Coupe according to everyone who was with me though. I just cant get insured on the Coupe turbo til im 21.

 

[tblocksom]

As I understand it the timing belt is not the cam belt, but I'm willing to be corrected.

Timing belt, cam belt, toothed belt, whatever... I'm no techie (couldn't even replace my own DV for an aftermarket one, lol), but it is the belt that needs replacing every 80K (and to be safe side, I do it at 70K).

Yup, I think the water pump is made from plastic so thats prone to going

This is true and that is why they advice you to replace it at the same time.

tblocksom's car is an excellent example of this - If he bought his car 3 years ago with 35,000 miles on the clock with 128,000 now showing he must be doing almost 30,000 miles per year. Those are almost certainly going to be long milemunching journeys and the car will be under relatively little stress where the engine gets to warm up fully before he uses the performance and probably he cools it down properly after using it too

Yup, many motorway miles and I will not take it past 3K rpm when the engine is still cold. I also take great care in letting the turbo cool down before I switch the engine off, but in between I do trash the life out of it

 

[Slackworth]

Correct - buy small, lose power, buy big, lose... teenager with baseball cap image?

I agree with that actually. I have a big four door saloon yet generally I'm the only one in it. However, it has the options of bigger engines, lot more toys and isn't completely overpriced for what it is *cough* A3 *cough*