PassatNoMore

I bought one from Halfords a few years back - about £60 ish. It holds 3 bikes with a combined weight not exceeding 45Kg. Pros - don't need lighting board (I've never actually looked to see if lights are obscured though!) - fairly easy to fit / remove - small enough to chuck on back seats of Fabia if you're worried about security or you can by a securing kit Con's - difficult to avoid scratches when fitting to car and putting the bikes on - blocks the rear wiper arm - once it's on then you cant get into the boot My new car's got a towbar so I'm planning to get a ball mounted rack which will eliminate the scratches concern and will allow access to the boot

+1

I got one in Halfords a few years back and it's good for three bikes (up to 45Kg inn total). Cost was about £60. It clamps on to the tailgate and is reasonably easy to fit, but great care must be taken to avoid scratches. No good if you have a roof mounted spoiler unless you can remove it (was easy on my Mk 1 vRS) I ordered a towbar for my new car so now looking to get a suitable rack and budget is about £150.

Thanks Estate Man - great info and lots of stuff I didn't know about - one thing's certain, I'm being far too gentle with my new engine!

+1 Engine much smoother / quieter than the old 1.9 Lump. I do miss the mid range grunt of the old 1.9 tho' Fuel economy not great yet (2k Miles mostly short town runs)

Real life comparison. Fiat Tempra bought with 16 miles on clock 4k Miles - Fuel Pump Failed 18k - Alternator 19k - Power Steering Pump 23K - Water Pump 25k - Exhaust Pipe 28K - Manual choke cable snapped 30K - Belt Tensioner 30K - Front discs ruined - wear indicator circuit u/s 30k - Cover gaskets knackered - leaking oil all over engine 35k - TDC Sensor 36k - Belt Tensioer (again) 48K Power Steering Pump (again) 52k - Belt tensioner again 55K - gear lever connecting rod siezed 58K - no lights - earthing stud missing 60K - alternator. 70k - clutch replaced etc. On top of that, the Wiper motor kept blowing fuses and I had to change one bulb or another every couple of months. VAG cars: VW Passat 50K Miles - Window lifter u/s Otherwise fault free. Still had original clutch and exhaust pipe and had only changed discs and pads once in over 100K Miles Fabia Mark 1 vRS - 30k miles fault free Fabia 3 Estate - 36K Miles with only two faults - airbag igniter and glowplug fault. My conclusion - Fiats are designed by morons who use spaghetti and olive oil as their most robust components VAG - properly designed and tested pieces of engineering Recent JD Power Survey listed the Punto as the worst car out of 85 surveyed Fiat aftercare - they didn't want to know!

LOL that must be the only part of a fiat that would last that long. From bitter experience I would't own another fiat if you gave it to me for free

A newbie to this thread so sorry if I'm repeating things. I've had a 1.6 TDi 105 Elegance just over a month - just over 1,100 miles - average consumption measured by tankful is low 40s. Lots of short journeys I'm afraid. Comp seems to be indicating about right. On the motorway if indicates high 50s so maybe a litle optimistic. Compared to my 1.9TDi estate that was in mid 30K miles, it was achieving low 50's overall. I'm not really worried about the mpg at this early stage. I used to own a Mk1 vRS and in practice it did high 40s but on motorway comp indicated 76! LOL

I ordered it in late October - Chathams initially advised late December Build and January Delivery. Got email from George advising Build now in week 1 January but still would be delivered in this month. True to their word, it turned up on 24 January. I think the overall delivery time was good especially since I spec'd the car "my way".

Thanks guys

I took delivery today - right on the schedule that Chathams in Edinburgh advised. George very helpful. In Black Magic Pearl with heated seats, APS, Sunroof, sport suspension and towbar (for bike rack) Engine is super smooth compared to my old 1.9TDi (motoring journals suggested that it wouldn't be any better - what do they know?) Sport suspension not as firm as I thought it would be - certainly no where near as firm as my old Mk 1 VRS. I'm keeping the revs up as advised in these forums but I worry about the Mrs - she instinctively drives in as high a gear as possible and tootles along at 1,000 rpm even up hills! I told her she'll damage the engine and waste fuel but it's in one ear and out the other I fear. A couple of minors already though - heated seat switches are the wrong way round and when switching off, I get a temporary "Check Deadlocks - Manual" message. I'll let you know what George has to say!

Thanks very much guys - very usefeul feedback

Oh dear - that's exactly the way I do drive according to Mrs P! Thanks for the replies guys

I'm just about to take delivery of a new Fabia 1.6 105PS Diesel - is the 1.6 much of an improvement on the old 1.9TDi lump in terms of tractability and noise levels?

Agreed guys - it's ovekill to put the same tyres on a TDi estate as was on my old MK1 vRS. However, maybe Skoda have a commercial arrangement with Continental that keeps their build costs down by mass purchase at a huge discount ? Do you agree with my comments on the Conti noise ?

