have u got number for the primed? i think you need both pieces?

http://carsoftheworld.eu/foto/wydarzenia/2008%20BEIJING%20-%20Cars%3B%20photo%20RJ%20%28G-Z%29/640x480/Shanghai%20VW%20Skoda%20Octavia%20Mingrui_1.jpg

http://www.corbisimages.com/images/67/FFAB809B-88E4-41E4-A1D9-323CBE8D5842/42-18616732.jpg

Any chance you can screenshot it? I've never used EKTA before so got no idea what you are looking at.....

If you look at the pictures above of said Ming Rui's, there is a chrome line at the top and a body coloured line at the bottom.

I can't believe the two would come as a single part as the masking up would be a horrible job

Take the example of the Grille; its not sold as a one part, there is a chrome bit and a black bit, so surely it would be the same with the bumpers?

I can't see how they could sell a part as "glossy" when they aren't offering a range of colours, do you get me?

I'd love to know where to get the LED rear lamps from... is EKTA updated every so often? Were these lamps shown at a motor show prototype or are they in production? Was thinking about getting some FL rear lights, but ow I will definatley hold on until I can find a source for these. There are some posts on the german forums (which I have read using Google Language Tools) and there is a little community that have made homebrew rear LED bulbs using a lot of surface mount LED's custom etched PCB's and resistors to fool the CAN BUS... but it just looks like a bunch of LED's in a standard housing... at least these are proper OEM rear lights.

I guess the chances of them being CE marked are slim to none - as my uncle always says when he buys something CE marked from China.... it stands for "Chinese Engineering" - especially when said mark is obviously an afterthought or stuck on with a sticker rather than being integral to the product .

What is the betting that the UK FL Octavia gets these in a couple of years time?

Will one of the moderator PLEASE put these guys out of their misery

I was in China the week before last and saw Octavias with LED rear lights, so they are in production. They looked fine. In fact the Chinese Octavia looks fine in the flesh. They are made by VW-FAW (First Auto Works) near Shanghai and have the VW-FAW emblem (in Chinese) on the tailgate. The Fabia II is also sold there and they appear to be mainly 'level 3' trim with 1.5 L engines. Diesel cars don't seem to be particularly popular in China. Even the taxis are mostly petrol (petrol is about 70p a litre).

The Chinese like their cars and small cars are not that popular. American cars are fairly common (Buicks) as well are larger Japanese cars and Hyundai Sonatas, Audi A5, A6, A8, Passats etc (in fact the whole VAG range apart from SEAT). There are now plenty of people in China who can afford nice cars - Shanghai alone is home to 116,000 millionaires!

Will one of the moderator PLEASE put these guys out of their misery

Hope no offence / problem has been caused :(

they appear to be mainly 'level 3' trim

Can you please define what "level 3 trim" is, are there different levels and how does this correspond to L&K / Elegance e.t.c.

Are there levels 4,5,6,7,??

.........interesting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEF57jreeQo

0:50

Someone in the UK must be running their hatch with the genuine LED tail lights by now, they've been available over 6 months

You guys may be right - its nothing personal its just that even with their advanced manufacturing processes, many still rely heavily on manual labour. Also i would imagine that corners would >HAVE< to have been cut to ensure it is an affordable proposition in a country where wages are considerably less than the West.

Think inferior quality steel and plastics - yes you have the moulds and press tools but you get to use whatever material you want (within reason). Also safety legislation is very lax so why build it to european standards if you don't have to.

I'm sure its a perfectly acceptable car but I'd wager my nuts that put up against one built in Europe, there would be any number of difficiencies apparent.

I can give testimony to uphold wardth's point of view. Here in Panama the chinese have been flooding the market with their original designs and designs from well known brands like Isuzu and Nissan. Again like wardth said, the Japanesse build and quality of the same car model is 1,000% better than the chinesse, plastics are not of the same materials, metal parts are not made with the same alloys and over all even thought they look the same, they dont feel or behave the same.

The ones that are arriving here don't even come with rust protection.

Is not that they are crap, but they have a long way to go to achive Japanese or European standards.

To ilustrate my point:

1- Crash test Opel/Vauxhall Frontera | 2002 | Crash test

And my opinion about the leds.. Nasty! they look like a christmas tree...

again, thats my opinon.

Are you saying that the Chinese Octavia is not the same as the EU model?

The two clips you have posted above are not the same car, one to me looks like a cheap Chinese copy of the Vauxhall Frontera.

I find it hard to believe that the Skoda Octavia featured in the YouTube clip above is any different to that of the European model other than minor spec changes?

What I'm saying is that from my experiences here with chinese cars is that they might have the same shape as the regular ones, but the materials used are of lower quality and bulit quality.

