wja96

It really depends how much you want a blue one. If it's a good car, and you want an SE, then go buy it. Anything is only worth what someone will pay for it. It's a lot of money for a 2007 car. If the cam belt was done to schedule it will need one in the next couple of years. Probably a turbo and clutch too. Personally, I wouldn't pay that for one.

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/262215-list-of-vcds-owners-previously-known-as-vag-com/?hl=%2Bvcds+%2Bmap#entry4738071 That's a list of helpful members who will read your data from the car for very little or no money. VCDS is not a simple tool. It's a full-on professional piece of kit that starts with displaying fault codes but the first time you start it up you WILL think WTF do I do now?

I had a look n the "for sale" forum on here and there are three honestly advertised cars on here at the moment for £1100, £1350 and £1750. They've all got over 100,000 miles on. They all need work. But you know that up front. There is also a 2004 car on 73,000 miles for £4000 and a 56 plate on 46,000 for £5000. The one at £5000 has horrible swirly paintwork at the back but it's low mileage. The one at £4000 appears to need the cambelt doing. The one at £1100 looks fine but the ad admits it needs £450 worth of work to fix the issues. A lot of people (including the £5000 car seller) seem to join just to sell their "premium" vRS to Briskoda members. I just hope no-one gets sucked in by 46,000 miles....

I have to say I'm really surprised that people are reporting worse running as my understanding was all the software update did was remove the bit that detected when the car was being tested and then go into test mode. So unless you drive like the test mode and the car is going into the test mode there should be no difference.

Search on Milotec Dragon. It's mainly Audi TT Mk I bits so cheap as chips these days and if you have access to a full-on workshop I'd say go for it. They sold it as a kit. Maybe they still do.

And also remember that unless your dampers are set up for a soft ride, so it could be a bit interesting if you don't change those too. And if the dampers have been on the car a long time (potentially since new) then they may not take kindly to suddenly being permanently forced to sit an inch lower than before. But they'll probably be fine.

Bear in mind that the vRS is already dropped 10mm Not really. The vRS is already dropped 10mm so the springs for a non-vRS have to drop the extra 10mm and making the car sit down at the back reduces squat under acceleration.

What exactly is the attraction of low mileage cars? These cars are basically bangers now. £1000 will get you a good one if you take your time looking. Bottom line is always buy on condition, not mileage and save a chunk of your budget for repairs. At this age, irrespective of mileage, I'd budget for a full service, turbo, cambelt and clutch unless the seller can prove they've been changed recently. Bear in mind that at this end of the market you're buying someone's old car. It might have been loved and cherished but it's just as likely it's been abused and not serviced and they're selling it because it needs something expensive doing to it to pass an MOT.

So, it must be 3 services since I last put anything up about Robinsons, which is probably more a reflection of how smoothly things have been going than anything else. After a bit of a rocky start to her relationship with the new dealership setup, SWMBO is now firmly back in the "they can do no wrong" camp. She had a little bit of a concern over something and they fitted her in immediately, were generally fabulous and sent her in her way reassured and happy. If you're in Norwich and you have a VAG car, they're the best.

I face this every time I get the car serviced. SWMBO likes it serviced by Robinsons Skoda in Norwich. They undoubtedly look after us, but they're not cheap. Our last MOT had £1000 worth of work done to keep the car "as new" including various bits that didn't really NEED doing but maintained the car in as near new condition as possible. So, £1000 on a car that is probably worth £1000. It doesn't seem sensible but in reality you're getting something that will last at least a couple of years and you know YOUR car which is more than can be said for something more expensive that replaces it. So we keep spending the deposits for the next one on this one because that's it for another 20,000 miles of reliable motoring. £1600 to have the gearbox and clutch/DMF replaced is buttons compared to what another car could cost you. Whether you get it done by the dealer or an independent, it's still good value because ultimately - what can you replace a Mk I vRS with?

Impossible to answer from the information provided. Look for; 16 or 17" 6.5"-8"J ET 32-ET45 Centre bore 57.1mm Stud spacing 5x100mm They will all fit straight on with the tyre sizes posted above. No rubbing, no other adjustments required. Modern VAG wheels are 5x112mm and even later the centre bore is 66.6mm so you would need adapters. Skoda OEM are the best.

JabbaSport is the stiffest RARB. The classic suspension combination was always Koni FSDs and Eibach springs. In reality anything from a reputable company will be an improvement but don't expect miracles. It will corner a bit flatter and you might be able to push the throttle a bit harder out of roundabouts but anything from Peugeot, Citroen, Ford or Renault will be much quicker in the corners. It is what it is. A well made (heavy) small car with an enormously heavy engine in the front. RARB, SEAT Curpa console bushes, springs and shocks, 312mm Audi TT front brakes with 17" Octavia Spider wheels and you're ready for your remap.

16" wheels need 205/45/R16 tyres and 17" wheels take 205 or 215/40/R17 Anything less than ET30 starts to get seriously outside the wheelarches (standard is something like ET37 I think) and personally I'd stick to stock Fabia or Octavia alloy wheels. The first mod most vRS owners do is drop the car and put 17's on so there are lots of spare 16" wheels kicking about. 16" vRS wheels go for about £100 a set on here.

