Iwan

Thanks guys, that deal looks rather tempting! I'll definately be giving them a shout once I have the money for my Impreza. I'll also print that ad out to wave at the manager of my local offical Skoda dealership.

Hi folks. Over the last 3 yrs I've gone from Subaru Impreza P1 --> Skoda Fabia vRS --> Subaru STI5 Type R --> I was very impressed with the Fabia vRS when I owned it, the only reaon I sold it was because I wanted big power and 4wd handling again. But within days of selling the vRS and "upgrading" to another Impreza I was really wishing I hadn't, even though the Impreza is such an amazing machine. I've been planning a return to Skoda ever since then. The STI5 Type R is now sold and is going to it's new owner next week, so I'm looking around for something to replace it. Having already owned one, i'd like another Fabia. But this time I'm not concerned about performance, and am all about saving money. So I'm probably going to opt for one of the base models rather than the vRS - most likely the 1.2 12v (64bhp) Classic with metallic silver paint and EDL/ASR. Does anyone have any comments about this model, especially if you've bought one recently? Also, I've seen the special offers at www.skoda.co.uk and they list this model at

Their marketed all over europe with the same model names, so I'd pronounce them as they're said in Czech republic where the cars are built. Words/letters are pronounced phonetically over there, exactly how they're written. I.e. for Octavia it's Oct-a-via, with the 'a' sounding like it does in the word apple in english. And Fabia it's Fab-ia, with the 'Fab' sounding like the start of the word Fabulous in english.

Yup, I went up the M6 last month and there was a string of 4 or 5 linked SPECS cameras on each side in the 40mph limit road works. They look like a normal CCTV camera with a round illuminator on each side, held up on an ornate looking pole. There are also lots of camera warning signs there too. Very different to trafficmaster. Didn't see any revenue vans on either journey.

I had an Impreza P1, which I sold to buy a brand new Fabia vRS. I thought the Fabia was a great car but there was no comparison on performance (and it was a bit too small) so I ended up selling it after only 2 months. I went back to Scoobys again and bought an STI5 Type R, which I had re-mapped etc. For a while I was happy with my 320bhp and awesome handling, but the real world is starting to hit me again. Not many places you can use the performance, crippling insurance, poor reliability, extortionate service/repair costs, sub 20mpg running. So it's getting put up for sale in about 2 weeks when it's been re-MOT'd, and i'll be looking for something more sensible. Having had a Furby and not been totally happy with it, i'm more likely to be swayed towards an Octy this time - either a vRS or a TDi. If my sensible head wins the argument then it'll be the TDi.

I've decided to put mine up for sale. :( http://www.briskoda.net/forums/t23357-for-sale---2005-skoda-fabia-vrs-19tdi-pd130.html It's only 6 weeks old, I've been offered the use of a pool car for work so I'm going to sell the Furby and get a silly car (or a bike) for the weekends. See thread above for more info. Cheers Iwan

I think there's a Fabia Sport (red) outside Fish Brothers Skoda (Swindon) at the moment. Looks almost like a VRS but with different front bumper and foglight surrounds. I was in a hurry so didn't look at the back or have a squint inside, nice though.

I've had my vRS 2 weeks and have done around 600 miles, at lot of that has been on motorways but i'm only getting 44mpg or thereabouts. :confused: Should be better than that right? Will it improve as the engine loosens up? Also, the 'miles left in the tank' indicater seems to vary between 200 miles and 350 miles right from when the tanks full, and reads similar figures even when i'm down to less than half a tank. It doesn't seem very accurate until the tank is almost empty. I was expecting to see it reading 600 odd miles when the tank is full. :confused:

1-Buzz L 2-Ibby 3-JCM 4-Fab 16v 5-Faboka 6-VRS Jonno 7-chas 8-clv101 9-silvrs 10-Roger M 11-RallyInfo 12-Rooboy 14- black magic 15- Ross Clarke 16- Neil Williams 17 - Josh_PoloGTi 18 - helpmedisappear 19 - Dunkx 20 - Cab 21 - tfboy 22 - galaxian 23- Tom 24- Whizzo 25 - andysteele 26 - pbirkett 27 - dsemuk 28 - spinndrift 29 - Dan_P 30 - GSM 31 - jimmy9uk 32 - Alexst (surrey) 33 - Phillb 34 - DANvRS 35 - Hobnob 36 - Richarde 37 - Flatfourburble 38 - GeoffT 39 - StressedDave 40 - Tugboat 41 - Mike Wrightson 42 - jifster 43 - Asmidir 44 - BigAde 45 - dliviu 46 - Furball 47 - The Mad Monk 48 - maffwilson 49 - Grease Monkey 50 - Doer1 51 - Carefree 52 - johnny05 53 - S29FEB 54 - Darren P 55 - Gimly 56 - bryand 57 - mbirkett 58 - Mumphie 59 - Charlo 60 - Des_pd_ tdi 61 - LFC958 62 - Potster 63 - Longdogs + a scoob and i got the VRS as it felt fast !!! 64 - Gord 65 - Italiastar's wife 66 - UHF (picked up 17/09/04) 67 - Topcat 68 - wol 69 - Hicksy 70 - Dogmaul172 (on saturday but im on the list now !!!! ) 71 - PJM 72 - t1234 73 - Speed Triple 74 - Tigger_1979 (Bristol) 75 - Hollowpoint 76 - Jonyboy 77 - Bagheera 78 - Fabia tdi 79 - Sherbert 80 - Quinch 81 - Mrs Rondo 82 - Blueheart 83 - Walkie 84 - Liam 85 - Tonystop 86 - Stokey(1) 87 - Stokey(2) 88 - Karlos_fabVRS 89

My logbook arrived yesterday, and i only picked the car up on saturday! :eek: Must be a record for DVLA

Fabia uses H7/H3 too. Easier and cheaper to get some brighter uprated bulbs (Osram Silver Star etc.) from http://www.powerbulbs.com IMO. Works for me

There was a re-run of the Fabia vRS v Mini Cooper race on Top Gear tonight. Nice to see that again, particularly as i collected my new silver Fabia vRS yesterday and spent all day today driving it.

Osram Silver Star for dipped (normal wattage but 50% brighter), and Phillips Rally 100w for main beam. Now you need to wear Of course, the 100w ones are for off-road use only so i won't be using them on the roads. Oh, and for the passenger side ones, taking the side cover/shroud off the battery gives you a few crucial extra mm's of space to work with.

No options other than silver metallic paint. I tried getting them to match a couple of other dealer prices but one was allegedly closing down (Jewsons of Oxford) so was only offering discounts to clear curent stock, and the other (Clock Garage Skoda) had met its target so had upped the prices again. Still

It'll be worth it in the end. I picked mine up today (ordered 23rd Dec), Fabia vRS in Silver Metallic for