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I have the last generation Passat estate. Great car that's served us well. A new car was on the cards and I fell into that sheep mentality we often all fall victim to of immediately looking at the Passat first. Nice car. New dashboard has a quality, simplified feel and perhaps a minor step up from my current car (I suspect that is marketing that has made me think that). Ok so far. Car looks - well it's a Passat - front has had a slightly keener look than old, but the back is worse than the last gen - and that sent you to sleep. What at first looked to be similar price point as my last purchase actually has the base standard "toys" reduced and the desirable accessories and upgrades costs push the price by a big jump. Leather seats, climate control, adjustable seats, tinted windows, all that sort of thing. But it was getting cracking reviews. I realized I had fallen into the trap of looking at the brand first so looked to see othe Passat class cars in the other VW group brands. Skoda Superb was never on my radar - wasn't keen on the previous look, but got a major surprise at the new Superb. First one I saw on the road I thought was a new Audi until I saw the badge. The repositioning in the market of the Skoda brand, impression, desirability and style is an impressive move and clearly indicates VW will be drifting into a higher price bracket in the coming years as Skoda starts attracting previous VW buyers. Audi will need to drift up the scale further still to maintain the gap between the brands. I can only imagine the internal competition it must have sparked at the VW group - the VW design team will be worried. Passat will have to significantly up its game at the next revision because it is a clear second to the Skoda on every measure - looks, practicality, kit, extras, prices, service costs etc. Putting the emotional side of visual desirability to one side (Skoda hands down for me), I moved on to the hard facts of numbers. Every single price is keener. For everything. The range of starting trim levels are approximately equivalent to VW until you look at detail - climate control - standard in Skoda, extra on VW Apple CarPlay interface standard on Skoda, £125 extra on VW (a tick box in the setup software) leather seats standard on Skoda (higher trims), extra on VW. It goes on. But what really caught my eye was each item was higher for a VW. Sometimes only £10 but often hundreds. For example, Factory swivel towbar £885 VW, £765 Skoda. Identical kit - literally. Final straw is the fixed price servicing VW £159 £329 (minor major service) vs Skoda £139 £259 VW are not stupid - they know how to encourage people to aspire for more/better/higher and they bank on you comparing the brand you currently align yourself with to the next one up - for example Audi. A VW owner can then satisfy themselves they are getting better value for money with VW or can reach for the extra prestige that Audi try to sell. Looking down the chain to a Skoda is rarer. However the new Skoda is catching people's attention. And the comparisons push the Passat into a second place. You can see VW are concerned. The discounts (carwow ) you can find on Passats are considerably more generous than Skoda Superb. The end price is still more but what might have been a £5k gap on paper can be reduced to £1800. This speaks volumes. Looking forward to the delivery of my new Skoda in a few months time.

Really foggy conditions this morning. Of course, there were lots of idiots driving without fog lights. There were also a few morons with no lights AT ALL. Trundling gently along the A24 early this morning, and suddenly the image of a car pops up on my dash. We squint into the gloom and see nothing.......a few seconds later the back end of a silver car with no lights on doing about 40mph starts to appear right in front of us. Obviously the ACC's radar can see what's in front long before I can in certain situations . An added safety feature to assist the Mk.1 eyeball. For the purposes of the picture (taken badly by my passenger I hasten to add), I backed right off before slowly catching them up again. By this point they'd sped up to about 50mph. From now on when it's foggy, I'll be keeping the assist screen up on the dash. It's an added layer of safety. It did the same thing a few more times, picking up the car in front at about the same time I started to see their rear fog lights, and quite a bit before I could see the odd idiot with just their normal lights on. It works with the ACC on or off.

Still not completed stickers yet as the wife's been a bit busy but got a few extra ones done and finally got the drivers wheel arch/door strip painted Hopefully get the last few remaining stickers done by next weekend and get it finished and take some pics then I can decide what to do with it

Thanks very much Charlie, its getting there. Not had much time to do a great deal lately in it due to work. Ordering my injectors come Monday, I've ruled out a cam for now due to the costs involved. Would of been nice whilst it was in bits but it's another £600 I can't stretch the budget to. Got the coolant pipe painted up. Fitted the coolant pipe along with a few cable holders and brackets and the replacement cam cover plastic. Then set about pulling the injectors outta the head. Will be giving the head a final clean off come Monday and then a re-oil up before setting about refitting it. Most likely won't be able to fully torque the head down due to how tight the headbolts will need to be so will leave the final 90° turn till its bolted back in the engine bay.

