Alex-W

Dealers are expensive. They have larger overheads and will always charge more. That 'free' clean they do is not free, if it was they wouldn't do it, it's not how a business works.... If you want ease and to walk into a shiny showroom and have your car cleaned, go doa dealer. If you want to just have what needs to be done, done, go to a independent (be it a specialist or a general garage with a decent rep). I just had mine serviced with filters, spark plugs and inspection for under £200 from a well known specialist. I even got a report, with photos, as well as the skoda digital record updated. That wasn't including oil/filter as I changed that myself about 3k ago so the normal price is £275 I think. Still, way better value than a dealer.

It looks a bit hideous, however I can see the point for long trips. If you drive around town most of the time and you have pretty decent paintwork, it makes sense to stick something on for the annual 1000 mile round motorway trip and protect the paint. They're used all the time in the US as people cover so many miles and largely on freeways etc. Less so in the UK. I wouldn't have one on permanently, but don't see the harm in protecting the paint if you think you're likely to damage it. I mean, a rain mac is hideous, but I'd rather wear one and stay dry than think I look cooler without one and ultimately end up drenched and looking worse....

I'm kinda of wishing I'd gone this route when I had to change my clutch earlier in the year. A DMF is expensive and wears so much that you have to change it with the clutch. I've read it causes issues going to SMF, but as one guy (who runs a tuning place that mainly does jap stuff) - it didn't seem to be a problem before somebody invented a DMF! Back in the 90s or early 00s most stuff was SMF and there's plenty of reliable highly powered cars from that era, so I don't fully buy into the idea it's just going to kill gearboxes unless they now make them from chocolate.

In comparison, my mate got his 1.4 Octavia for £20k brand new, with 0% interest. On the new Octavia 4, the 1.0tsi list price is 21.1k for an SE technology. 1.5tsi is 22.6k. It's not a big difference at all. To me it would be a no brainer.

This is what I don't get. If budget is THAT much of an issue, don't buy a nearly new car and spend a fortune on depreciation and if it's on finance, interest. It makes no sense to me when people say 'I've got 65mpg compared to 50mpg from the bigger engine' yet they're spending far more than they're saving on other factors, it pretty much makes that saving insignificant. An average person doing 12k miles a year will save £25 a month by doing 65mpg compared to 50mpg. When a car is losing £100 a month just in depreciation, is this significant? As for insurance, as I said previously I doubt it makes much difference at all. I pay ~£190 a year for my vRS. I'm betting if I switched to a 1.0TSi of the same age and value it'd save me less than £30 over the year. My friend with a clean license and the 1,4 version actually pays around 50% more than I do. I probably just made more effort shopping around. They're pretty comparible. I'm not arguing that it's not cheaper. I'm just saying the savings are not significant in comparison to the other costs involved and I just can't see it being significant enough to justify being that annoying if you're planning on using the car loaded up with family and camping gear etc. 1.4Tsi all the way IMO.

In reality, something pretty low. For popping to the shops etc, it's not needed at all. The reality is It's used for comfortable overtaking when required (of which the frequency is low) and needless acceleration when I'm on my own, just to make me smile. I also have a young family (a 1 and a 3yr old) and drive like a grandad with them in the car. My point was not to buy a vRS, I know that's over and above what is needed. My point is that even running a vRS is not particularly expensive and therefore for those times when the power is needed I think the cost is well worthwhile for me. However for many people it's not. But I don't get the advantage of the 1.0 over 1.4 even for the majority. Purchase prices and running costs are very similar but the day to day difference will be night and day. I had a 1.0 TSI as a hire car a few years back and on a ~350 mile round trip I only got low 40s as I just had to push it so hard to keep up with the flow of traffic. It wasn't as terrible to drive as I thought it would be tbh but there wasn't any real advantage to the loss of power/annoyance it did have.