For instance, the Toyota Prado my brother has was manufactured and assambled in Argentina, not even close to the Japanese I have. The body metal is thiner, the plastics feel more plastic than the japanese, etc... and it cost him less.

They look the same, but believe me, they are not.

my wife is chinese and her parents are staying here for a few weeks

i will instruct her dad to make enquires when he gets home next month at skoda/china

and hopefully get a set over here so we can look at them

hows that?

my wife is chinese and her parents are staying here for a few weeks

i will instruct her dad to make enquires when he gets home next month at skoda/china

and hopefully get a set over here so we can look at them

hows that?

Just the job!

What I'm saying is that from my experiences here with chinese cars is that they might have the same shape as the regular ones, but the materials used are of lower quality and bulit quality.

For instance, the Toyota Prado my brother has was manufactured and assambled in Argentina, not even close to the Japanese I have. The body metal is thiner, the plastics feel more plastic than the japanese, etc... and it cost him less.

They look the same, but believe me, they are not.

I don't doubt you.

I work for a well known Global power tool brand and we also manufacture locally produced lower quality / priced products specifically for the Chinese market.

The tooling required for a power tool is minimal compared to that of an entire car.

I wonder if the Chinese version of the Octavia is significantly cheaper over there.

my wife is chinese and her parents are staying here for a few weeks

i will instruct her dad to make enquires when he gets home next month at skoda/china

and hopefully get a set over here so we can look at them

hows that?

That will be good!

I havent got prices yet, but apparently if i spend over 15 quid on parts, I get free delivery, and if I spend over £25, they give me free prawn crackers and a bottle of pepsi.

LMAO i just spat my beer all over my laptop reading that . Funny boy lol

As for the LED lights from the pics alone i thought a bit chav and prob poor quality, but look really smart on the advert above and would be very interested in getting a set if they do sell the estate ones. Please say they do sell the estate.

They won't be E-marked for use in Europe though, so you'll just get in to trouble with the Police. Sorry if that's already been mentioned but I can't be bothered to read all the pages again.

I would be amazed if the police ever stopped to check these lights. They will look like original equipment and only time they get funny is when there are no red reflectors.

I would be amazed if the police ever stopped to check these lights. They will look like original equipment and only time they get funny is when there are no red reflectors.

I agree, they look OEM because they are.

Although they are illegal it would be a very vigilant officer who would notice.

Luckily the Octavia has the red reflector strips in the bumper rather than integral to the rear light cluster.

I'm still wondering if they will somehow have built in resistors to prevent the CANBUS triggering bulb failure warning lights?????????????

Personally I think they look out of place on the Octavia --and we all know what happens when we try to install Chinese alternatives to UK spec parts. I'd love to know if the Chinese Octavia is delivered as standard with a cheap Chinese version of the radio or satnav?

Mike

I assume the resistors are built into the lights themselves.

Quite a few manufacturers have made the move from halogen to LED on their rear lights.

Take the current BMW 3 Series. They originally had the traditional 12V 5W bulbs for the tail lights, they now use LED's. I'd be suprised if they've made big changes to the cars ECU / CANBUS. Saying that BMW 3 Series number plate lights are also LED now too so maybe I'm wrong?

Even the new Toyota Yaris has LED tail / brake lights so I don't think they'd look out of place on an Octavia.

That Taxi is the spawn of a Taxi and a Mini Clubman, heaven help it.

...........and its probably put together in ten minutes by children. I'd love to see if it would pass European crash testing............

LED lights do not make a silk purse.......

Seems a bit harsh. I don't think Skoda would put their name to a something massively below their normal standards.

Only the VRS and the facelift models have the bumper mounted reflectors.

And the Scout.

All the others have the reflector mounted in the middle of the light cluster.

Which won't be an issue as all current Octavia's have bumper mounted reflectors.

doing so on the earlier models would render then illegal as they would not have any reflectors fitted to the vehicle.

Fitting them to any Octavia would render them illegal. If they are for the Chinese market only then they are unlikely to be E-marked.

As they are OEM it ensures they look OEM so it would be very unlikely for the Police or MOT station to notice.

They look great, hopefully someone will manage to get hold of a pair so we can see how they really look

Well then we'll have to agree to disagree.

It will of course vary from station to station but I'd bet money that the vast majority of MOT testers wouldn't even notice that the lights were not OEM, let alone missing a slither of red reflector. It's not like these particular clusters bare any resemblance to the 'Lexus' style aftermarket clusters that are likely to attract a tester's attention.

Whether fitted to a three day or three year old Octavia they aren't road legal, just like HID's.

I retrofitted OEM xenon’s to my old BMW 3 Series without auto leveling or headlight wash and never had any issues come MOT time.

Irrespective of their legality, they look great.