Just back from a couple of days in Cumbria, blasting round some great B roads in the R So, as you may have read earlier in my thread I kind of went full circle on what I wanted in a car. Initially I wanted bigger, better and generally more expensive. The more I thought about it, the more I seemed content on having another R, a great all round car Then I started realising that lately how little I actually use the car, and it's mainly become a bit of a workhorse rather than a fun toy. My life definitely has shifted over the last year, with more time allocated to R&R. So with that in mind, I started scouring for a bargain. I didn't want a cheap small, basic car, but a decent mid range, premium(ish) car that was heavily discounted. The actual model & spec being irrelevant. I came across a deal last week that basically sounded too good to be true. But decided to follow it up anyway. The car- VW Passat Alltrack 190Ps DSG Discover Sat Nav Adaptive Cruise Folding Heated Mirrors Electric ErgoComfort Seats 18" Alloys Comfort Pack The deal- £1500 + 23 x £57.78+vat (yep £57.78 a month!!!) Doc fee £150 Total cost over the 2 years - £2979+vat This is a car that retail at £34k, so less than 10% of depreciation over 2 years. It turns out there was only a 1 hour window on this deal earlier this week, between 9-10am. Basically there was an error on the VW costings, which was capitalised on by a couple of lease companies. The Alltrack normaly leases at ~6+23 x £400, so the error was quite significant. I nervously awaited the outcome as most applications were outside the time window, and only a small number within were approved. Anyway, long story short, I got the phone call from the lease company to say they VW were honouring my application I've now got my contract signed and returned & approved. So a very happy boy. I've got my R for another 4 months, so will make the most of it, but over the next 2 years I will have about £4k spare to enjoy on extra holidays etc, and Im not exactly slumming it, in a £34k car

What do we have here then Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So my golf passed its mot this week and since i hadent washed it for almost 4weeks i thought id give it a bit of love :clap: So there you have it, now i cant make my mind up about spend any money on the body work (my rust issues) or just keep using it till it dies mmmmmmmm

Niggles: moaning. If you don't like it go and get another car!

I like the unpretentiousness of the brand. Its an honest good value car. When you see the attitude of some of the people who buy Audi, BMW, Merc you dont want to be part of that. They are thinking persons cars, people who can see past a badge.

who cares what others think, if you enjoy it don't worry about it

Took the plunge and decided to do add xenons to my FL elegance as I wanted more light and travel mode. The biggest factor was to keep it road-legal and avoid any risk to the BCM which ruled out the H7 drop in kits completely. Fitting wasn't too bad, I did it in three stages and it probably took about 12 hours of relaxed work. I was still using the car so had to reassemble and keep it together enough to drive between each stage which added time too. Took a few pictures along the way to give an idea what's involved. First stage was front/rear level sensors and wiring into the passenger compartment. Second stage was fitting the AFS module and wiring it to the sensors/CAN/power. Third stage was fitting the extra wiring to the headlights, the headlights themselves and new dash dimmer switch without level control. Coding and completing the basic settings was a five minute job, they now work exactly as the factory option. First chance to try them tonight and they work great! Much more light on the road and AFS works really quite well. I suspect they might be aimed slightly high but I wasn't flashed so it might be the extra throw I'm not used to. Haven't bothered with beam shots as they look like any other stock FL Octavia with factory xenons... As I suspect someone will ask, the total cost was about £650 which happens to be the same as the original factory fit option, not too bad in my opinion considering I fitted a pair of brand new HID bulbs at £100 (Osram Nightbreakers D1S). The car came with headlight washers and a BCM that supported xenons installed from factory so neither needed adding or replacing. For the level sensors/loom/dash dimmer switch and AFS module it was about £150. Headlights are completely dependant on where you source them, good condition RHD seem quite rare unfortunately - eBay and breakers are your best bet. I had to tweak the wiring loom as it appeared to be for a bi-xenon Golf, if people are interested I can add a schematic for the loom I ended up fitting but it's basically taken from the factory wiring diagram. I didn't fit the wire shown on the WD between T26e/8 and T52c/52 as other cars with the same AFS controller didn't seem to have it, there are no errors shown and everything works as expected so I've no idea what it's purpose is! I also have an extra wire to each headlight so if I decide to go for a custom bi-xenon set up later I'll be able to control the shutter properly. From what I understand, it should also be possible to enable AFSII as the module is running SW:0148. This will change the 'lighting cone' depending on speed and conditions rather than just levelling and bending. I'll add the coding later if I figure it out...

