JohnnyE

My 1.6 Seat Leon died at 70mph in the outside lane of the M5 one Monday morning rush-hour. Tried to restart: nothing. AA turned up 15 minutes later and the barsteward started and the bloke could find no fault codes. Dealer reckoned a dirty throttle potentiometer. Never did trust it after that.

That black vRS looks stunning. Don't think mine ever looked that good and now it never will with 52,000 on the clock and lots of stonechips. Collinite is supposed to be very durable so it will be interesting to hear how it holds up against the Swissol stuff.

Thanks for the replies guys. The racket made by this engine does appear to vary considerably depending on what it's in. One review I read of the Golf with PD engine was that is was noisy and unrefined and you were better off with the petrol model. You would have thought that a Golf would be quieter than a Fabia. Flippy keys all round then? I remember in '97 when my mate's dad had a new company Passat with this flippy key and we were all amazed by it. What amuses me is that I know a guy with a BMW 645 and that just has a normal boring key! You would expect some real flashy item with a motor like that, but I suppose that's BMW for you.

Are the brakes up to scratch on this new Fabia then? I know that on the old shape vRS many folks complained about the brakes (I agree they're not the best) especially when more power is added. Do you get drums at the back or discs?

Dead easy to get yourself round the Skoda factory. One or two of the Prague tour guide companies do trips from the capital to the factory. Ours was Premiant Tours, but they only go on Thursdays for some reason. The museum is worth a visit on its own just to show you the sort of stuff Skoda used to make before communism tok over. Octavia and Fabia WRC cars on display too. Did you know that Hitler made the whole of the Czech Republic change from right to left-hand drive in one night in 1939? Standard rules and regs when you're inside the factory - no photos anywhere. Keep to designated walk ways. Usual stuff. On an only slightly related note; there are some new swish looking bendy trams in parts of Prague now that have Skoda badges on the front. Get everywhere don't they?

Apologies if this has been asked before but has anybody else on here been around the Skoda factory? I went on holiday to Prague last week and managed to book and organised trip to the factory. A properly stunning outfit and one to make you proud of your Skoda ownership. I live just down the road from where Rover used to be and worked there for a very brief spell. The difference is incredible. You can see your reflection in the painted white floors. The place had VW quality stamped all over it everywhere you look. Also, the roads in the centre of Prague are horendous (all cobbles and tram tracks) and anything that can cope with them earns my respect. Every second car sold in Czech is a Skoda. Bloody loads of them everywhere including some spectaculary knackered looking Estelles.

Cheers for the info folks. A few people have mentioned on here the crappy plastic door handles (they will annoy me) and a few other areas where it doesn't appear to be as good as the old model. I would probably miss the puddle lights on the doors too. It is much roomier though and I do need a bit more space over my vRS but am loathed to go to another manufacturer for it. An Octavia is too big (won't fit in the garage). Just one more thing: is 135hp as far as you can easily go on the Sport model without upgrading everything? I would want to keep it as standard as possible.

Quick question for all you lucky 1.9TDi owners: How noisy is the engine when compared to the MK1 Fabia? I am thinking of swapping my '05 vRS for a new shape Sport (0% finance is not to be sniffed at) but have read a few things about the engines being loud. My vRS is not particulary peaceful round town but on the motorway is fairly silent, mostly due to the six gear I would imagine. Is the 5-speed 1.9 Sport quiet at speed or not? Do you miss the sixth gear? I have done over 52,000 miles in my vRS from new and really love its blend of perkyness and quiet on the motorway (if you ignore the tyre noise). I see no point in swapping it for something not as good. On a posing note, do you get the flip-out key with the Sport model or not? Cheers

Mine does this as well. New front tyres on about 6000 miles ago seemed to have helped slightly, but it's back to its old ways again now. Quite irritating over a long journey as the pull can be fairly strong.

One tuch indicators are dead handy when exiting roundabouts and the like. But they also work like normal indicators (i.e. they stay either up or down when you want them to), not like the Vectra's ones which don't. No stutter to speak of on my '05, which is nice:)

Made the dealer promise on pain of death not to stick anything in the rear window of my car. The stickers that this particular dealer uses are huge and the Fabia rear screen is small enough as it is. However it still says the dealers name on it in four other places. Cunning swines.

Just a new air filter will make that much difference?! Incredible. In that case I'll get a Green or Pipercross one. Cheers folks

My 05 vRS Fabia has just had its 40,000 mile service (at 35,000 miles

A ha! So it's not only my CD player that does that then? Sometimes mine refuses to play or eject and makes no discernable noise (normally you get a kind of squeaky/whistle before the CD starts playing), leading me to believe it's jammed. I've switched it on and off a lot along with belting the dash underneath the radio and so far that's cured it. Don't know for how much longer though. I'm already on my second CD player as the first one also refused to play (error message kept appearing) and ate my Appetite for Destruction CD (which the dealer never replaced despite saying they would do). I would like to know if anyone else is suffering with this rubbish standard radio.

My 05 vRS is not an inaccurate as that but still not perfect. I've done over 21,000 miles and have noticed that the average mpg consistently reads 2 - 3mpg over the actual. Seems to be getting more economical as the miles pile on though, but I don't know whether or not that's just me driving like an old woman or not.