BOBAD

Mr. Cheese, The specialist who can sort out your seat runners is in Greasby, Wirral and his phone numbers are: 0151-678-38 91 or mobile: 07860-78 79 14 Bob.

Nope. Not true. There is a world of difference. If someone nicks your plates you will notice straight away and immediately report it to the police who will treat it as a criminal offence and will give you a crime number. This starts off a paper trail and if you start getting penalty notices through the post it will be (relatively) easy to prove that it wasn't your car as you can then trace back to the time and date you first reported the theft of your plates. On the other hand, if some scumbag sees your number on the internet and clones the plates and uses your number on his car to amass speed camera and parking violations, the first you will know about it is when they start dropping through your letterbox. The authorities will consider you guilty and the responsibility to prove your innocence rests with you! This is none too easy and you can expect around 3 months of severe grief until it is eventually sorted out. To repeat, you can save yourself a heap of problems by not displaying your reg. no. on the internet. Stay lucky. Bob.

Mate, you should never, ever post a pic. of your number plate on a public forum. There are untold numbers of people who have had their plates cloned onto similar colored cars whose owners then avoid things like parking tickets, congestion charge fines, speed camera violations etc. and you will get so much grief when the results of their offences drop through YOUR letterbox!. Bob.

Highly recommended: AudioCar in Loughton, Essex http://www.audiocar.co.uk/ tel: 020-8508-0154 ask to speak to Ian. I have no connection other than as a satisfied customer. Bob.

Yes, we know. Yes you're right, it shouldn't be a problem. But it is. Mainly because not everyone prefers to be the same distance away from the pedals/steering wheel when driving. Some (like me) prefer straight legs when driving. Others don't mind having their legs splayed. Straight-arm driving technique can easily be attained by reclining the seat to the desired angle and adjusting the steering wheel to suit. Straight-leg position is more difficult because the seat is prevented from moving rearwards by the bump stops. Moving the bump-stops to the rear by 4" gives the desired position and it is this modification which is so difficult to have done by a garage because of some obscure "construction & use" regulation. The seat runners have two un-used bolt-holes at the back which can easily be utilised to give an extra 4" of legroom to the driver at the cost of reduced leg-room for the rear off-side passenger. This isn't a problem for me as I never take passengers in the back. The 4" of increased leg room I now have has transformed the car into something far more comfortable to drive thanks to an independent specialist who took less than half-an-hour to do the job, and I am eternally grateful to him. Bob.

Identical to me Mr. Cheese...! I too am just under 6' and my driving position is a copy of yours! I too suffered knee-ache on anything over 50 miles as well! Moving the seat back was the answer and it was very annoying to have to jump through hoops to get the job done.. It's perfect now though. By the way, it doesn't help one little bit to read posts from people claiming "I'm 12 feet tall and have more than enough room...." and " you must be perched on the edge of your seat..etc" There isn't enough room in the standard car FOR ME and as I am the one driving it, that's all that matters. Mr. Cheese I suggest you visit your local disabled-driver specialist (there is one in Upton who fixed mine). The improvement in driving comfort transforms the car and makes it much more satisfying to own. Bob.

When I got my Fabia I was driven to distraction by the driver's seat which wouldn't go far enough back to be comfortable. If you look at the seat runners there is an extra set of securing bolts at the back which are not in use but it looks like they could easily be used to provide an extra 3 or 4 inches of legroom. It seemed simple enough to me but I couldn't get any garage to do the work on the grounds that they didn't want to run up against construction and use regulations! Then I hit upon the idea of using a disabled-driver conversion specialist who did the job (which I had been told was impossible by countless garages) in about 20mins. and he didn't even charge me! Result - one very comfortable driving position although there is only legroom for a midget/ small child in the rear. Worth you checking out this route as these guys know everything there is to know about securing drivers' seats and I bet you will get away with paying a lot less than you have been quoted so far. Bob.

Isn't it £50 for an MoT? Bob.

I sent mine to a speech therapist who cured the problem Bob.

Mine hasn't worked on position 1 since I got it and now it's 4 years old! I didn't do anything about it because I thought that was the way it was designed to be. Position 2 hasn't failed yet and I don't expect it to! Bob.

More info. please on how a lightbulb celebrates it's birthday................ Candlelit dinner for two perhaps? Maybe a main course followed by a cheese dip at a flash restaurant? Bob.

No problem at all mate, it's just that I have a PhD in Grumpiness and couldn't resist sending my post..... ! Happy days !

Babs, being right out of crystal balls I wasn't aware of him being dyslexic, however i wasn't criticising him for being dyslexic but for admitting to driving like an idiot. 1) Driving as if on a track........ 2) Driving to purposely annoy other drivers....... Driving is far too serious an activity for idiots to take part in (whether they are dyslexic or not...) Bob.

That's strange, I didn't realize that 14 year-olds were allowed to drive on the road............... (As opposed to those who have an I.Q. of 14, and this poster appears to qualify on both counts...)

My air-con doesn't work on position 1 either, but I've never found that to be a problem. If I were you I would do some more research before trying to fix something that might not be broken! Bob.

