At least if you do decided to change your car you are in the nice position of having a very well looked after car with good residuals

I have seen several fabia Vrs with no extras and 20,000miles on sale at dealers for

Why not try a remap? I believe most Revo dealers give a 28 day money back offer on the diesels as they don't have the trial code. You pay for the remap and if you decide it's not for you they reflash to standard and refund the payment.

Revo is a bit too much money really.

Revo is a bit too much money really.

Also not recoverable money when you sell the car! Well, unless you sell it within the 28 day trial period

Chris

Revo is a bit too much money really.

Surely not as much as you'll lose selling or p/x'ing your fabia though?

Surely not as much as you'll lose selling or p/x'ing your fabia though?

That is as maybe, for sure, but my research suggests to me that a digital tuning box offers none of the disadvantages of the cheap types (and some are happy with those as well), but is considerably cheaper than a remap, whilst offering 80-90% of the potential, safer for the warranty, and re-sellable.

Do tuning boxes do anything with boost or fueling only?

Fuelling only.

Aparently the cheap types are just resistors that give a fixed amount of increase, and can throw up errors on the ECU apparently. The expensive types receive the signal, compute it, and then send a new signal out, the result is a bit more power than the cheaper ones, but supposedly a bit safer.

I'm wary of increasing boost, as this is obviously going to raise temps, and in the summer that effect will likely make itself felt, and I dont really wish to get into spending that much.

Paul with the length of time you've been debating the pros and cons of your Furby I'm surprised you haven't already tried a tuning box.

I'd be amazed if you found anything you were happy with in the "old but reliable hot hatch" bracket - I don't think you'd find Mk II Golfs any quicker than the Furby, for example. If you go for a Jap VVT engine of some kind you're going to have to drive around thrashing the nuts off it to get the performance you get fairly effortlessly with the Furby, also. I'd stick with it.

Paul with the length of time you've been debating the pros and cons of your Furby I'm surprised you haven't already tried a tuning box.

Clearly it has to be done now, in the near future!

as far as the golfs go' date=' both 8v and 16 are really still pretty fast. im sure the 8v was 0-60 in about 8.3sec. 16v is a pretty quick car for its age, somewhere around 7.5sec.

[/quote']

7.5 sec? I had a Jetta GTI Mk II 16v and it was no way it was that fast. Nor was my Golf GTI Mk II 8v an 8.3 sec motor. Both were decently rapid for their day, though, although the 16v needed caned more to extract maximum performance than the 8v.

I've beaten a MK2 Gti golf on a motorway slip road.

As an ex Saxo VTS owner I can say give that a miss too.

I don't think, in your price bracket that you'll find what you want - maybe a R5GTT.

You might enjoy a CRX, I had a Jap CRX VTEC for a while, but you have to drive it hard all the time to keep the VTEC in ( about 7.5k revs if I remember correctly)

You'll notice a huge differance in fuel consumption.

Well lads, I think I will keep the Fabia, but to be honest, I've got to do something with it soon - dont get me wrong, this isnt a criticism, but I am bored with it now, and I have to do something to perk it up. A tuning box I feel will be just the tonic I need...

Good move Paul.

Keep us posted about what you go for.

Actually I have been looking in the Seat forum, and theres a fair few Ibiza and Leons with 1.8T engines that have already been mapped, and in some cases, many other upgrades - brembo brakes, suspension and the like, and I could get one of these and probably be no worse off, because they are all of like

Oh dear... and I've just seen cra wants to swap his Octavia for a Fabia vRS... oh dear oh dear!

I think he was looking for some cash as well though.

I've just had a hell of a surprise....

I've just been looking and guess what is cheaper to insure than most hot hatches, and should be quite reliable and relatively cheap to run and maintain:-

Toyota Celica 190 bhp, I got a quote for

You know i was gonna recommend a toyota celica as they are bullet proof, but they seem to hold their price really well.

Not sure I'd agree about them being bulletproof - brother-in-law's brother had a GT4, and plenty went wrong with it. And when things went wrong, they were expensive...

Rob.

This is starting to prove to be too much of a headache now to be honest. I think what I'll do is get a tuning box or remap for the Fabia, which should considerably improve it IMO. I've been thinking hard about this, and perhaps my frustration is just the usual male desire for a new car.

Eventually I might try and get some decent brake pads. I think I may be a bit happier then.

Driving it now, I get the feeling the engine has more to give, like its being held back, and perhaps getting it chipped would liberate it.

When all is said and done, no matter what I buy it would not work out to be all that much cheaper - at least thats not guaranteed anyway. The Fabia is going to be barely any more than

I got a cupra (old shape) with a few extra`s and a golf GTI mk1. The cupra is quick and comfy, but to be honest I really prefer the Golf. problem is the golf is almost as expensive to insure as the cupra. I have got fire and theft which makes it liveable but insurance wise it is an eye opener.running costs wise pretty cheap , lots of spares and can do all the work myself. The engine in mine has 130000 miles , still original, no smoke, always starts and is great fun to drive.Now if it is all out speed, the cupra would kill it, but in the first three gears she can still shock a few cars, nice and light. The old school hot hatches rule. but can be surprisingly expnesive.