CMcK

Ah well. Still a really nice motor though. Hopefully get the missus in for a test drive at the weekend.

I had my vRS in for its service on Wednesday and took a test drive in 2.0 diesel DSG Elegance estate.My other half has a 2.0 diesel Mk V Golf Estate which I am looking to replace. I would echo a lot of the comments made by the OP. Loads of room inside, good NVH, build quality seems first rate and the standard spec on the Elegance models is pretty good. Not sure I would spec the 18s but having sais that it still rode well. Does the Octavia have the full multi link rear suspension or is that being kept for the vRS? The car seemed a little hesitant at first but I discovered it was set to Eco mode. The normal setting soon cured that. I tried the Sport setting on the bypass and was surprised how you could feel the suspension firm up. The engine was more eager to rev and the box willing to kick down inthe Sport setting as well. I saw in the brochure that the Canton audio upgrade offers noise cancellation. Surely this has to be a must have option if it reproduces music better and effectively makes the car quieter inside.

It's now EU law that series production cars from 2014 onwards must include some form of electronic stability control. This will just be Škoda preparing for the changes coming into effect.

Xenons are the thing I would like most on the car. So much better than even the uprated bulbs I fitted to the vRS.

Looks like the setup my mate had on his Mk VI R. He had about seven options selectable from the cruise stalk. Very slick operation and some serious boost to the power. I think I'll try this Nitro+ stuff next few tanks and see if I notice any changes. Might be something to it.

Just spotted the typo in my earlier post. I meant to say a car needs to be mapped to suit the higher RON petrol or you won't see much improvement. Would be good to have something like the old Red Rose map that TVR had. You could toggle between different maps to suit what you had filled her up with.

Ok. I have asked for a price for the B12 kit as well.

That just looks like normal <10ppm sulphur ULSP. The extra performance will come from the additives.

Unfortunately not.

I work at the refinery in Scotland and we supply all of the petrol in the country. Plus some parts of Northern England. Now I'm not privy to the lab results but what I do know is all the base fuels across the brands are the same. The only difference is the additives added to the petrol as it is loaded into the tanker. Also when you see 95RON on the forecourt it can actually be anywhere between 93 and 97. Similarly for super (97) which is anywhere between 95 and 99. My local petrol stations are Esso and Tesco. The Esso is selling 97 RON Super and Tesco Momentum 99. I see no difference between the fuels and I don't really expect to. If your car is mapped to take advantage of the 99 RON there will only be a marginal improvement.

Thanks. I think I'm going to get the B8 dampers on their own and try that first.

I think I'm ready to go for the B12 kit now. Normally I would not lower a car for fear of compromising the ride quality. Any ideas if the stock springs plus B8 dampers would be an improvement over factory setup?

My winter types are on 15" steel wheels but the car feels too bouncy especially at the back. I need to look into the Bilstein B8s. Thanks for the tip.

For info lads I tried to buy FSDs for my 2011 vRS but Koni don't do a part to suit yet. There is one listed on their catalogue but it is the same part number as the mk 1 Fabia vRS and likely not suitable.

Round the doors I'm usually averaging in the high 30's. My commute to work is only 7 miles but is often in the mid 40's. I never seem to get any better than 37mpg on steady motorway journeys. Overall according to the trip computer I have averaged 36.5 mpg since taking delivery of the car.