Bluesarge

Bought my car from Simpsons and from day one customer service was non existent. The tools in spare wheel were missing, after numerous phone calls and promises I ended up driving back where they got a set from another car for me. Rear washer wasn't working, my wife took it back and was told it needed a new motor, can't remember the cost, but after checking on here I took the jet off, cleaned it and it worked perfectly!!!! Never been back since, took it to Alex Lawrie for it's service and they were infinitely better, got a lift into Liverpool city centre and a courtesy call a couple of days later to check everything was ok. I'll definitely be taking it back to Alex Lawrie from now on. But to be fair, my dad has now had 3 cars from Simpsons and would recommend them to anyone he spoke to, he's never had a problem with them.

Don't know if it's too far away, but I've used Ace Tints in Ormskirk a couple of times, on a Xsara Picasso and my current Octavia, very happy with the job on both cars. I'll try to get a pic uploaded but the car is away at the body shop til the weekend. Got the Octy done July '15 it cost £160 for rear window and rear side windows in doors. 5 year guarantee covering peeling and bubbling of film, obviously excludes scratches. www.acetints.co.uk also on facebook with loads of pics of some of the jobs they've done. Best recommendation I can give is that I'm getting my dads car soon and I'll be heading back to them to get that done.

Mine has got 3 Dunlops SP sport on and one Falken I think it is of the top of my head. Don't do many miles, prob 4-5k year at most. Only time i ever have any problem is pulling way from a junction in a hurry to join traffic and there doesn't seem to be as much grip as I'd like, though that will prob improve with new tyres whatever make I end up with. The efficient grips seem to have gone down well on here, but are about £70-75 each on the sites I've seen. Blackcircles currently have the 205/60/15 tyres for £55 for either Avon's or Falken's and mytyres.co.uk have some Toyo's for the same sort of price. Been looking on tyrereviews.co.uk for info on them, seems like quite a good site. Still can't decide which one's to get though!!

Reading this with interest as I'm going to need at least 2 new tyres for my Octy soon. Interesting to read that so far the Goodyears have impressed a lot of people, so they'll go onto my list of possibles. Anyone had any experience with Uniroyal RainExpert 3's or Vredestein Sportrac 5's? Been a long time since I've had to buy tyres and it was always whatever the cheapest new one's were in stock at my local garage. These 2 tyres come out very well on tyrereviews.co.uk which is so far my only source of independent information.

The reverse sensors on my FL Octy go haywire in the rain too, been thinking of taking it back under warranty but whenever I think about phoning them they work ok so haven't bothered.

Just bought one of these, only arrived today so not had chance to try it yet. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-ELM327-OBD2-V1-5-Car-Bluetooth-Scanner-Android-Auto-Scan-Diagnostic-Tool-UK-/371348369999?hash=item567616724f Downloaded the Carista (free) app to use with it. Hopefully get chance in the morning to see if it actually works!

Assuming the car is locked, if you press and release the button straight away it unlocks, but doesn't release. If you press and hold the button for a second or two, it unlocks and releases it so all you have to do is lift the boot up. At least that's how mine works, only found that out myself in the last few days.

First car after passing my test was a Skoda Estelle 120 LSE bought by my Dad for £170 and it was at least 3 different colours. My Dad used to work for health and safety and knew of a place (from inspecting factories) where they did brush on paint for cars (tekaloid) so we painted it blue. Brilliant car, I absolutely loved it. After that in no particular order I were 2 x MK1 Ford Fiesta 957cc MK2 Fiesta 1.6 diesel Rover 100 Rio (inherited when my Grandad died) H reg Peugeot 309 diesel - rather liked this one, had 170k on the clock when bought MK3 Ford Fiesta 1.1 W Reg Ford Focus TD Volvo 460 TD MK3 Astra 1.4 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.8 GLS - felt very posh at the time being a GLS model 1997 Rover 414 Si 1996 Citroen Synergie TD 2004 Renault Scenic 1.4 - Without doubt the worst car I have ever owned 2007 Citroen Xsara Picasso 1.6 Ford Escort saloon TD - 1 of my favourite cars. 2004 Seat Toledo 1.9 TDi SE (130) probably edges out the escort and my current Octy as favourite car Current car 2009 Octavia 1.4 TSi DSG. I'm sure there are others, the list doesn't seem long enough.

They didn't come with a spare as standard did they? I didn't realise this so was fortunate to discover mine had the spare wheel in place. Maybe the previous owner threw in a spare wheel they acquired without checking sizes. I had to go back with my car as it turned out half the toolkit was missing so I wouldn't have been able to change the wheel if I'd gotten a flat. The salesman sorted it for me, but he wasn't happy as he said the wheel and toolkit should've been looked at as part of the checks they do on there approved used cars. I'd get in touch with the dealer and see if they'll sort it out for you.

Cheers for that DadWagon, had a quick read and it also says this a bit earlier on 'Any part which is replaced becomes the property of Volkswagen. Any replaced parts are covered for the unexpired period of the vehicle warranty' So basically if the car is out of warranty and you pay for the repair yourself you get a 2 year warranty on the part, if it's done under warranty you only get the remainder of the warranty. Seems a bit unfair, if they are confident enough to warranty the part for 2 years when the customer is paying for repairs, why do they penalise you because your car is still under warranty. I shall be phoning the dealer tomorrow (if I remember) to ask them about it.

Just had the mechatronic unit replaced on my Octavia (59 plate 1.4 TSi). Drove 230 miles in it without a problem, then on a 1/4 mile trip to the local shop went faulty, fortunately not while driving, just refused to go into gear when trying to leave the shop. Car was 'recovered' to the dealer, 10 days later we got it back. unfortunately I was at work so my wife decided to go for a trip out to collect it. She was told there was no paperwork for us, it was kept on computer by the dealer, but she also forgot to ask about warranty on the new part. Being an older car it only had 12 month warranty so I'm expecting them to tell me it's only covered til the end of the 12 months from when we bought the car, but surely it should have it's own stand alone warranty of 12 months from the repair date. Will have to phone them to check, but not been too impressed by the after sales customer service from Simpsons Skoda in Preston so who knows what they'll tell me.

I have a 1.4 TSi DSG Octavia, but while it was at the dealer for some warranty work recently (on the DSG box) I had a 1.2 TSi DSG Fabia as a courtesy car. Needless to say I wasn't too interested in the fuel consumption, but it didn't feel that much slower than my Octy. I doubt it's actually skipping gears, but unless you floor it, it seems to be set up to change up very early. In both cars I noticed it seems to use 1st gear as literally just a pulling away gear and change very quickly to 2nd. Nice car, but glad to have my Octavia back!

Mine is actually a mk 2 Octavia so don't know how different the newer one is. Had it just under 2 months, brilliant car, so much better than our old picasso. Not used it with a full boot yet, but with 5 of us in the car, enough power to more than keep up with traffic with some in reserve. DSG box is fantastic, though I have already had to have the mechatronic unit replaced (under warranty fortunately) and the car has only done 23k, hope the new one lasts longer! So far it has mostly done town driving and the trip computer is showing 44mpg, which even allowing some leeway on its accuracy has impressed me. Great to see that pic Han2u, my first car was an old Skoda Estelle 120 LSE, absolutely loved it.

Same as I do most days, look at it on the drive as I walk on by heading for the bus. Dreaming of my day off so I actually get to drive it!!

sarge from my surname and blue as I'm a Sheffield Wednesday fan. Tends to get used for most online stuff as I can't be bothered to think up anything different!