APJ

I would suggest you get the order in asap to stand the best chance of getting the car delivered before the VAT increase. But I would email the dealership before signing the contract to confirm that you are only ordering on the basis that they supply before year-end. I'd also annotate the standard contract the same. You might be surprised - delivery may be much quicker.

Good choice of colour - go for it

There must have been a firmware update then as I get the music playing immediately on turning on the Bolero (I leave the SD card in the slot)

Agree - so did a thorough job of protecting with a bottle of Autoglym Lifeshine upholstery and carpet protector off ebay! Acts like Scotchguard and very easy to apply.

Yes - to my surprise it came with a steel spare wheel, as requested. I was expecting to be told only a spacesaver could be specified. I don't know the build week of the car, but it is definitely MY11, so not sure when they stopped allowing steel spares to be specified.

Haven't needed to use it - 8Gb Sandisk works perfectly in my MY11 - no delay at all. And I have mp3's in the root directory, and in subfolders under artist then album. By default it will play all the tracks in the root directory then go into the first alphabetical folder and play the tracks there .

Maxidot is only £110.64 after allowing tor the vat-free discount. I specified it for my new vRS and I'd say it's well worth the money. Apart from being able to fiddle with a few more settings, it also looks good - finishing the instrument cluster off very nicely.

IMHO, leather and xenons are expensive options. Rear parking sensors and maxidot are must-haves - relatively inexpensive and great for gadget fans. In my experience, many dealers wont haggle off the vat-free price, even when you mention you're going to buy from DtD. If you get within a few hundred pounds of the DtD price, then you're doing well. A few names seem to crop up all the time on here - Rainsworth in Nottingham seem to be keen on prices, but I also have a good quote of the forum sponsor Allams of Epsom. Best to email some dealers and ask for a quote. I recently purchased off Sinclair in Swansea and was pleased with the deal. It does depend on timing though, I found some dealers who had given good deals to other Briskoda members weren't willing to repeat them.

By the time I got to Rhossili it must have been around 6.15pm. Fortunately the horrible little man on the car park entrance had packed up and gone home. By then the sun was out and it was lovely - lots of people walking around - a very pleasant early evening.

Candy white?? Good choice! I was umming and ahhing about the MDI, but as the SD card now works brilliantly in the Bolero, glad I saved my money!

Just looking round now for insurance as my free Skoda 7 day insurance runs out shortly! Aviva £452 Direct Line £406 RAC £496 Skoda £426 Hastings £293-£55 cashback Some pretty hefty premiums there - and thats for a diesel in a rural area, old fogey with 9+ no claims. Was only paying £550 for my Evo 8 FQ300. Will continue shopping around . . . .

Yes - Sandisk - never had a problem with Sandisk cards. 8Gb was £10.79 on Amazon I think.

I've been using an 8Gb C2 card - it's absolutely spot on! There is no delay in reading the card from my Bolero, sound quality is good (@320Kbps) and I can get enough albums on it to amuse me for weeks. And they're only a tenner delivered from Amazon.

In my experience, most dealers won't haggle much off the VAT-free price, suggesting they only get a margin of 1% on vat-free cars. However, there are a few out there who will - but it does depend on timing and their sales volumes. If you get within a few hundred pounds of the Drive the Deal price, you've done ok.

Yeah was very pleased with Sinclair, really good to deal with. Rhossili? Yes!! You can just about spot the Worms Head in the background of the last picture. Picked the car up from Sinclairs lunchtime, so had an excellent afternoon/evening motoring around Gower. Thanks for all your comments - it does look good in white. But also good in silver, grey sorry anthracite, black, yellow. Just not sure about blue

Might have been! Just gave it a thorough was just to be sure

yes, just a shame it's not mine! I was waiting for the "git orf my land" from friendly farmer giles!

Picked up my new vRS TDi on Friday - had a couple of very pleasurable days driving it around! Specs: - 2.0 CR TDi vRS - MY2011 - Candy white - maxidot - rear parking sensors - auto mirror/wiper/lights - full size spare wheel Pretty impressed after a few days and a couple of hundred miles. Seems to be enough grunt when you need it, yet it pootles nicely down the motorway. Bolero is a real surprise, it's actually quite decent - plays SD cards with no delay whatsoever. Mats were standard. Big-up to Sinclair Skoda in Swansea, who were superb throughout, managing to source the car in just 3 weeks (was expecting 12!). Some quick snaps:

Heee thanks! I dealt with Ben and Andy the sales manager. Decent chaps though. Collecting the car Friday lunchtime so you'll see me taking it for a spin on the Gower in the afternoon!

Yeah I did toy with this but need a car for holidays in August, so it would have meant hiring.

Yes it was in stock at Emden awaiting shipping to UK

and by the way . . . . . it's come with mats!!! (MY11)

Amongst all the lengthy delays that seem to be happening on orders, there is the occasional good news story. I placed my order on 28th June: - Candy white vRS TDi - maxidot - auto lights/mirror/wipers - rear parking sensors - full size steel spare Original estimate on delivery was 12-14 weeks, so sometime in October. Got a call from the dealer second week of July - I was expecting to be told there was going to be delays, but to my surprise it was great news - they'd found an unallocated car built and waiting at Emden. Just over a week later it was at the dealership and I collect this Friday! It seems their sales manager gets in early to rummage around the stocklist on the system. They'd managed to find a order destined as a dealers car for the same specification - so grabbed it. Now how blinking good is that? The dealership - Sinclair in Swansea - have been superb throughout, can highly recommend them. They even sent me pics when it arrived! Can't wait to pick it up on Friday now!!

Yes, after a few mishaps with other manufacturers, every SanDisk card I've ever had has been spot on. Have gone for Extreme III's in my digital SLR which are nice and fast. But for data streaming, as you say, a class 2 card should suffice.

The latest Bolero manual states "SDHC . . . cards upto 32Gb are available" which suggests to me you can use 32Gb SDHC cards. The quicker load speed wouldn't be anything to do with the class of the card - class 4 vs class 2? Or is the faster speed only an advantage on writing to the card? Just off to order a 16gb (Sandisk £10.79 Amazon) card now!!