Will be ordering an Estate next summer in all Black - alloys will be shiny silver though. Saw black ones fitted to Chathams green demonstator and didn't like them.

I just replaced my two front tyres - originals were Continental 205/45W16s on a Fabia 3 Estate. Some comments that might be of use or interest. The reason for replacing them was due to a bulge in the left hand tyre - plenty of tread left so annoying but bulges are maybe not surprising given the state of Edinburgh roads. My original plan was to keep the non bulgy one as a spare and put the unused spare on the front - thwarted because the spare is a space saver version! So I wanted these replaced in a hurry on Saturday but no one in Edinburgh (or maybe even the whole World) had Contis in stock - two day lead time. Farmers said they'd get them for me first thing on Monday but failed to deliver - "Dont know who you talked to sir but there's nothing on my system!" - useless gits. Went down to Kwik Fit instead who supplied two CEAT tyres at about 70% of the quoted price for Continentals - good by product is that they're very quiet. Over rough surfaces at low speed, the Conti's made a helluva racket sounding like knackered wheel bearings. Both Farmers and Kwik Fit advised that the tyre size is very unusual and not normally in stock. I'll be buying a VRS Estate sometime next year so maybe I'll do some homework on tyre sizes!

Thanks guys - I agree that the rule of thumb (20 in 2nd, 30 in 3rd, 40 in 4th etc) seems to work best. "Optmum" maybe wasn't the clearest title for this thread. By optimum, I mean keeping the revs in a band where you get the best mix of fuel economy and power when you need it. I think that if you're tootling along at 30 in 4th, the engine is probably labouring even if it doesn't sound like it and if you suddenly need a burst of speed the engine won't respond very well with the revs that low.

I'll see what I can do tomorrow. I find the front armrest a pain in the neck and would rather it wasn't there Mrs P would rather have central armrest in the back seats - comfier for a snooze!

I was lecturing Mrs P the other day for driving our car like a petrol engined motor - cruising along at 30 mph in 4th but the revs are about 1100 - I told her that she's best to keep the revs around 1800 -2000 for best fuel economy and that labouring the engine uses more fuel. I doubt whether it'll make much difference tho'. Anyway i was watching Top Gear on Dave and Clarkson run an Audi V8 diesel from London to Edinburgh and back on one tank of fuel - he said that the revs were never much above 1200. If he's right then that blows my theory about 2,000 being optimum. Now I'm confused :confused:

No I was talking about my experience in the vRS. It was a standard off the shelf car with maximum use of cruise control at speeds between 65 and 80 (indicated) on the M90. As an aside, the Fabia II 1.9TDi driven in the same way / speeds with the cruise on does seem about 5 mpg better on juice even this early (4k miles). When I fill up, I never go beyond the first automatic click off of the fuel pump. The most I recall filling up when the yellow light came on was about 40 litres. Ok it's never going to be a deadly accurate measure of how much you've achieved on one tankfull but averaged over 32,000 miles, I think my 45 mpg is fairly accurate and it ties in with lots of others in this thread. I also thought it was hazardous to really brim the tank ? :confused: Is it really possible to get 60 litres in safely?

Had mine for 32k miles - standard car and best I got was 50 on a run up to Aberdeen (OBC said 76 !). General average was mid 40s and worst - town driving in winter was about 35. Don't really believe anyone who claims that they regularly get much more than about 400 miles from a tankfull.

Congrats on your purchase Stan. I've recently downgraded (?) from my vRS to a Fabia II Estate - I needed more space. I loved the vRS and it was incredibly reliable. Fuelwise I never got much more than mid 40s no matter how I drove it. OBC was hopelessly optimistic. One of the earlier posts mentioned that 60 was only just enough for 6th gear - maybe that explains why cruising at 80 (indicated) was just as efficient as doing 65 mph. I've also learned via this thread and experience on my II 1.9TDi that I wasn't really using the vRS efficiently in that I rarely went past 2,500 revs. Pushing the II up to 3,000 and perhaps even a bit beyond that does still give a good return. That said, the mid range vRS performance was addictive - I certainly felt like I could eat most things for breakfast on the motorway.

Noticed that dodgy post at luchtime - wonder why she picked on me to spam - not that I'm paranoid or anything

Thanks for the replies guys. I agree about the engine - my vRS had 30k+ miles and was very refined and performance was just coming to the boil nicely I think. First week over in the Estate - nice drive and performance is lively enough. Seats not as comfy as vRS and overall it seems a bit flimsier - switchgear not as chunky and rear doors don't have the same reassuring clunk when closing them. On the positive side, economy looks a lot better (even this early) and it's got full climate control which even Mrs P can understand and operate.