If you get more power, more torque, better fuel consumption and there are no downsides then it makes you wonder why Skoda don't spec. new cars this way............or am I missing something? Bob.

Of course not, the £850 was a rough estimate not set in stone! Yep. It was a typo.

Just by way of comparison, I got the following estimate from the local specialist independent garage which I have been using for a long time. He is efficient, trustworthy, very capable and excellent value for money. My Fabia will be 4 yrs. old in May and because I have access to other vehicles the mileage is only 27,000. Estimate: New cambelt (VW kit) fitted incl. VAT = £225 New fuel pump if fitted at same time: + £60 But the really interesting thing is that I asked him how much the repair cost would be if the belt failed. He said "In the region of £850." I told him I thought it was in the thousands. "No. Using VW parts, around £850". So, based on the mileage being so low, I'm leaving it until next year. Considering Ford and Vauxhall engines run to over 100k on the original cambelt, perhaps it's time for VW to start questioning their engine designers about the inadequate life-span of their belts, and maybe put a call in to the American giants to discover the secret. Now I'm waiting for the avalanche of replies telling me I'm making a big mistake....... Bob.

I've had my system (apart from the h/u) for some time now and it's been installed in my last two cars as well as my current one so I can justify the spend as it's spread over a long time. The beauty of good equipment as that you don't need to keep updating it and it lasts forever! My Rockford amps. were around £1000 (and are much better than current models.) Cheapo Alpine h/u was about £250. (Needed the iPod connection.) Sub around £500. Auto-changer was £350 Rockford Audiophile component speakers were £400. Storage cap. was £150. Extras, cables, fuse boxes, etc. and fitting charges bumped it up by around £400+. So a ball-park figure is around: £3k+ but it's about 10 years old, has been installed in three different cars and sounds superb! I do listen to music loud but it rarely gets driven above 50% of capacity. But don't let that figure put you off as you can do great things for a lot less loot. It sounds like you listen to music sourced on your iPod so you might consider an Alpine model which is a dedicated ipod player. No tuner or CD facility but if you don't need them why pay for them? Try calling K&M Acoustics in Wigan on 01942-82 01 74 and ask for Mike who will be happy to help you with any questions about prices etc. and he will also recommend some kit. Sure. I'll PM you with my phone no. Bob.

I've got an uprated sound system in my Fabia (see my sig. for details of it). It's set up for sound quality as opposed to volume and you could have a listen to it to see what is possible if you are prepared to spend a bit. Depends on how much you are into music. As a bare minimum, and first job, is to replace the head unit. If you want to keep the standard head unit "because it looks good" then don't expect to get any better sound than you have now. Speakers next. New component speakers will do nicely with 6" mids a minimum. Note: It is a complete waste to fit more expensive speakers if you are keeping your standard head unit. You will only benefit from uprated speakers if you improve the quality of the signal going to them by buying a better quality head unit. The standard speakers are matched to the head unit supplied with the car and are perfectly adequate for this. Then comes an amp. Go for a 4 channel and use 2 ch. for driving the front components, and 2 channels bridged to mono for driving the sub. Use the amplification in the new head unit for driving the rear speakers for fill-in. (Keep the standard rear speakers you have now.) Finally - a sub. Roughly speaking, the larger the speaker the deeper it goes. The smaller the speaker the tighter it goes. I use a 12" and it is fine for me. Remember that it is a fine art matching the speaker to the size of the enclosure. Research it more thoroughly before asking a dealer to "fit a sub and speaker box for me". A used good-quality sub. beats a new cheap&nasty one any day. Uprated speaker cables are a necessity as is sound deadening material in the front doors. (Dynamat or similar.) Fit new fuses in a weather-proof holder as close to the battery as possible. Let me know if you want a demo of my system, I live in Merseyside. Bob.

This morning I went to start my Fabia - flat battery (though I last used it only yesterday without any problems.) Called the independent specialist that I use for servicing and he was round in the van in 15 mins. Started up using jump leads and then drove over to his workshop where he ran a test on the battery including a drain test to check for a possible reason for it to go flat. Verdict was - a new battery needed. Bosch with 5 year guarantee fitted. Total cost including driving out to start mine, plus a professional fitting job on the new battery, (and no lost nuts) was £93. After seeing what you paid I'm now much happier! A suitable slogan for Halford's would be: "If you pay peanuts - you get monkeys...." By the way, if anyone reading this is having battery problems and finds that their Alpine head unit goes dead as a result of low volts in the battery, if you remove the face-plate there is a tiny reset button which can be activated by holding the button in with a biro for a minimum of 10 secs to re-boot it. Bob.

Hi, try CDT speakers which are shallow. (Phone K&M in Wigan for info on 07809-22 12 86 K&M fitted a set of Rockford Fosgate components to my Fabia (which I had in my previous car.) Was expensive, but more than worth it as the sound quality is excellent. Don't forget to fit some sound-deadening strips (e.g. Dynamat) to the door panels while you are at it. Bob.

Hi all, Can anyone recommend a quality INDEPENDENT Skoda garage on Merseyside to service my Fabia? I already know about Awesome & Discount Audi, but are there any others within 50 miles of Liverpool? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

One can only hope so....... Bob.