gullyg

Depends on if he has any type of specific requirement but just going on "large, comfy and reliable" and not doing too many miles I'd go for something like a Volvo V70. They're built like tanks, will do silly mileage and the lower bhp petrols (avoid the T5/T5R models) aren't massively popular as they're not very good on fuel (combined is about 30mpg iirc). I've owned a couple of Volvos myself (N reg 850 T5 and a W reg S40 1.8) and my folk have owned loads over the years and they've all been pretty bomb proof and not too expensive to fix/service as long as you avoid the main dealers. I'd backup what StevesTruck says though, it's all too easy to be tempted to get the "best" car you can stretch to and leave yourself really thin - I've done that myself.

Maybe they should go for the white poppy http://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/index.html

I never managed more than about 42mpg on average on my Tdi vRS estate over 3 years and 36k miles, it never seemed to "run in". A few long runs I got a bit more and on a load of short runs I got about 10mpg (dpf regens constantly). I've seen lots of people get better but others here have found the same.

Ah that's really useful cheers.

That's the same experiance I had on both the Xc60s I test drove. The r-design was nice and firm but not too firm the se-lux had too much body roll. If you believe the press the xc60 r design is to be avoided as it'll break your back even on the 18" wheels - dealers car of 20" wheels was fine for me. Again with the X3 - apparently you're nuts if you stick with the standard msport suspension, you either have to go soft and wallowy or fork out another £800 on adaptive suspension and hope it doesn't break. It's not just "SUV" type cars - in my book most of the vauxhalls that enterprise love giving me are far too soft and involve me feeling sick as a passenger unless you get a "sports" trim. My mates loaner pug 308 actually made me feel sick driving it - which was a first. It's a pity the sports trims are often all mouth and no trousers as they're trying to cash in on the better models but often they can be (imho) good value as a trim upgrade. Marketing, got to love it.

Yeah I was tempted by the 3 series touring, could have got a 335d for the money we spent on the X3 but they don't do auxiliary heating on the 3 and no x-drive on the 5. The aux heating (webasto style diesel burner) is awesome by the way, can turn it on by timer, connected app or a remote and warms up the car and engine so you're getting straight into a toasty car with a warm engine. Last night was quite frosty - went out this morning to find the neighbours scraping the windscreens and no a patch of ice on ours.

Well the vRS is away, in favour of a BMW F25 lci X3 20d msport. Not really fair to compare the two cars as the list price of the BMW with options is literally twice the list price of the Octavia we spec'd. One thing I'll be glad to get away from is Skoda UK. The local dealer (West end Skoda) were fantastic, SUK not so much. Of course we're yet to see if BMW are any better.

Looks like the Octavia is going to be a marmite car now, fair play to those who like it but that front end with the split lights is hideous imho. Sorry are you asking what issues the pre-face lift has? Have a look here for some common ones - I mentioned most the issues I've had, a lot seem common issues. Also getting a real problem with steaming up again, having to use the heated windscreen far more than I should. http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/392842-26-months-of-ownership-26-weeks-off-the-road-so-far-counting/?fromsearch=1

Kind of looks like an a5 but that doesn't look like a front/4wd reaction to me, although I'm no expert. Yesterday overtaking 2 extremely heavy people in a tiny little Citroen saxo that had been doing 30 mph in a 60 only to come up on roadworks and have them right behind me. Why did this make me smile? The driver was so mad that when he was gesticulating the car was rocking so much it looked like it was going to tip over.

From my very very shonky memory the 6 has a full spare but that might be wrong. The 6 is a lovely car but a bit dull. We ended up going for a msport BMW cause I couldn't stand the plastic wheel arches on the "lower" models. Unfortunately it means winter tyres are going to be an issue unless I get new wheels - £700 each for the back.

Landrovers were known to do that if they were overfilled with oil. I think it's a common issue with then and some other turbo engines.

Interesting. I've still not heard what she's been told as she's been on nights. It's an order for a 2nd car so at least she's not stuck with a finance issue etc but I'd be pushing for some sort of recompense. I'll update if I find out more.

Aye, she's away to speak to the Seat UK tomorrow to see what's going on. Trying to stay out of this one to be honest - I've long ago learn not to get too involved with these things as they come back to bite you!

Yeah she announced she'd bought this with much excitement a while ago. I just kept my mouth shut. Mind you my Skoda hasn't been much better - turned up immaculate but soon developed problems and plenty of them.

