Hi guys,

I've been dipping in and out of the forum for sometime now; Huck recommended I come here for some advice (we passed each other by on a BMW forum, as I have just sold my M3 and am looking to buy a Skoda, whilst Huck has just sold his Octavia to buy a BMW)!

I have an unusual dilema;

To make a short story long, I am about to opt out of my company car scheme, as I hate the type of car provided (Citroen Picasso). I am therefore in the fortunate position of having approx

If you do a lot of motorway driving, what about the Superb in diesel form?

Its a great cruising car and frugal to boot. It also shifts plenty in the TDI 130 version, which can easily be chipped to about 150hp and over 300 ftlb.

Just a thought thats all.

Cheers

The Superb just doesn't do it for me, I'm afraid - I want a car with a more sporty nature and appearance (I'm only 24 years old). Also, a big attraction of the vRS is the price - I don't think Superbs are as much of a bargain as the Octavia.

Well, he did ask, so bear with me!

1 - How realistic is the combined mpg figure of 35 mpg (I do a lot of motorway work @ a steady 80 mph on the cruise control, coupled with a bit of spirited driving on private stretches of country road, ahem!). Does a remap / rechip worsen the situation?

Mine is chipped and has freeflow cats fitted. Including trackdays my average is 29,1mpg. Without the trackdays its 34.3mpg, so not far off. On the motorways I set the cruise to 3k rpm and get about 36-38 to the gallon. Round town is about 28, UK tracks about 12 and the Ring about 8

2 - How do these cars stand up to higher mileage (I'd probably run it for 30 months - ie 100,000 miles)

Mine's done 82k in 18 months. About 7,500 of those have been on various race tracks. The only problems have been with coil packs, a know vault with VAG engines. Other than that, no problems at all

3 - Has anyone ever fitted sat nav to their Octavia - I hear that the standard stereo is a bit lacking, and as I would like sat nav anyway, it seems like a "2 birds with one stone" exercise.

No, I haven't done this, I have a road map (ludite of the month award to me then ) Must confess I have been tempted. Most people do upgrade the ICE though.

4 - Servicing costs / intervals / tyre life etc? I'm trying to work out if it's beneficial to go for a PCP with full maintenance or not.

I have gone for fixed interval servicing on mine due to the miles I do. You can go for variable if you want, its an either or type of thing. I believe variable comes at about 17-20k miles. I don't know the costs of them. Cost for mine have been (this is from memory as I can't be arsed to dig out the invoices) roughly as follows:

10k =

Welcome James

I think Jon has just about covered it.

I do around 300 miles a week, a mixture of motorway and town driving and somehow manage an avg 38mpg.

My last set of tyres (205/50 x 17 conti sport) lasted 32k miles, they were rotated front/rear at 19k miles during the service by the dealer.

hello again jim!

jon has covered things very comprehensively.

tho only broker that i know of is www.tins.co.uk which has been used by Paul_T i think who seemed to get a very good deal. ordered the car with discount and extras ( in full UK spec ) and got it delivered to him by his local dealer. all very good stuff by the sound of it.

i would say go for it, but having the 330d makes me also say you should still consider one of them if it's on the list. both totally different driving experiences and i really am enjoying mine more and more. perfect scenario for me would be to have both and that will be a possibility next year.......

if you can afford it, serously consider the 330d. fantastic car but , as i say, very different to the RS.

happy hunting!

Jim Bo

welcome to the forum! Have you made up your mind on what car you prefer yet? The 330d is a good motor car , but then it should be for 30K , you could buy 2 RS' for that (one for nice days and the other for winter/wet days perhaps?...lol)..and its more fun to 'slay' boy racers in a Skoda , think of the shame they endure when they have their girlfriends in the car...being able to inflict such misery on the 'Nova/Corsa/Saxo ect ect Boys' is priceless!!!

i agree that the 'fun' factor beating other cars is superb in the RS and pretty much unbeatable for reverse snobbery factor BUT that is getting less and less. also, i find that, with the autobox, i tend to waft around and drive in a much more relaxed manner now than i did in the skoda and, guess what, i really enjoy it!! must be my age.........

plus, in the skoda, i was always getting to really stupid speeds so quickly it was only a matter of time before some points found their way on to the licence. of course as an m3 driver you know all about that.

as i said, totally different driving experiences........