I genuinely don't get the point of the really small engines. You're sacrificing day to day usability for the hope of a few pennies in fuel savings. The 1.4/1,5TSI has a very good combination of power and economy. Hell, somebody posted on here recently about getting 80+ mpg from a 1.5. A friend has a 1.4 TSI and averages above 50mpg. Another friend has a 1.4 Leon with the same engine. Again, very economical and pretty nippy. No issues with day to day power. The savings you'll get in fuel from a smaller engine are negligable in real world money terms. The difference between 50mpg an 60mpg isn't huge, nowhere near as significant as 25mpg to 35mpg. I don't understand why people chase the high numbers as they're saving such little amounts of money quite often, it's just a psychological desire to get a higher number rather than an actual cost saving benefit. You're also more likely to stamp on the pedal more often and drive it harder, negating any benefit. The 1.4/1.5 is the sensible choice for a person who wants economy from a petrol octavia. TBH though, I wouldn't consider lower than the vRS myself and didn't when I was looking. Considering I manage over 30mpg including all my short journeys and can top 45-50mpg on a motorway at a steady speed it's still pretty economical. Insurance is dirt cheap, tax is cheap. Not saying it's the sensible choice and you don't NEED over 200bhp. But the 1.4/1.5 gives the economy benefits without the frustration of having to think about power. The biggest cost of having a reasonably new car is depreciation and that'll outweigh the savings in fuel by miles.

So, when I got the car, I set the memory 1 position to my seat position. I didn't set the others. I tried recently to set up position for my wife and it won't allow me to. It doesn't beep when you hold the button down. It still remembers position 1 ok if I change the position though. It also puts it to the same position if I hit memory 2, but sets the mirrors right down. I can manually adjust everything fine and tbh it's not really an issue as I mainly drive the car so it doesn't come up much. I've no idea how you're supposed to set it up per fob either, pretty sure it's supposed to do that but doesn't seem to do anything when I unlock it. Any ideas? I considered wiping the seat memory via the infotainment system but I'll probably just end up wiping position 1 and not be able to set any then. I have obd11 if that helps, no errors are flagged up relating to seats.

How long are people getting out of a manual clutch on their vRS TSi manual? Looks like mine is starting to slip. Only had the car for 4k miles and it's on 33k. Quite shocked it would go at that mileage to be honest. Obviously I don't know how somebody drove it before me but even if they weren't great that's pretty quick. Previous cars have gone at more like 80k-95k and this car did about 1k a month prior to my ownership which I'd have thought was not around town. Also, any ideas how much I'm looking for a replacement? Figured getting a manual would be cheaper long term than a DSG, however not if the clutches don't last!

I'm intrigued... I'm getting the impression on here that most people have a high turnover of pretty stock, normal cars, which is somewhat contrary to what I've seen on other forums. My History is fairly short and sweet - 0. Spent the first few years driving a Citroen Saxo and Ax (not mine) while I was at Uni. 1. '94 Rover 216 Coupe - 109bhp D16 SOHC Honda Engine. Modded with various stuff inc Koni Adjustables and Cat Back Exhaust. Was a great car, esp for £1300. 2. '99 Honda Accord Type R - 209bhp Honda H22. Bought for £5k in 2007. Pretty standard as it was my daily car for 12 years. Still have it. Still great fun. Mild mods planned. 3. '96 Mazda MX-3 1.6 -The wife's old car. Underpowered but underrated, handled like a go-kart with a huge boot. Bought for £650 and worked with zero issues for 6 years before selling for £375. Bargain motoring! 4. '11 Mazda 6 Sport - 180bhp Diesel. Top spec, leather, keyless entry, eletric everything. The wife's car and our family mile muncher. 5. Octavia vRS PFL 230 - You know the spec. The present daily. Plans to keep long term. No mods planned as that's what the Honda is for. Photos:

So, I have a 2017 registered, 66 Plate Octavia. I also have a dual SIM phone, as I can't bear having a work and personal phone so I just got a Dual SIM android (Xiaomi Mi A1). It connects fine, address book, recent calls etc etc etc all work fine. However, it always uses my Work SIM (SIM 1). For those that haven't used a DS phone before, you can select which SIM to use on each call or set a preffered SIM for specific contacts. If I call through the car though it doesn't do this, it just sees the work SIM. Anyway to select/change this? I'm guessing if I swapped SIM slots it would just use personal, however I'd ideally like to be able to select which one to use via the screen. Alex