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It's partly going to be cold weather as that always has a small impact. Also, the Vred's from memory on the most recent Evo tyre test suggested that they weren't the greatest for economy but then again, no performance tyre is. Just be thankful it's not the 4.7mpg drop I got when moving from 205 P7's to 225 F1 GSD3's! PS2's are better for me by 1.5mpg on average than the F1's though. If I remember tonight I'll pull out the copy of Evo that has the results and post them up if you want?

Dude, comparing a tyre that's aimed as a motorway crusier against a tyre that's commonly fitted to 911's isn't really particularly useful as they are both intended for different purposes. Someone who drives lots of motorway miles, is relatively sedate when it comes to cornering, braking and accelarating and has fitted motorway tyres aimed at economical running will have a vastly different lifespan against someone who drives hard, fast, has the brakes virtually smoking, and has fitted sticky performance tyres. Even for the same driver there will be a vast difference in lifespan between the tyre types and when you start factoring in the different driving styles you get some pronounced variations in mileages achieved. My point wasn't so much that 30k can't be achieved, I know it can. My point was that some guys feel they drive hard and still get big mileages. They aren't driving as hard as they think they are or, also quite possibly, they think driving fast down the A1 is driving hard whereas in reality broken country roads with dips crests, bends, late braking corners and sections requiring the balance of brake and throttle whilst being hustled will take it's toll on tyres. It's not the smooth & flowing roads that do the wear, it's the sudden direction changes, heavy braking and hard accelaration that kill the tread. My van got screwed within an inch of it's life on backroads and resultantly the front tyres didn't last more than 14k despite the van rarely carrying much weight and starting out with fresh Conti Vanco2's (Vivaro btw). The problem with forum comments is that it's difficult to quantify the background against which a product is being measured 'Turtlewax is awesome' when measured against the bargain basement supermarket equivelant could well be true but certainly wouldn't be if it was measured against something more expensive, newer and further developed. Consequently, 'these Pirelli P7's are awesomely grippy' is true when compared with RoadStone or LingLong budget chewing gum brands but most certainly wouldn't be true if compared against a high performance tyre such as a Michelin Pilot Sport 2. Everything has it's purpose. Michelin Pilot Premacy's are their bread and butter, good fuel economy, long lasting tyre aimed at the family guy who goes to kwik fit and says 'I want a decent premium brand for my Mondeo Ghia (etc)'. 'Certainly sir' says the fitter, 'we've got these brilliant michelins in stock'. The guy goes away happy knowing he has a set of decent tyres on the car yet isn't likely to trouble the outer limits of handling because he has the anchor (wife) and kids onboard. Move to the other end of the scale and you have Mr 911 driver wanting the ultimate Michelin for the road (with the exception of the Pilot Sport Cup which is ****e in the wet) for his high performance car and his heavy left and right feet. He consequently isn't fussed by reduced mileage but is about their on the limit peak grip and their transition into slides (he does after all like to explore the limits of the car). And then inbetween there is the Pilot Exalto, fitted to many cars such as the Clio Cup, and which has a blended mix of lifespan, fuel economy and grip somewhere between the Premacy and the Sport. If I drove the vRS with Michelin Premacy's or Pirelli P7's onboard, did mainly motorway miles and drove to save tyres and fuel then I would have no issue with getting more than 20k+ from a set. But with PS2's fitted, heavier loads, hard driving and no real desire to extend the life of the tyre but more enjoy driving decent roads when they're empty and I'm the only one in the car and there is good reason I don't see more than 7-8k from a pair, I wouldn't have seen more than 12k from a set of the P7's even if I'd owned them from new. I'm not fussed about mileage, some are and some fall somewhere inbetween. It's all about working out where you fall and finding a tyre suitable for your needs.

I think I've got 400 before (from memory) but average is 300ish unmapped. Although on a steady 80ish trip to south wales I managed 350/360 before the light came on. The trip comp says 32mpg average over the past 3200 miles which seems about right. That's been a mix of driving hard and driving for economy.

I'd have thought that any VAG 1.8T engine box would fit as they all use the same panel filter and there would be plenty of those in various guises hanging around scrappers.

