oobster

Cheers folks, mind is made up now, not going to go for the vRS I seen. Is/was a nice one too - yellow manual hatch with black pack, tints, canton, leather, satnav,19" alloys etc. Only option it didn't have, which I would have liked, was KESSY. I'll keep looking, ST is now 2.5yrs old and although there is nothing wrong with it I fancy something new.

Thing is, i've seen a ex-demo vRS TDI fairly close to me that is for sale, colour and spec is exactly what I was looking for, apart from the TDI bit!

Chaps, Considering going from my 2012 Focus ST-3 (250ps/247bhp and 360Nm/270lb/ft torque) and approx. kerb weight of 1437Kg to a 2014 Skoda Octavia TDI CI vRS. I used to have a vRS approx. 3 years ago, a 2010 Petrol DSG hatch that had been Shark-mapped to approx. 250bhp, but I am concerned that I will feel a considerable drop in power from my current Focus ST to the diesel vRS. The figures for the Diesel VRS are, I believe, 184ps/181bhp and 380Nm/280lb/ft torque so more torque but less bhp. Kerb weight is 1,395Kg from what i've been able to ascertain, so slightly lighter than the Focus. What do you helpful and knowledgeable people think - will I feel a night-and-day difference in power, or should the small weight drop + increase in torque make up for the drop in bhp? Because the vRS is almost new I won't be mapping it if/when I buy it - don't want any warranty issues. Ta! Andy

Yep, the yellow one is lovely.

Lovely!

Managed to dig out my order form, they are: 8.5 x 19", 5x112 stud pattern, ET45 with, I think a centre bore of 57.1. They came fitted with 235/35 Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta tyres and the whole lot came to £1700 delivered to my door. Delivery took roughly 7 weeks though I seem to recall. That was back in May 2011.

Yes VMR 710's, got them from Niche Automotive, sadly I don't have that car anymore, one of the worst (motoring) decisions I ever made when I got rid of that car!

I quite like the Skoda Xtreme wheels in 19" but on my MK2 FL Octavia VRS I had a set of VMR alloys (in 19") and they looked the dogs dangly bits. Skoda Octavia VRS 20-03-2012 by oobster, on Flickr

That looks lovely Johntyboy.

That looks excellent Allan.

Many thanks Matt, I thought it was Metal Grey but good to have confirmation! I used to have a 10-plate petrol DSG Octavia hatch in white, thinking of coming back to Skoda (currently got a Focus ST) and seen the above car for sale. It's a Diesel though, would imagine it would be a fair drop in power from the ST (250bhp v 186bhp).

The guy I've been using to do various repairs and upgrades for the last twenty years is on that list, Steve Walkers Bodyshop in Bathgate. Perhaps it is worth asking your dealer if you can take it to Steve to have the repair done, then the dealer/Skoda pays Steve directly? I would say if you want it done perfectly, and reasonably quickly, take it to Steve Walker.

What colour is this? Octavia VRS by oobster, on Flickr

Very VERY nice, love the splitter in conjunction with the black grille surround.

Lovely colour, lovely car.

Spotted your pic on flickr before I spotted it on here Rob, but I thought the grey wasn't an option for the MK3 anymore?

Fabulous. If I get a Mk3 in 2014 then I want it to look exactly like yours.

Looks excellent!

It was mine! I've PM'd you back sko-with-go.

You the same Ricey that used to be on SIDC? Nice car!

It does indeed look fantastic, very jealous.

That looks excellent!

OP - very nice car, like it a lot.

Definitely keep the thread updated Mike - good luck!

I don't want to derail your thread Mike, but here goes... (i'll keep it as brief as I can). 1) Arrived at dealers to pick up my car, noticed a shallow dent right in the middle of the bonnet. Turns out (apparently) that it's the sealer that is used to bond the outer bonnet skin to the inner 'skeleton' underneath - when the car is warm it shrinks the sealer and 'pulls' the middle of the bonnet down. I spotted another (blue) ST in the showroom that had a dent in exactly the same place. 2) Bonnet/bumper gap - it's absolutely shocking (and they all seem to be bad). How it ever passed Quality Control is beyond me. 3) Car broke down (while traveling round a roundabout) 1 month after buying it, AA couldn't fix by the roadside so it had to be recovered back to the supplying dealer. (Idiot recovery driver allowed my front bumper to contact the ramps, scraping the paint off my bumper which had to be repaired). Dealer diagnosed a blown fuse, checked the wiring for the circuit (or so they thought) and gave me the car back. The car would then momentarily hesitate going round roundabouts (power would die for a second then come back to life). Booked the car in to get fixed, dealer Service Manager took the car out for a run, came back to say "It's supposed to do that - it's the traction control kicking in". ****** I said, but the guy wasn't for changing his mind so I decided I would call Ford Customer Services the next day & complain. Car broke down again (while going round a roundabout, again) on the way home that night. Car was recovered back to the supplying dealer again (who were ABSOLUTELY hopeless) - their Master Tech then admitted to me that although he'd replaced the correct fuse at the 1st breakdown he'd then mis-read the fuse chart and checked the wiring for the circuit that was protected by the fuse NEXT to the one that had actually blown. What had actually happened was there was a wire rubbing off the gearbox casing, eventually wore through (in the space of a month!) and the bare wire was shorting on the gearbox, but only when the car was cornering - the engine & box would move slightly on their mounts and touch the cable for a split second, which is where the momentary power cut was coming from. Twice though, at the two breakdowns, it touched for a wee bit longer and blew the fuse. 4) Speakers - particularly the passenger-side rear door speaker. Rattles like hell. The dealer had a look at it, then allowed me to play any track I wanted via my iPhone inside their demonstrator, with the bass etc settings set to the same as my car and the demo car speaker rattled like hell too. Once the left-right balance + front-rear fader is set to remove the signal going to the rear passenger-side speaker the rattle goes away, both on my car + the demonstrator. Means that I can't play really bassy tracks up loud as I can't stand the rattle. 5) The Ford Sync system (for controlling your phone + any music on it via the stereo) is a bit hit-and-miss. Sometimes it works fine, for weeks sometimes, then at other times it will play up for days on end. It is also SUPPOSED to be able to read out any text messages that are received while the car and the phone are paired but it rarely works. There are also a fair few people reporting issues on ST Owners Club forums - some owners have had to have their steering rack replaced due to their cars wandering about on motorways, the illuminated ST kick-plates on the sills seem to go on the blink regularly (ok not a massive problem) and i've seen a few people say they've had issues with their DRLs flickering. A software update seems to sort that though.