New 1.9TDi today - couple of questions...

[Snifflebag]

Picked up my nice sparkly new Octavia Elegance 1.9TDi - cracking car, really pleased with it so far, especially the slug-in-treacle fuel gauge!

Couple of questions which I wondered if the folks here-abouts could help with...

1) My Octy has Xenons fitted even though I didn't order them. When I asked the garage rep, she just muttered something about being standard fit now - can anyone confirm this?

It's a company car so I don't want any nasty surprises with the list value calculations.

2) Comparing the speed on the speedo with my satnav, the Octy seems to over read by quite a lot - reads 76 when doing 70. Is this normal? Not overly fussed, but just interested.

TVMIA

[surfdude]

1) My Octy has Xenons fitted even though I didn't order them. When I asked the garage rep, she just muttered something about being standard fit now - can anyone confirm this?

2) Comparing the speed on the speedo with my satnav, the Octy seems to over read by quite a lot - reads 76 when doing 70. Is this normal? Not overly fussed, but just interested.

Nice choice of car

1. Unless the spec has changed in the past 6 weeks (since I got mine), then Xenons aren't standard on the Elegance

2. I noticed the same with the speedo - and also noticed the same on my old Mk1 Octy too. With all the scameras around, Id rather it read high, than read low.

[Nathanio]

Are you sure it's not just headlight washers?

[Snifflebag]

Are you sure it's not just headlight washers?

Hadn't thought of that... below is a picture of my headlight, I thought the washer gizmo was the lump in the bumper just below the lights.

I simplistically thought that the orb thing was the xenon light?

[Tech1e]

No its a projector headlamp, standard fit.

Do you have a level adjustment switch inside?

[Snifflebag]

Yep have a level adjuster thingy inside. Glad that's sorted.

[Nathanio]

You can still upgrade the bulbs though with either Osram Nightbreakers or Philips Xtreme bulbs which will make the world of difference

[octavia98]

On the speedo reading 76 at 70 thing. As I recall, there is a requirement for speedos to read higher speeds or accurately, but NEVER under. I have a Magellan hand held GPS & the cars I've 'tested' all read over by the best part of 10mph at 70, so indicated 80 is actually 71ish probably. The error gets less at lower speeds though, so 30 indicated is about 28.

[Nathanio]

It's generally a 10% error margin on the speedo

[IJWS15]

Mine is only a couple of MPH high at 60 - nothing like 10%.

Remember to do the comparison on the level - sat nav does not allow for altitude change.

[Web Ferret]

At 80 on the speedo, gps says 75.

I think they read over with brand new tyres but as the tyres wear the distance travelled is slightly less with each revolution it gets a fraction more accurate.

At 30 on the speedo GPS says 28.

[Snifflebag]

You can still upgrade the bulbs though with either Osram Nightbreakers or Philips Xtreme bulbs which will make the world of difference

At your suggestion, looked at the Osram and Philips bulbs - they look just the ticket.

Found them at what seems like a very good price at CARBULBS.COM

Little job for the weekend I think!

[Nathanio]

Got the night breakers in the vRS and they make such a difference night driving, they are almost as good as my HIDs