Yup, born on Friday the 13th and passed my test on Friday the 13th. Arguably both have been good luck for me but bad for everyone else!

Hmm, I'm thinking a lot of people in here either don't go round many corners or don't drive as hard as they think they do! 30k from a set of tyres? I didn't even get that from the tyres on my van and they were deep treaded and hard as hell!

To be honest, with the adjustment that comes on the coilovers you should be able to get it all working sweetly. There isn't so much an issue using the uprated kit on a lesser car, more the lesser kit on the uprated vRS.

If it's the proper Koni coilover setup then it is both very good and pretty damn expensive! Definitely a good score if you got that lot for free!

As far as touchscreens and menu's go, I reckon the iPhone is one if not the best. Apple's things are just so intuitive. However, and I think I'm perhaps in a similar boat to you, I've had proper Qwerty smart phones for the last four years and having borrowed an iPhone for a few days just couldn't cope with the touch screen for typing. It's great if you just do the odd text and, tbh, actually pretty handy. Start bashing out a few hundred word emails on one though and you soon want to throw it through a window. It's not the phone's fault really as that isn't what it was intended for. That is however what Nokia E phones were so it's no surprise it feels like a come down to me! If I didn't do major email then the iPhone would win hands down as, for day to day use, the combined iPod/phone is brilliant. However, for me, a 160gb iPod and new E71 replacement is going to be the better option. However, if it's an iPhone you want it's an iPhone you want, I'm just wanting to highlight a potential pitfall that I came across having been in a similar place to you!

It's not just the autotrader website unfortunately, too many web designers seem to be stuck in an endless race to stick as many flashy gimmicks into their sites with lazy code that takes up way more space than is necessary. If only they'd design quick and clean sites. Funnily enough, the old AT site was a perfect example. It was simple, it was reliable, it worked! I find the Pistonheads classifieds taking up the role the AT site used to hold for me as it doesn't crash all the time and is far more intuitive (simple) to find things rather than go through draggy and over complicated menus only for it all to crash as it tries to load the photo's anyway!

Hmm, 205mm P7's lasted about 10k from 6.5mm to 2mm, 205mm Conti CS2's lasted about 8k on the front from new, Eagle GSD3's lasted 7k on the front, 15k on the back and the Michelin PS2's are currently on a par with that wear level. It all depends about how hard you drive, what driving you do and what sort of roads. The roads I tend to be driving quickly on generally include a lot of heavy, late, left footed braking and just shred the tyres. Provoking the rear into a slide that way doesn't help rear tyre life either. Scrubbed sidewalls suggests that the tyres are underinflated (or the sidewalls are made of paper!).

Remember though that the S3 and TT both come with uprated suspension and steering parts which means that the extra grip doesn't just translate into more flex of the components and hence a more vague feeling at the wheel.

If you need to do the pair then the Eibach's are worth a look. They balance well and have the added advantage of being the neatest fitting bars of the aftermarket lot.

The problem I think is that on a lot of forums, the view is 'bigger is better' and, without intending to insult the general population, a lot of people confuse grip with handling. With the original 205 P7's, the car could easily be provoked away from understeer into oversteer and very controllable four wheel drifts all day long. Replacing those with 4 225 F1 GSD3's meant that yes, the car had more grip but the balance had reverted to understeer and, as there was more outright grip all round, suddenly the back end became a lot more difficult to unstick. This can be counteracted by uprated rear sway bars to help but then that still leaves the issues of artificial steering weight from the increased tread (remember that most of the original Octavia's came with 165 tyres!) and the massive tramlining effects. At the end of the day, the Mk4 Golf chassis was never a peach and, years on from it's original launch, time has only reinforced that. Poor steering geometry and load balance when driving hard it's very difficult to see past the deficiencies and these are deficiencies only highlighted by wider, stickier tyres. I've got Michelin PS2's all round now which offer a little more oversteer than the Eagle's did and that is certainly welcome but again, the tramlining and lack of finesse to the handling and steering feel etc is still there. Pretty much why I'm chopping it in soon. Newer cars such as the Mk3 Mondeo use the same 225 section tyres on the ST's but actually have the steering and chassis designed to use them, not that it's an ST I'm looking at mind. In fact, my old ST200 Vectra had a better stock chassis on it than the Octavia!