Hi Everyone. It has been a hectic few months and the cars have been very unloved. So after a trip to Manchester and a good few mies on the dirty and salty Norfolk roads I decided to give the team bus a bit of protection. So after a snow foam with AWFast Foam and wash with G3 body prep it was clear to see that, actually, the car was still being very well protected by the Dodo Juice Supernatural Hybrid Nano that I put on for its winter prep. The G3 body prep, at a pretty strong dilution, is supposed to strip the wax. All it did was rejuvenate the water behaviour of the wax. So on the Evolve went. It spreads like a dream and the panel pot I purchased will do easily 6 coats on the Superb!! I hardly made a dent in it! After applying to the whole car I cleared a few bits up and then removed. It is just as easy to remove as it is to apply. And I am impressed with the gloss it gives. A top rate wax for sure and a pleasure to use!! Great wax from AP and sits well with Intensify, their show wax. Hope you find this useful. Neil

I like the look of the car for what it is and couldn't give a stuff what anyone else thinks. If they want to pay way more for a VW or Audi and basically get the same car under the skin I say let them.... :clap:

Cheers pal yeah xxr 527, there 17" 8.25 front and 8.75 rear I think, I had them a while just put them on with the Coilovers.

Agreed to do this Rav 4 for a work colleague today. Wish I hadn't bothered haha. So many swirls and RDS. Had to break out the big guns. Came out looking half decent. Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

I know it's not a everyones favourite colour but I actually really like the idea of the brown. I've had black, almond, black and ivory premium leather (in that order) in my Discovery 3, Discovery 4 (x2) and a run out edition Range Rover Sport HSE Black. I liked them all but found the black leather got way too hot, showed every crumb and scuff, and was a bit dismal inside; the almond was ok but a bit 'sickly'; and the ivory was beautiful but a bugger to keep clean (I did clean it a lot but the leather still stained blue from jeans on the drivers and passengers seat edge despite my best efforts to keep it clean). We also own a steam traction engine which means we do tend to get a bit covered with coal and oil detritus - despite efforts not to drive the cars when dirty like that, sometimes it is a necessity! To cap it all, when I saw a moon white L&K 190 diesel in Ridgeway Skoda in Newbury with the brown ventilated leather, (and most of the other options I have chosen for my 280 petrol, including the panoramic roof) I fell for it. It's certainly a change and I may not like owning it, but at least it is different! It will also be a bit more resistant to the tough life I give it as a steam engine owner! I was still in time to change it (locked last week) but I've stuck with the brown...each to their own of course...

Cheers mate still got some fiddling about with the Coilovers till it sits right but getting there.

New brake discs and pads arrived today. Brembo discs which are apparently ceramic coated? Sounded good so went with them. Ferodo 2500 pads, bit i'm not 100% convinced they will fit. They look different shpe to whats in at the min. [emoji16] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just a quick clean today using madcow products. Foamed with madcow mojito, 2bm using candy bath and and final wipe over with ultra Violet. Sorry about the 1St pick unsure why it's that way round, I can't seem to rotate it and the picture wasn't taking that way.

That and the fact I am going for a days lessons before I do my ARDS test. A other ouch amount of money. Can't take it with you when you die, might as well let the bank figure it out when you keel over.

Nah I don't blame him for the money I'm spending on the car [emoji106] better than drugs [emoji12] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Safe to say though, none of this would have been possible if Mr Fox hadn't gotten me involved [emoji106] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I know what your saying but Just wouldn't be able to remove the back bumper if needed then

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/georgeosborne/12191676/George-Osborne-clears-path-for-tax-cuts-in-Budget-with-1bn-benefits-raid.html Most people I know that are well off or very well off don't really complaint about paying taxes or about people getting benefit payments. What they complain about is how the money is spent and how inefficient and useless the systems are. More and more money seems to go into the tax grinder and fewer and fewer services seem to come out.

Bit of an update got calipers powder coated and fitted ended up fitting 8mm spacers to gain clearance [url=http://s567.photobucket.com/user/patrickferguson20/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20160312_123713_zpsm9fnvi7c.jpg.html]

Then refitted the boot carpet to tidy it up, getting a battery tray soon so how the battery is, is only temporary. Now for some money shots

Now for some good pics, painted the diffuser and flat floor cover inside, Masked up Couple of coats, was a beautiful 10degrees in York perfect painting weather

I do indeed Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

One anon sponsor was an offer before I started and actually got me on the grid quicker [emoji106] LV= and Car-Van.Finance was a few months of conversations and selling myself and calling in favours [emoji106] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Waiting for a good day and free time to play.....

that explanation sounds odd to me. Turbos don't wear in. You'll find nothing in the owners manual about driving above 50 (although there is a bit about power and rev range to use during the first 1000 miles). Seems like a straight faulty part that they don't want to admit. worrying

Congratulations on spending £50k on your new skoda....oops I meant audi sir.