Not on a seat forum but there's a lot of people here knowledgable about VAG as a whole. A friend ordered a petrol Ibiza dsg (don't know anymore at the moment - she's not a car person) in July and is still waiting for a build date. Something about engine issues. Anyone know anything about seat build delays at the moment. A quick google / scan of uk seat forums didn't show much but might be being blind. Cheers

Hmm. Maybe not a Monte Carlo - certainly no vRS anyway as it rolled about a bit. Should have the loan paperwork from the dealer at home.

Ah sorry stupid moment. 1.2 - was when my vRS was in getting warranty work and didn't pay a huge amount of attention to the engine size other than it was petrol was defiantly a Monte Carlo petrol tho.You are correct about WBAC but they can be a useful guide if you add on a bit more. I got more than that in my trade in although was still slightly under the finance value but I didn't want to complicate matters as trade in prices are related to what you're paying for the new car.

I've driven loads of cars over the last three years through work's hire car agreement, courtesy cars from the dealer and test drives) the ones with dsg are,Passat 2.0 diesel (pre-mqb model) Passat bluemotion diesel (1.6?) also pre-mqb Mk2 Fabia 1.4tsi Monte Carlo Audi A4 2.0 Quattro (petrol) Yeti diesel (no idea on engine size) Mk2 superb diesel of some capacity All cars were under a year old when I drove them, often with only a few thousand miles on them. I've also been a passenger in the new Golf R estate and it's the same, impressive driving fast but pretty poor in traffic. They do get better with more power but still not great. The ZF box in the BMWs isn't quite as good imho driving fast but it's close however it's light years ahead on the day to day slog through traffic. As for reviews I never put a huge amount of store in them. For a start not that many are long term reviews where people are likely to do heavy traffic rather than a blast on a country road and some motorway. Also they're often cr4p or extremely subjective - the Volvo XC60 r-design and BMW X3 msport suspension are too "hard" and "jiggly" if you are to believe the reviewers. With all the reviews I've seen saying that for the X3 it's a "must" to get the expensive variable dampers but to me driving on 20" wheels the X3 msport is perfectly fine especially as I'm sticking with 19" wheels. As everyone says - each to their own it's very subjective. As for residuals, my 2013 vRS estate was ~25 grand new, 3 years and 30k miles later it's worth about £11500 if you're to believe we buy any car etc.

Again personal experiance, I've never driven the vRS dsg but I have driven a number of VAG cars with different dsg gearboxes and they've all been sub par when driving normally. In my experiance they're great for driving fast but the manual is "better" (more involving although allegedly not faster) but they're slow and jerky in start stop traffic. I've owned normal autos before and am waiting for a new car with an 8 speed zf box - to me if you're buying an auto it's about smooth relaxing driving 1st with performance 2nd and that's something the dsg is an abismal failure at. However as Phil-e says - test drive is king.

I think you get used to the noise tbh. I've had almost every passenger complain about the noise in the car but never really noticed it (came from a mk1 fabia vrs) on Conti SP2 and 5s and Goodyear Ultragrip 8s (winters). However I really noticed it after test driving the Volvo XC60 R-Design and BMW X3 MSport - both were whisper quiet compared, but then they're different cars and significantly more expensive.

Mk3 Octy is bi-Xenon - step in the wrong direction? I need to watch, spend my time flashing all the time ..

It's supposed to be tagged differently so it doesn't count although it's conceivable that it tagging hasn't worked correctly. I believe you can disable the additional wifi stuff from the HH's advance interface.

Also watch your pcp terms - can't remember on my Skoda pcp but recently signed a pcp with BMW and it specifically states a number of business uses you're prohibited from using the car for, mainly stuff like taxi hire but I'm sure I noticed something akin to "traveling engineer" or some such vague term.

Might be worth speaking to an accountant if you're contracting as I assume you'll be "a business". It might be cheaper to take a business lease deal for a car for work only and offset against tax etc and keep the existing car. Not sure on this one but I did look into leasing for business and there were some fairly decent deals but you didn't really want to use it for personal due to the tax complications.

From what I've read it's often the cycles that kill them, which is a worry on bi-xenon systems like in the mk3 octavia as simply flashing your lights during the day will cause a cycle as will auto lights turning on and off as you go through tunnels etc.