Foodhoover

Can I just second the Nialls opinion above that an octy on black steeelies does have a great utilitarian look, but i did not know why until someone at work pointed out that all of the FBI/cop undercover cars you see on US TV are boggo ford crown victorias/dodge chargers /chevvy impalas on steel wheels (my wife has just pointed out over my shoulder that the boggo crown vic point is a recurring theme in the Jack Reacher series of books by Lee Child, learn something new every day and all that). I did put 16" trims on last year but flogged them to a local taxi driver who has a superb last spring and just havent got round to buying new ones. I reckon my pre facelift Storm Blue L&K looks good on the black wheels. I also rate the ride on 16" and 205/55 tyres over the stock 17" and 225/45 tyres. Mine are costco sourced Michelin Alpins (25% off a set of 4 at the moment), and wonder whether the perfect look / ride combo would be a storm blue octy on gloss black 16" alloys? any thoughts?

These guys have just turned round my Octy II service again swiftly and efficiently at a good price and gave me a courtesy car without question. Easy folk to deal with, none of the Aberdeen main dealer hassles, and lots of helpful advice. Will keep going back.

Back in the days when I got my L&K (58 plate) it came with 17" sputnik alloys and Bridgestone RE050 tyres a steel 16" spare with a continental sport contact 2 omnidirectional tyre. As a result I bought 16" steelies for my winter tyres (shod with Michelin Alpins). Here in aberdeenshire last winter they proved excellent, and got nme onto the main roads through soft snow over ice and handled just fine on the main roads and allowed for confident driving. It was great to be able to drive carefully but with confidence where others slithered about on "all weather Tyres" The difference was stunning. I thought long and hard about buying some 16" alloys for the summer to soften the ride I got on the OEM Bridgestones. However when I came to change my bridgestones (which where hard and noisy) I put on Conti Sport Contact 2 directionals on a weeks trial basis from my local garage (Not the sort of service you'll get from Kwik-Fit.), and have got a quieter more compliant car that burns less fuel so I've kept the 17's and the contis. (they were cheaper than the Bridgestones too by £8 per tyre. On my Alfa GTV 3.0 I have 16" wheels for both summer and winter duty I find that the ride on the summer wheels (Bridgestone Adrenalins) far softer than that on my winter one (Michelin Alpins) but the ability to drive easily away in snow that I sruggled to manage on the Bridgestones is worth it. My local Costco still has some 16" alpins in stock but most here in Aberdeen appear to be arriving from Shetland!

Sorry Guys I cannot get the editor to let me past in a pdf version of the wheel table, anyone out there who can help? Skoda don't recommend 7J16" wheel option but the calculators all say it should fit!

According to Skoda the correct offset for 6.5J 16" wheels for an Octy II is ET50, rather weidly the dealers can access a sheet of all sutiable diameters and offsets by chassis number (to prevent you trying to fit 15" alloys over vRS callipers etc. I have a copy at home for my 58 plate pre FL L&K and will scan it in tomorrow

I have the 1.8 FSI in my 58 plate L&K. When I was looking to replace my old Octy I (I took over a year to pick its replacement) I drove several 2.0 FSI a nd 1.8 FSI ex demo cars but I eventually decided that the general smoothness of the 1.8, and the sheer grunt was compelling enough to join the waiting list for a car with the 1.8 engine, trying to get a 1.8 ex demo was just impossible in a manual L&K, they all had DSG which I don't like (OK so I'm a luddite, but I intend to keep my car 10 years or so, like I did last time, so the DSG replacement cost figured in my reasoning). I am slightly dissapointed with the economy but that's probably because I am doing a lot more short runs in it than I used to (job change) and it enjoys being used "enthusiastically". Performace is in many ways better than my 3.0 litre Alfa GTV, it is genrally quicker, and so much more refined (but then the arnese V6 is known for its sound). I would not have the 2.0, it offers no real advantage other than ease of availability over the 1.8's.