I'm using the 2nd generation kit from Horizon Leds in my SLK and you have to get a kit matched to the headlamp so the point the light is emitted is the same as the Halogen bulb it's replacing. My kit was almost £130 when new and it does use active cooling but the light output is bang-on 2000 lumens (so they are legal without washers and levelling) and the beam is white and bright. I love them. SWMBO is quite happy with the Nightbreakers in the vRS so I see no reason to spend £100+ on another set.

Quoted for truth.

That will just dye the dirt. Which is a possibility I suppose, but it's not ideal.Once clean, then by all means a bit of fabric dye might work wonders.

A steam cleaner is ideal if you have one. Spray on some detergent (101 multipurpose or Meguiars All Purpose are both good. Let that sit for a bit then hit it with the steamer and wipe with a microfibre cloth. Keep changing the bit of cloth you wipe the dirty surface with and eventually the cloth will stop coming away dirty. At that point you've pretty much cleaned the panel and it won't be very wet. I use a Polti Professional because I can get my cleaning kit through my business but Kaercher make a simple unit for about £40 and I'm sure you can get a cheaper one than that.

It's the springs that primarily determine how hard the ride is, the shock stop the springs moving in an uncontrolled way so they do contribute but not nearly as much as the springs. If you leave the springs and swap the shocks you're very unlikely to notice any difference unless your old ones are genuinely shot, in which case you'll stop pogoing down the road!

Simpsons Skoda through Drive the Deal. I got £1200 off list and they sold me the wrong "stock" car I got cruise control and airbag deactivation for free.

I don't think I posted anything different to what you have written. The vast majority of original vRS owners were not 18-25 year olds. They were 25-40 year olds. They kept the car for 2-5 years and many left them standard. By the time they reached the second or third owners most of these cars would have had some modification and the age of the owners drops as the age of the car increases. Young people tend to buy cheaper cars. Young men tend not to have a great deal of mechanical sympathy and the younger the driver the more likely it is in my mind that the car will have been abused. Not always. But more than likely. I never said that older folks don't drive modified cars. After all, I do. What I meant was that older people tend to be more interested in getting it done right by someone they know and trust than getting it done locally and cheap. And a 40-year old has had 23 years to find a decent mechanic. A 17 year old is just starting looking. And I pointed out that buying a good modified car would save someone a lot of money if they wanted a modified car. But a badly modified car is a disaster. The question remains though - how do you spot a well modified car?

The BLT is a greener engine if that's worth anything to you. BLTs are more power out of the box, but they both remap to the same maximum power so the power uplift on a 'good' BLT can be as little as 15bhp from a remap, whereas ASZs will get you 30-40bhp extra. My car came with a BLT and it's been very, very, reliable over 250,000 miles but the ASZ should be every bit as reliable. If you search long and hard, you will find some small issues with Mk I Fabias but really they are incredibly well-made and reliable cars.There are some dogs out there, but if you buy from a known source (like someone from Briskoda) the chances of getting one of those are markedly reduced. And you're doing the right thing by researching thoroughly before buying. Personally, I'd stay away from anything that's been messed about with ie. remapped, fitted with coilovers etc. because the likelihood of getting one that's been abused goes up exponentially as the age of the cars goes up and the age of the owners (and length of ownership) comes down. The flip side to that is that buying a well-modified car can save you thousands. But how do you know it's been well modified?

I could sugar-coat this, but not a hope in heck.

That's a LOT of car.

I have to be honest, looking at the pictures in high resolution on a big screen, I think this is a car to steer clear of. The rear bumper clearly has been repaired or is delaminating. The rear bumpers were always a glued together two-piece arrangement that was designed to make the car 1cm longer to allow Skoda to homologate the Fabia vRS WRC rally car which was actually the same as the old Octavia vRS WRC rally car underneath, hence it needed the road-going Fabia to be a bit longer. So the rear bumper could have been badly repaired by gluing the repair piece back on badly or it could be coming apart either as a result of a bad repair or someone using the wrong chemicals on the paintwork. Add in the mis-matched indicators, the fact that the number plates have been replaced front and rear and the odd angle the exhaust trim is siting at and this looks like a car that's had a rear-end shunt. The interior also doesn't look quite right. Bear in mind that this car is pushing 10 years old and you'd have to say £4000 is a lot of money to hand over for a less than pristine example. Far better to seek out a £5000 near-perfect car if an SE is what you deeply, deeply, want. Because you're probably paying a £2500 premium for the blue paint and leather seats. If it was me, I'd walk away from this one and find a black, silver, red or yellow one with xenon headlamps, ESP, heated seats for about £2500 and then spend £3000 making it perfect with Octavia brakes, Octavia 17" wheels, Eibach springs, Koni FSD shocks, uprated bushes all over and new leather seats if they float your boat. And I'd put another £1500 aside for a new clutch and turbo because that's about all that fails as the miles up. But that's just me.

What's the number? I thought all the SEs had the number stamped into the seat leather? I can't see the number from the photo of the seat. That's not to say it isn't there, but it's always easier to track an SE from the number.