My RS is for sale if you don't mind second hand

Originally posted by Huck in this post

i find that, with the autobox, i tend to waft around and drive in a much more relaxed manner now than i did in the skoda and, guess what, i really enjoy it!! must be my age.........

Interesting. I find that my driving is much more... er, sedate... with automatic transmission than it used to be.

Does auto transmission really affect the way you drive? Or are the "relaxed" drivers attracted to autoboxes?

Is there some sort of 80:20 rule here? 80% of the time, manual gear changing is a pain in the a***, but the other 20% of the time it's fun?

Jim Bo ,

For what it's worth , I went the same way as you , from BMW 323i coupe to a vRS , and haven't regretted it for one minute . I find the vRS to be much more of a drivers car than the BMW ( admittedly not an M3 ) , but I honestly don't think you would be disappointed with the vRS , not only because it's half the price of an equivalent BMW , but also, it has so much kit as standard and if you feel you want more grunt , it is easily chippable . Autos - they are for old men and doctors ( sorry Huck , much as I respect your opinion , I just can't agree with you on that one )

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all of your feedback. Here's an update;

Spent all day yesterday with a BMW 325i sport auto (closest thing they had to a 330D...). The car was absloutely superb - excellent handling, good ride (especially considering the sports suspension and 35 profile tyres). Loved the auto box in town, hated it in the sticks on my favourite B roads. Fuel economy was crap (petrol 2.5 litre straight six) but the engine was a peach. Build quality was beyond reproach and styling was spot on.

Decided that this car (with the new 3 litre 204 BHP diesel and 6 speed manual box) would be perfect. Went back to the dealership, armed with printouts from the net and ready to talk figures - the dealer couldn't match anything I'd found in what was a very quick scan of the net that morning. I left dissappointed, but went home to do the sums. Basically, the BMW would cost me

nice one!

always love to see those ' i've just been to see an RS up close today and i'm going to buy one! ' type posts.

remap and miltek? you bet you should!

Jim Bo Wrote

All in all a very favourable reaction to the car, with a couple of minor annoyances - the brakes (not inspiring)

Must admit to being surprised at that one , I remember well on my test drive stopping about 20 yards too soon at the first roundabout we arrived at and the salesman laughing - my reply was " I thought the brakes on my BMW were good , until now "

Hmm,

The brakes weren't bad as such, just seemed to have slightly poor pedal feel and not quite enough ability to haul the car up.... that said, the car had been stood, so maybe the disks were a bit corroded? Basically, they just weren't quite up to the high standards of the rest of the car, only adequate.... maybe I had too much air in the soles of my Nikes?!?

I thought the brakes were supposed to be **** hot. All this talk is getting me excited, I cant wait!

Originally posted by day tripper in this post

I thought the brakes were supposed to be **** hot.

Well, you were half right!

Agree with Jim, sort of.

Pedal feel is not great, partly due to them being single pot callipers. He is used to 4 pots which do give better initial feel and better granularity when braking.

Having said that, for ultimate stopping power, the RS is very, very good. I reckon I could outbrake pretty much anything on the road (OK, not a bike ). IIRC one of the motoring mags tested the RS and its braking performance was only marginally behind a Porsche 996 Turbo. So yes, they are adequate

Hope that helps.

Jon

What are brakes!

The things you use alot to try and get your wheels to look like mine

Originally posted by TaviaRS in this post

The things you use alot to try and get your wheels to look like mine

The brakes feel AMP-le to me. Got to go and CHEQUE the post now.

Posted Wednesday last week :(

Hi Guys,

Just thought I'd revive this thread to let you know that I've finally ordered my VRS (only 6 months after I started looking!!). It's Red, with cruise and PDC, and came off the production line on Tuesday this week! Assuming the dealer has managed to reserve this car for me, I should get it in 2 or 3 weeks. First mods will be to fit my Sony sat nav and a hands free kit (both essentials for the "road warrior")! I ended up paying

Excellent price! Well done!

I had an M3 Evo in the recent past, sorry but I doubt the vRS would keep up with 321 BHP and I love my vRS, lets keep this in perspective lads.