My L&K (58 plate) has 17" 7J Sputnik alloys but a 16" 6.5 J steel spare (it fits I've used it twice due to the rubbish roads here in Aberdeen). The 7J wheel does not allow the boot carpet to fit flushly so I am now looking for some 16" 6.5J alloys for the long term (I have a set of 16" 6.5 J steelies clad in Michelin Pilot Alpins for the snowy stuff, that came off yesterday probably saved me twice a week since christmas on the icy stuff) as the ride on 16's is far better it will eliminate the mismatch in wheel and tyres problem that sets up mayhem in the TPMS and ABS when I have the spare on with 17's on the other 3 wheels. It also negates the 50 mph problem. The query about tyre fixing vans in the remote north is true both ways, the big chains don't get you there, but the locals will know a man who can, at a cost. By the way on my other car (Alfa GTV which only comes with a skinny space saver cos a full size one fills the boot) I have had the joy of nervously driving 117 miles on a 50 mile 50 mph space saver on a wet sunday night to get home as there was no where open between inverness and aberdeen! Hence the liking for full size spares.

I got fresh ones for my mk 1 octy from carmats4u.com and had a vrs logo and the reg no put on the mats (as a bit of a pose). My mum also bought a tailored rubber boot liner for her pug estate from them to help her keep the dog debris under control and it's lasted 4 years (with up to 3 spanniels)

Folks my 58 plate L&K on sputniks is to my mind rather jittery and as you'll see from my other posts I'm not implressed with only getting a 16" 6.5 J spare giving me mismatched wheels following a recent pothole / rear wheel rim failure (wheel repalced new potenza to match the rest £200 later, harumph). IMHO the ride is not as good (too jittery and firm) as it should be on the 17's althought the grip is good but I can still get the front end all squirelly when applying the loud pedal . I am looking at three options. 1) a suspension mod to soften the ride (recognising that this will add more roll) 2) swapping my sputniks for 16" 6.5J on appropriate rubber to keep the rolling radius 3) do nowt at present option 2 is most likley (when I next need a set of front tyres) but we'll keep you posted

Thanks for help guys, I've been talking to Skoda about this and trying to get them to tell me what the widest spare wheel I can have in the boot so that I can then change the other wheels to match it (excessive I know, but it is aimed to let them know I'm keen to get back to the full sized real spare case i had with my mk 1 slx 20v. Honestly they don't have access to cars, tape measures or drawings so I am off to annoy my least favourite folk at specialist cars skoda to try to get them to answer the question, not exactly hopeful.....

OK so I ran over a raised drain cover and took a lump out of the rim of my 17" sputnik wheel. Put on spare (OK I should have noticed this before) and saw that it was a 16" steelie with a warning label saying 50mph max. Not happy:thumbdwn: (well happier than I was in my alfa gtv where the narrow space saver was only good for 50 miles at 50 mph (no joy on that rainy saturday night (why is it always raining when I need to change a wheel) when I was 85 miles from home and no where was open to sell me a new full size tyre. Limped home and next day was shoked at how little tread was left (good job I put it on the back, even though it meant a double change)) So after all of those brackets the question is this. Can I change the conti tyre on the spare for a proper one that is not limited or is it the wheel that is duff and not up to the forces of more than 50MPH? Second quibble, no one in scotland has a 17" sputnik lying around to sell me! so it'll be 4 days to get one from englandshire!

On a slightly related note I run a 58 plate Octy II L&K Petrol on 17" sputniks and I think that the ride is a bit harsh for the "luxury" model. (I deliberately got an L&K rather than a VRs after a test drive as I found the VRs on 18"'s un usable on the dodgy aberdeen shire roads). I now have a pot hole wrecked OSR wheel and tyre and find that no dealer stocks these "Accessory" wheels (and I though they came on L&K, 100 series and several Superb models). As a result my wife is moaning about having to stay below 50 (to comply with the sticker on the 16" spare. So I agree the ride is duff on 17"'s My mates elegance on 16"' rims is a whole heap better and you rally have to push hard to notice the cornering disadvantages.

Car came back today having caused a great deal of confusion in the workshop, the door latch mechanism had come adrift and would not rotate off the stiker bar. Apparently opening the door took them ages, but all happy now. Thanks for your help on this guys.

No, car lives in heated garage min temp 6 C.

Alas it is not opening at all, it is just plain stuck. You can hear something when you fire the locking with the key, centre console button or remote, but I am hoping this isn't a repeat of the recurrign problem that the mk I octy had with the boot solenoid not always firing (at leat you could ping the hatch manually from inside, if you cannot open the door at all I think you are trying to strip out the door card without the lucury of being able to get to the door card fastners cos the door is shut!:(