ibex777

Yet to see another one “in the wild” although we are 5 minutes from the dealership so I have seen their demonstrators out and about (mine is actually one of their ex-demos). Have had a few interested looks from Yeti owners on the motorway since getting the car though.

Looked at the cumulative MPG (as per the Maxidot) this morning for my new L&K TDI 140. The indicated reading so far is just under 35 mpg for the 250 miles I have driven so far. To be fair this is all stop-start town driving (8 miles each way to work) - but I am interested to see how if performs on the 280 mile drive down to Suffolk this afternoon... hopefully a bit better than that! It is the DSG model, which presumably doesn't help and I'm sure it will all loosen up a bit. It does strike me that the trip computer and fuel distances seem a lot more realistic than the one on the old Fabia VRS (which would cheerfully quote a range of 580+ miles on a full tank when the most I ever got in reality was about 420). The "lifetime" MPG on the Fabia when I sold it was 55 mpg (as indicated on the trip computer), but I think that is pretty optimistic and I think the reality is more like 45 - 50. Given the the Octy has a bigger engine, is heavier, has the DSG box and is brand new the indicated mpg doesn't seem much worse than I would expect for the kind of driving I have been doing. Hope it is a bit better on the long runs though!

Does anyone know if the DSG gear lever set-up is the same on the LHD and RHD models? It seems strange that you have to shove the gear lever over to the passenger side (so it is angled away from you) in order to use the manual up/down shift - just wondered if this was a hangover from the LHD version?

they have a red stripe on them, but the tips are black like wiper blades - it is immediately obvious as soon as you park the blades in the sweep position and look at them, but ATM it is dark when I drive to work and when I come back so not the easiest to spot. Would have thought the dealers might have noticed them though

Checked the wipers properly today - having parked them out on the screen as per the "hints and tips" sticky. Dealers had left on what seems to be a protective cover (like a harder blade which slides over the proper one) - great PDI guys, well done. Needless to say they work a lot better now! Have to have a really good look in the daylight tomorrow to check it hasn't scratched the screen, but it looks ok. Makes me wonder what else they may have done / not done though. Maybe they were ticked off because I declined to buy any stupidly overpriced GAP insurance or Supagard...

Slightly worrying thread this as I just picked up my new PD140 L&K last week! I am trying to be conscientious about running it in as per the manual - don't know if this makes any difference to longevity of the turbo. I am also hoping that the fact that it is a DSG may help as I am driving it in normal rather than sport mode and it seems to change up quite early and encourage a more "relaxed" driving style - certainly compared to my old Fabia VRS! Time will tell I guess, but as I only do about 12,000 miles a year the likelihood is it will be out of warranty before it hits the serious danger zone! Fantastic car otherwise so fingers crossed

The front wiper blades on my new Octy seem to be very stiff and don't do a great job of clearing the screen (looks like the stiffness means they aren't really contacting the screen properly in places - especially near the top of the sweep). The car only has 50 miles on the clock so I guess they will loosen up, but I don't remember it being this bad on previous new cars - wondered if it is a "feature" of the Aero wipers or if there is any adjustment possible (doesn't look like it from the manual). Wonder if it has been sitting in a compound somewhere for a while leading to the blades stiffening up. Does anyone else have any exprience of this?

My post wasn't quite correct to be honest - there is creep on tickover on the flat or slight hills. However, autos I have driven before don't seem to roll back on any kind of hill - whereas the DSG will roll back on a steep hill at tickover. Don't know how the clutches work differently from a torque convertor - bit technical for me. Does the L&K come with hill assist (where it holds the brake on for a few seconds when starting on a hill)? I thought it did but I haven't had a chance to test mine yet as I only drove it home from the dealers and there are no hills - didn't fancy going out to play in the dark on icy roads in a brand new car!

I am picking up a new Octavia L&K DSG tomorrow - so unsurprisingly I would go for the DSG. I test drove a manual as well, but the 140hp TDI and the DSG box are a great combination. I came to the realisation that most of my driving is around town or motorway and for this the DSG is much more relaxing. For the odd occasion when I actually get out on a nice bit of open road I would prefer a manual, but for me at least this is a pretty small percentage of my driving. The DSG shifts are super smooth and much nicer than conventional automatics I have driven - although unless you have the hill hold fitted they are are a bit strange if you are used to a standard automatic gearbox - there isn't any creep at tickover so it will roll backwards on a hill. Doesn't take much to get used to it. That is a good price on the L&K if you can get it - close to what Drivethedeal were offering when I ordered mine.

According to the letter from my dealer received on Friday the discount is being funded 10% by Skoda and 5% by the dealer, so presumably it cuts into their margins - apparently they can also opt out of offering the discount - although in that case I doubt they would move many '08 cars!

so long as it is not pre-registered the VAT offer should apply

I have just ordered an '08 model L&K and the dealers will definitely negotiate over and above the 15% VAT reduction for the right car. I don't know whether this (or the VAT reduction) applies to any options as the L&K basically comes with everything anyway. I don't want to stitch them up by saying how much, but I suspect there are some good deals available for anything which is in dealer stock.

this is pretty much what I thought, but as the dealer suggested they have done it before (and they are aware there is outstanding finance) I wondered if it was me being stoopid:confused: Will talk to them and find out whether I am missing something, but otherwise the personal loan option sounds like the way to go. I know that generally they would rather not take trade-ins at all and that the price has to reflect all their costs etc. etc., but I know they have had two fairly similar (but older) VRS's walk straight off the forecourt recently for really good prices. What I would like to do is agree the figure they are offering, but on the basis that if they sell it on for a profit they will give me 25% of it - can't see them going for that though!

