Newbie (advice needed)

[Willod]

No Octavia yet, ive been looking to sell my current scooby and get something a bit cheaper to reduce my car loan but a bit quicker. Im looking for a 1.8T probably in elegance spec, ive been looking for them online ive found a lot of slxi and glxi models is this an earlier model desegnation? can someone give me a hand decoding this? also i live in the peterbough area can someone recomend a good place for servicing, i dont want to have to use Wings as paul wing is an absolute **** and it will be a cold day in hell before i give him any money! anything else i should be looking out for on the 1.8t models?

[Guest]

No Octavia yet, ive been looking to sell my current scooby and get something a bit cheaper to reduce my car loan but a bit quicker. Im looking for a 1.8T probably in elegance spec, ive been looking for them online ive found a lot of slxi and glxi models is this an earlier model desegnation? can someone give me a hand decoding this? also i live in the peterbough area can someone recomend a good place for servicing, i dont want to have to use Wings as paul wing is an absolute **** and it will be a cold day in hell before i give him any money! anything else i should be looking out for on the 1.8t models?

I think you are right about the earlier model specification bein slxi/glxi. I have had my Octy 1.8T Elegance for a couple of months now and overall i am very happy with it. I like the performance although it is obviously not as fast and sporty as the vRS it is still pretty quick. What you do get is stuff like Cruise control, headlight washers etc that i don't think you automatically get on a vRS. You will still be able to knock most 2.0litre cars into the weeds and laugh at the look on there face when they see the skoda badge. Mine is only just a year old so can't really comment on any faults, it has been ok so far but i am sure there will be common problems. One thing i have heard of is coil pack failure but this should be rectified under the warranty anyway.

[jason]

jabba sport are near peterborough,not sure if they do servicing but they'll tweek it to around 200+ bhp for you,get em to change the oil while they do it.

well recomended on here

[DGW]

I use WJH Motors. The main premises are in Bedford but you can also get your car serviced at Riseley if you ask nicely.

[KLB]

No Octavia yet, ive been looking to sell my current scooby and get something a bit cheaper to reduce my car loan but a bit quicker. Im looking for a 1.8T probably in elegance spec, ive been looking for them online ive found a lot of slxi and glxi models is this an earlier model desegnation? can someone give me a hand decoding this? also i live in the peterbough area can someone recomend a good place for servicing, i dont want to have to use Wings as paul wing is an absolute **** and it will be a cold day in hell before i give him any money! anything else i should be looking out for on the 1.8t models?

Yes, the SLXi and GLXi are the pre-2000 (ish) trim designations. There are only a couple of small differences - the most noticeable one is that the headlights on the earliier models have patterned lenses instead of the clear ones on the post-facelift ones.

The SLXi is roughly equivalent to Elegance trim, but IIRC it has leather upholstery instead of cloth (Nick - is that right?). The older 1.8T engine is slightly different, as well; it doesn't have a drive-by-wire throttle, so it can't be remapped to quite the same power levels as the later engine. On the other hand, this isn't important unless you want to tune it to within an inch of its life.

Generally, the 1.8T models are pretty robust. You'll probably have a better chance of finding a tidy one (pre- or post-facelift) than the lower-spec models - which might have been used as taxis

[Willod]

Right looking at the insurance again it looks as though the RS is within my reach. For my budget though 6k ill be looking at a 100k or there abouts model, now this doesnt bother me to much since i know most cars will be more than able to manage this (if theyve been well looked after) but what sort of things should have be done by this point in the cars life and what will i be looking at that might need to be done soon?

[redbaron]

clutch and box is the weak point...

especially if its been tuned.

RS for 6k is not ghoing to be easy... but it is worth it. Watch out for imported irish spec cars with lower spec.. (smaller wheels, no cd changer etc)

[Tech1e]

Usually by around 100k it will or should of had

Cambelt and tensioner

Clutch

Other than that there aint really that much thats costly. Turbo's are also known to give up (but not all, its a bit of a lottery) usual checks for smoke and odd noises on boost apply.

Good luck

[Stuart_J]

Right looking at the insurance again it looks as though the RS is within my reach. For my budget though 6k ill be looking at a 100k or there abouts model, now this doesnt bother me to much since i know most cars will be more than able to manage this (if theyve been well looked after) but what sort of things should have be done by this point in the cars life and what will i be looking at that might need to be done soon?

I went from a scoob STi & didnt want to loose the four wheel drive so I got a 4x4 Octy, might be worth you considering these also, they are only 150 bhp as std but will remap to between 220 - 230, the same as you will get when mapping a RS. They are harder to find but tend to be cheaper than the RS. More of a wolf in sheeps clothing !!

[Willod]

Lol the thing is im probably moving a lot closer to my works so it wont get my than 5k a year on it if it had been a lower spec 1.8t i would be tuning it but with an RS it will be staying completely standard. What other tell tale signs will i be looking at on an irish spec model?

[Stuart_J]

4x4 will be cheaper, a good map, say Jabba costs lessthan

[redbaron]

4x4 will be cheaper, a good map, say Jabba costs lessthan

[Willod]

Indeed i was initially put off by the higher than standard suspension on the 4X4

[redbaron]

you done your research... they do sit higher to afford more ground clearence....

depends whether your miles covered includes rough / poor surface or is mainly motorway?

[Willod]

no rough stuff, peterborough is a series of dual carrigeways joined by lots of roundabouts, i was leaning towards the RS because i was presuming its probably got a more sporty suspension setup

[WrightyRS]

it has but you could put lowered suspension on it and it would handle the same as the vRS.

if i'd have know what i know now i'd have been very tempted to go the 4x4 route and spend the saved money on a few wise mods.