Yeah, the only stuff that you really have issue with is if it's from a 4wd version at the back or the front ARB/Struts as they use the HD setup whereby the ARB's bolt to the strut on the vRS/Cupra/R32/TT's etc rather than with the lesser cars and their setup which bolts to the wishbones. That leaves a lower number of front strut options on the vRS as the likes of Spax etc don't actually do anything which allows you to fit the ARB links to the struts.

A well driven WRX would have the edge in a straight line when the weather is crap or the road is poor. In the corners the WRX would destroy the vRS. The vRS is a good car, it's well specced and powered for the money but it has a dog of a chassis. I mean, it's a mk4 Golf, it understeers and can't put it's power down when the road is rough or wet or any time it's less than a smooth bit of tarmac. The WRX has transmission losses greater than that of the vRS and more turbo lag so if a driver isn't fully utilising the performance of the WRX or the road is smooth then the benefits of the 4WD cannot overcome the drag losses. But at the end of the day does it really matter? I buy a car because I like it, not because I want to show off to other ***** in the 'I'm faster than you are' stakes. If it really comes down to it, the skill is outdriving someone on a twisty, difficult and technical back road, not in a straight line.

Yup, straight fit unless it was a 4WD version..

Look on UK MKIV's, there's a guy on there selling the conversion kits for bigger rear discs although offhand I can't remember the size he does!

TBH, if I was doing more motorway miles in mine I would still be running the 205's. More fluid handling, less tramlining and better economy. There are pro's and con's to each side. 225 is cheaper and has more traction but, if you're doing many motorway miles the lower economy will probably cancel out any savings in the tyre size. Do you really need to buy 4? If not then just go for the 205's as, if you shop around, there isn't necessarily the savings between sizes that first appear.

Claybar gets rid of tar/tree sap and all the other crap that really sticks and the abrasive polish is the autoglym glass cleaner. Polish is an abrasive. It all helps but when the screen is constantly covered in dust and crap the blades wear regardless of what you do. Interestingly, I find Rain-x a pain in the **** on the front screen. I use it on the areas that don't get hit by the blades and on the side windows but I find that when using the wipers it just causes smearing and, if anything, seems to cause the wipers to smear more even once you've got rid of the rain-x.

The screen is always cleaned properly at various points with a clay bar and an abrasive glass polish and the blades are regularly degreased but still, when you spend half the time with the screen covered in dust, mud, sand and everything else it just chews the blades up. At £10 a pair though it hardly breaks the bank. It's always been the same with every car I've owned and I just accept it. Perhaps I'm just more fussy than most as at the first sign of the cleaning not helping rid the smearing they just get replaced.

If you do a lot of motorway miles you soon eat through blades. I hit 25k a year and regularly change the blades. Usually one pair through summer and then two over winter. They degrade pretty quickly. Still, at £10 a pair for Bosch ones it's hardly bank breaking. Like tyres & brakes holding you to the road and slowing you down, seeing clearly is one of those pretty important things to be able to do!

Don't worry about crushing what's in there with the pliers, it's fecked already and you won't have to worry as the spark plug won't be damaged by doing this. Get some long nose pliers with serrated jaws and just close them as hard as you can whilst twisting and pulling. It may take a few attempts but it'll come (I know this as I helped a mate get out the remnants of his which seemed to sheared off with a minor amount of burning to the electrodes).

The lead itself or the coil? The coil should be about 4-5" long from memory. If it's only 3" then it sounds like it's snapped off half way. Some long nose serrated pliers should be able to pull off the stub that's left stuck to the spark plug. They're easy to break if you pull them out squint as the core is graphite and a thermo setting plastic and aren't overly tough.

It's the front calipers from a Mk1 Boxster or the rear calipers from a Mk1 Boxster S (which are both the same). They're under £600 new for the pair from Porsche.