I am looking to trade-in my Furby VRS with our local Skoda dealer to take advantage of the VAT-free offer on the current stock of '08 model Octy's. The trade-in offer from the dealer sucks (won't go into details as I am not trying to advertise the car on here as I am not a Freedom member). I reckon I could get more for a private sale looking at the recent prices mentioned elswhere on Briskoda and the dealers have offered to give 2-3 weeks to do this failing which they will honour the existing (lame) offer. The Furby is financed on Solutions so my question is how I go about doing this (i.e. what I need to do to sell to a private buyer if there is finance outstanding on the car - presumably they need some way to be sure that the necessary chunk of their money is going to pay off the settlement figure on the finance?). Anyone done this? I would have thought there would be stacks of stuff about this on the internet, but I have googled it this morning without much luck.

The Skoda UK website seems to have the full details now following the closure for maintenance yesterday

Finally got my car back last night - got the insurance company engineer out to go over the previous repairs with me and the garage in the end and he agreed that they were not up to spec. The bodyshop manager took charge of things as well, which seems to have helped. Turns out that the dodgy tailgate gap was due to the rear passenger side quarter / light panel having been knocked in in the crash rather than a problem with the tailgate. They have pulled that out, re-bonded the bumper properly and centred the exhaust (the mountings had also been bent and not straightened). The garage dropped it back home to me last night after hours and it now all looks absolutely spot-on. Pleased with the repairs, but a shame they couldn't have done it to that standard straight away. Good to have it back though - it is seriously annoying when every time you look at the car there is something not quite right about it. Am still going to have to bring some kind of claim for the loss in value though - I presume when I sell / trade-in the car it will be worth less as it has been repaired so I need to get that back from the other driver's insurance. Unfortunately, having just sorted out one insurance claim I managed to crash a hire car in Scotland last week (not my fault - I was actually stopped and a driver lost control coming the other way on a wet road and went straight into the side of my car) -

I just renewed the tax for my 56 plate VRS today. The V11 reminder thing states the CO2 as 143 g/km and the price was £115 for 12 months (plus a £2.50 fee for paying online by credit card which is a bit cheeky). Seems like a bit of a bargain to me.

Maybe missing the point, but aren't all the current VRS's a "limited edition" now - as Skoda aren't making any more of them...

Thanks for all the replies. I have got a copy of the engineers report from my insurers now and am going to be speaking to them about it further this week. The engineers report shows that they have put the car on a chassis jig, repaired the boot floor, pulled out the "rear panels", replaced the bumper re-enforcement, bumper mounts and "lock bearer" as well as just replacing the bumper. Total bill was about

Hi My Fabia VRS was hit from behind by another driver a couple of months back at about 30mph. The damage didn't seem to be that bad, but the rear bumper had crushed in and rebounded and was pretty trashed. It also seemed to me that the exhaust tail pipe was bent. I had to use my insurer's nominated repairers (who will remain nameless for the time being) because otherwise I would have to pay any difference over the amount they would have charged. When I collected the car the first time the leading edges of the rear bumer moulding were basically "hanging off" on both sides and boot would close properly (it rebounded off and only closed in the ajar position unless slammed). I returned the car to them and they appear to have fixed the boot closure problem by adjusting the catch (so the panel gap seems to be too big when the boot is closed). The leading edge on one side of the bumper moulding still isn't anywhere near flush to the bodywork and it seems to be loose. The repairers told me that it is really hard to fit this properly because the outer moulding has funny clips that tend to break off. They also say that the boot is fine and that the panel gaps are my fault for wanting the catch adjusted so that it would close without being slammed. This all sucks, but my question is whether anyone knows if it really that hard to re-fit the bumper properly or whether they are just cowboys / idiots. Has anyone had crash repairs in this area that were as good as the original? I also worry about the rest of the work they have done and whether there is some structural damage which is causing the difficulties - any easy way to check for this? Lesson learnt - in that I won't be choosing my insurance solely on the cheapest quote in future and will read the small print about repairs - but I need to get this sorted or I will get shafted when I have to trade / sell the car. Cheers

I have read all the previous threads on this. I have also done a bit of research about the EC type approval process. Everything that I have read about this seems to suggest that the whole point of the type approval is that once this has been done in the EC, the car can then be sold anywhere in the EC without further type approval. In this case, I can't see how the VRS can be approved for towing in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe, but not in the UK. Has anyone got anywhere with Skoda on this or have any idea whether there is any possibibility of getting the type approval changed or something?

Another newbie to the forum! Hi everyone. I am the proud owner of a silver Fabia VRS, which I brought last August. Supremely happy with it - you can't really go wrong with something which is fast, fun and seriously economical. I need to get a towbar fitted to the VRS to tow my dinghy, but it appears from the Skoda website that they don't make a genuine equipment one for the VRS (presumably because the bodykit is different from the standard Fabia?). Has anyone had one fitted to the Fabia VRS that worked with the bodykit and could recommend a supplier or give me a part number? Also - are the trip computers a bit optimistic about fuel consumption? I can get a reported 75 mpg on my 10 mile drive to work (mixture of country lanes, motorway and urban) if I drive if carefully (it does happen occasionally - honest!). Even for a diesel this seems a bit OTT. Anyone have any ideas how this is calculated and how reliable it is? Cheers