Diango

I know what the mechanics of XDS are supposed to do but I only think I notice them during corners that were too fast to begin with. Especially when dry my experience is that I can corner the vRS pretty hard and good, I've never had the tail break out on me. I have had it understeer on me, especially in the wet and with ESC turned off or on sport. Problem is, ESC will also delay the wheel in picking up speed again after correcting any spin it was trying to counter, so when driving it hard I mostly turn it off as it's quicker to correct (or prevent understeer) than to 'wait' until the system decides it safe to accelerate again. My main issue is (with or without ESC, or on sport) that I have too much torque to deliver in a straight line from a standstill. Even with ESC on (and I don't know whether XDS can do anything to help here) it will struggle to keep both wheels planted firmly on the asphalt. I know tuning it probably exacerbated the issue but I'm beginning to wonder which situations exactly XDS is supposed to remedy for me. While this may seem like a negative review - I'm still having truckloads of fun with my VRS, it's just something I noticed.

Hate to break it to you, but to improve it you need to fiddle with the car, and I don't mean the settings in the menu. There is too much stuff that can resonate in the doors and the sub isn't all that great either. But then again, it's only a € 600,- upgrade, up against (for instance) the € 1800,- Harmann Kardon upgrade in a BMW.

Again, outside job . It's a company vehicle so I just ordered with all the bits and bolts I wanted.

I haven't done it myself, I had it done by a specialist, but I'm given to understand that it is done as you say. They modified the installation later on to power the amp + sub on contact instead of detection of sound. Sometimes the amp would switch off and back on (or sometimes just off) because of a low volume not triggering it. This seems to be a thing in the Canton systems so be aware of that.

I had the doors and boot lined with stuff called "dynamat" to insulate against road noises and improve the canton sound. Secondly, the windows were tinted a few shades darker than factory option would have done. Thirdly: A tow bar (removable). Fourth modification: An aftermarket subwoofer + amp because the canton one couldn't put a dent in a stick of butter, as a saying in my country goes. Fifth one: I had a block heater installed with a remote control. I can preheat the interior and engine block so I can floor it almost immediately after leaving the house and not have to de-ice in the winter.

Skoda is the sponsor to the Tour de France and I've seen them carry up to seven bikes on the roof. Myself I have a very simple & cheap (meaning: heavy steel/aluminum) roof rack with 4 rails so four bikes tops. Not an issue at all.

Tadaa:

vRS and reliability... Well, I can rely on my car putting a smile on my four-year old son every time I make the car "growl" as he describes it. I can also rely on it to need a liter of oil every 7000-odd kilometers, and (apparently) a new turbo and EGR valve every 80k. The only time it let me down (as in: not starting) was when the battery went dead after an electric malfunction in the dealer-fitted audio system. As to MPG: I do 15km/liter on average (measures over 50.000 kilometers) but I can see the MPG becoming slightly better (towards 16/17km/liter) now that the engine has a tuning box attached.

Good point, and so that's what I just did :-). It'll be here later this week. Can't wait!

Well you have the import tax on parts from the EU of course... it's expensive living on an island ;-) *wink *wink.

499 Pounds sterling, that's about 600 odd euro's. A bit too steep for my liking. The ones from Germany are 258. But good to know the limits of the engine are apparently high enough to take 500nm :-).

I've seen many references to DTUK here, but converting your pounds to our Euro's their prices are great too (and I mean that sarcastically). I'm sure they give great service and a great product too, but I'm looking for something closer to home (and spend-willingness).

Hi people! The Dutch Diesel has been given a temporary upgrade... colleague of mine with a Greenline 1.6 diesel had to get it to the shop for a few days, decided to pop his tuningbox under my hood for safe keeping, so to say. It plugs into the common rail & turbo connectors. It also transforms the car completely. It went from a 'nice family diesel' to the car it should have been, according to the advertisement. It pulls through the gears like there's no tomorrow, picks up a lot faster (I get the feeling the turbo spins up faster) and also has less understeer through fast corners (I fail to see how this could be a result but I have a theory). I can now keep up with proper GTI's and GTD's. Estimate figures would be around ~224BHP and ~460NM (184/380 stock). I'd like to get one as well, but I'm not looking to spend a whole lot of money... my colleague bought it at a German website called tuningbox.net and he's not the only one who's got one from there. Few other coworkers have them as well and have been using them for years on end, through multiple lease cars from the VAG group (Skoda, VW, Audi). All without a hitch. This seems like a good piece of (be it anecdotal) evidence but I want to have your take on this, since I've seen threads on the forum about more expensive solutions (DTUK comes to mind). A proper remap is out of the question because of a wipe during maintenance at the dealer, so a box it is. The aforementioned site does a box for my car for about 260 euro's, with a specific mention that it's suited for cars with a DPF (as opposed to the cheaper ones that only plug into the common rail). Your thoughts?

After 80.000 kilometers I decided it was taking too long, so a colleague installed his tuning box under my hood since his car is off to the garage for a few days anyway. I now feel that the car is behaving as advertised, so I'd say 1.5 years before it loosened up .