jtstatic

For pure driving fun I'd get the impreza, for the adjustable diff alone. It's nice to have the option for most power put to rear wheels. The forester seemed like fun also.. mainly because I bet people won't believe a brick like that could handle properly, yet it did and even almost kept up with the STI!! End of the day I'd choose legacy over any of those. The car has great feel of quality and the looks are just superb.

Check b&b website, they offer 200bhp chip and 240 with heavier modification - talk about crazy Dunno how reliable the engine will be though. Sounds a bit of a gimmick to me .. Why not take the safe route and just build 1.6 TFSI engine with twin scroll charger should give equal results and maybe less error prone.. ?? There are rumours about 1.6 TSI though.. btw, those looking for a light weight engine for smaller cars will be disappointed though, the 1.4 TSI is as heavy and takes at least the same space as 2.0 FSI engine (count in the compressor, control devices etc.)..

Umm well ok, but have you ever tried one? I've driven real sports cars like ferrari 360 spider and porsche boxter. I don't think this "people carrier" can ever offer the same kind of experience but then again neither will a lot of cars in the same price range.. Just saying it's a nice compromise and a lot better than I first thought.

Btw, I was being sarcastic.. TBH the reason I chose meriva was that it's well equipped for the price, has flexible seating arrangements, is roomy without actually feeling like driving a bus and has got good performance. It's not the fastest car around but feels fast enought to put smile on the face now and then. Also the fuel economy should be pretty good if you don't drive like a loon all the time. Oh and it's called Opel Meriva OPC outside UK ..

I suggest everyone to drive one, even if it's not quite as agile through corners as a proper sport hatch it's still plenty of grip and great fun for the sheer feeling of acceleration and noise it makes The gas pedal reacts in a millisecond and the car feels very eager to go from slightes blip of throttle. Feels almost like you're a schoolbus driver from hell, well not really, gladly. I believe it will surprise a lot of drivers who don't know about its potential. btw: I thought it was so good I already ordered one

2.0 TDI doesn't give much more than promised either (I've heard of some giving 160bhp but seriously doubt all of them would go that well). My friend tried his golf against a standard vRS and they were pretty much even. The Golf is a bigger car so the extra 10bhp doesn't help that much. The car was later fitted with a tuning box and only then got 160bhp. Most noticeble at the low end as the tuning box tends to follow std. boost curve which gives good amount of torque (400nm) but the power drops after 3000rpm. With a remap you can expect 170-180bhp with about the same amount of torque but keeping the power better up. BTW, when measuring a car you should always rather look at the usable power band rather than peak power figure.

The 1.4 TSi sounds about right if when they switch to a new platform (again, the car will get slightly bigger), the same will happen for polo in 2007-2008 (saw some pre-info on a german magazine) so I bet this will take awhile. Fabia already made a facelift so I doubt we see another major changes on this platform anytime soon.

I'm also concidering mk1 leon as my next car (while you can still get them as new), fabia is on the list also but wider track makes the leon feel more planted + it has a bigger boot. I'd go for the TS150 if you can afford it (looks better too since it has the top sport package). Leon PD130 FR is also a good choice since with a remap you can get very good performance.

Concerning the negative comments about pzeros: I believe that if pzeros squeal and get punctured there must be something wrong in the tyre, old stock maybe? Rubber gets hard when it gets old so no tyre will last forever even if you drive them very carefully. About longevity: I drove maybe 15000-20000km (can't remember exactly) with them last summer and noticed that fronts had worn conciderably (most from the outer edges, but that's just my cornering habits ). I assume that at the rate the backs were wearing (conciderably less) if I switch the fronts to back I can drive next summer safely and then it's time to change, actually not that bad concidering I've given them a hard time

P Zero Nero all the way, only minus is that they don't last that long but the dry grip is great and on the wet they are very progressive - and most of the time they stick to the road so well that you almost forget it's raining

Trust me, the car is a straight rip from swift (and I mean literally) only the front mask and wheels are from skoda, tail lights are from beemer 1-series (maybe not intentionally). Check some suzuki ads if you don't believe me I think we have to wait for official photos to get some idea how it will really look like, skoda have kept their secrets very well..

Btw, another downside with tuning boxes is that they rely on stock boost map. Generally the stock boost control is set to overboost at low revs so you get high torque figures and the power rating lies at lower RPM than that of a properly chip tuned car. This also depends how the stock system works on each cars so the action might be more or less pronounced. Small injectors & small turbo don't work wonders with a remap either - however with a custom remap you can usually control the boost parameters to make for better boost curve for high power and cut too much low end torque for better driveability/longevity.. Currently I run my car with digital tuning box and manual boost control get a steady boost (I have a 1.4TDI which doesn't have VNT-charger so manual control is possible).. it's not perfect but works ok for me at the moment..

Well it depends how hard setting you run the box, generally cheap boxes tend to smoke more because the fuelling is not as controlled as that of a digital one. Also for this reason you usually have run them in lower setting. Too much smoke means too much unburnt fuel and that can't be good for anything so if everything behind you disappears in a black smoke don't do it.. however little bit of smoke under heavy load is normal even for chip tuned cars because diesels are not that accurate with their air/fuel ratio.. Oh, and forget airbox mods with box tuned cars, EGR will try to adapt for the extra air and performance might actually get worse (ECU will still think fuel map is stock).

umm, sorry none of them is the new fabia, the pickup etc. are clear photoshop edits from roomster concept. the last one is a suzuki swift with roomster front and bmw tail lights, you can see the flaws very clearly.

In finland we have to use winter tyres during winter. The law says you have to use winter tyres during 1st december until 29th february but one can also use winter tyres earlier if the weather permits. Currently we have two types of tyres for winter. Contact rubber tyre and Stud tyre (usually these also have additional contact rubber pattern). Both work really well on snow but on ice the stud tyre is unbeatable. On dry tarmac both tyres work ok but stud tyres are noisier and also wear the tarmac more. That's why roads are usually in bad condition here after winter and require constant maintenance. Summer tyres are almost useless when it's really slippery. I once drove with summer tires in autumn when snow started raining and the car was very difficult to stop. ABS hammered in 20km/h and the car seemed to take ages to stop. Also moving from traffic lights was very difficult on your own turn http://www.nokiantyres.com/wintertyres_en Here's a page of finnish winter tyre manufacturer, they are one of the best. Continental, Michelin and Gislaved also make very good winter tyres nowdays. BTW, With good winter tyres the fun factor on snow is great. RWD/AWD car is usually the best but you can have some good fun with FWD car too with careful use of handbrake. You don't need much horsepower to able to go sideways