Tidied up some wiring and the fuse holder in the engine bay now the battery's gone, and fitted some draft 42 shifter bushes I've had sitting around for ages Jobs for today are good Hoover out and clean ready for ultimate dubs tommorrow, going to refit the boot carpet and trim it around the battery to make it neater, New exhaust sounds great

I never saw the 'issues' with my other half either on the 'test drive', only a few years later I discovered the problems...persistent nagging etc ;-)

Looking very good Damo.

I do about 5000 miles a year, with a few 10 mile journeys most weeks at about 50mph. Hardly ever drive at over 1800rpm. The car has done a couple of regens judging by the "hot " smell from around the exhaust pipe on those occasions. No problems otherwise.

It's almost a waste of time having a spare bulb kit as per the requirement of many European Countries as who is going to carry a replacement D3S bulb at £50-£80 a pop along with various normal bulbs and LED's when you need the tools and facilities of a well equipped workshop to be able to replace them. There is seriously very little that you would be able to change at the roadside with most modern cars these days.

Most of the issues people have had from DPFs is from the ones fitted about 10 years ago when they were first forced upon manufacturers in order to meet Euro V standards. Add in a lot of mis-selling in the early days with sales staff failing to point out the shortcomings to lower mileage drivers. I think the combination of better DPFs and better advice from sales staff is seeing this as less of an issue. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This isn't Skoda's fault. This is because you drive on the wrong side. Most Fords are also on the LHS on RHD cars.

I'll leave this here

What is it with this desire to ban democratically-elected leaders from our shores? Arrogance of the first order. All sounds a bit Luvvie Lefty...ban what you don't agree with and ridicule any opinion that doesn't accord with yours...although Briskodians, as a rule, are far too polite to do so openly. If Americans vote for Trump, sombe it. Obama has hardly been a shining example of a great President and those opining that G W Bush was better than Trump might be, are just being silly. The POTUS is not all-powerful; there are a lot of checks and balances in the system. Better that UK citizens concentrate of the many serious problems we have far closer to home.

now that baby Phantom has gone, and Phantom is going next week, here we have "The replacement" -- Daddy Phantom not going on track with this one (for now anyway) its got to be the family workhorse, and give me a little fun at the same time! Bought off a fellow briskodian, for a very reasonable price, its a lot of car for the money really! Gonna take the octavia badge off, for a cleaner look... really happy with what i have got , and a good basis for going forward, no money at the moment, but hopefully that will change later in the year! it has a 3" s/s exhaust and de-cat, and stage 1 map. (and it sounds awesome on boost, and pops! but yet is quiet at cruising speed!) dogbone mount, VR6 clutch and G60 flywheel. gear change and cluch feel very nice . plans..... 1: get a head unit that can stream music from my phone, and be a "hands free" kit. 2: de-badge rear. 3. new fuel pump (power comes in waves, and isn't consistent... gonna try to get it running sweetly before any more mods....) then.... suspension/handling : I like the comfort of this car, and as I have no plans to track it, I'm going to leave it on the standard suspension, it sits well, isn't floaty, isn't bouncy, and soaks up bumps with ease... maybe I'm getting old! lol...... I am considering, front and rear anti-roll bars, and poly-bushing the front, as there is movement in the wishbones etc... may go up to 225/45/17 tyres when they need replacing. engine: more power...... yes lol... i will be turning it up in the future, FMIC, maybe then a hybrid , injectors, and another map to suit. any other bits I do i will post up on here . very happy to be staying in the skoda fold

Very helpful. Thanks and GLWS!

No worries, hope you find one.

Think Knockhill will give me an invoice to the business for Driving Assessment? Hehe Sent from my Hudl 2 using Tapatalk

Dat welding tho Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

You know you want to... and besides by then you'll just be disappointed that everyone else is going and your not.

Isn't that stuff just fro Dalmatians ? Oh sorry thought it said 101

From memory 323mm and think the pads are the same as LCR Brembos, LCR pads and disc at replacement time

My Father was on Tramp Steamer's on Atlantic convoys, 6-knotts if you were lucky, 8-knotts and you were making so much smoke you could be seen miles away and the escorts would come and give you a rollicking.