Hi all, 1st post!

I'm looking to purchase a mk2 2.0 fsi vRS. Heard lots of good things about the car and signed up here to get some buying advice.

What I would like to know is:

Petrol consumption - claims 36mpg... Realistic? How much do you get on average?

Common faults - anything to look out for on this model?

Gearbox - what's this 6 speed manual like to use? Smooth? What's the low/mid range power like?

Steering - how good is the steering?

Seating - are the bucket sports seats comfortable?

Grip/Traction - how's the cornering and traction.. does it stick well?

Essential extras - anything I should look out for? Hoping for one with xenons,

Thanks for any replies

Edited 16 October, 201213 yr by Wardy-

Welcome and you're looking at the right car!

I've had a petrol vRS for nearly 2 years and I still look back to admire it when I park it up - surely a sign that I love it!

In answer to your questions:

Petrol consumption - claims 36mpg... Realistic? How much do you get on average? I get about 35 on average with a mixture of town, A-road and quick motorway driving. It's possible to get 40+mpg on a run if you take it easy, but the temptation is always there to give it the beans!

Common faults - anything to look out for on this model? The rear wiper motor can give up though it's £70 to fix so not a deal breaker. You may read on here about problems with the ABS module and climate control system, but (touch wood) I've not had either of these. The engine can use some oil, but it's fairly typical and as long as it's within Skoda tolerances (1 litre per 1000 miles I believe)

Gearbox - what's this 6 speed manual like to use? Smooth? What's the low/mid range power like? Gearbox is fine, mid-range power is great. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Steering - how good is the steering? I think the steering's good, though it's very subjective. The car handles well overall and it's a good compromise between ride and handling.

Seating - are the bucket sports seats comfortable? Yup, though again, it's subjective. I've had nothing but compliments from people who've driven in mine.

Grip/Traction - how's the cornering and traction.. does it stick well? Yes. I'm on Goodyear Assymetric 2s and they grip really well, wet or dry.

Essential extras - anything I should look out for? Hoping for one with xenons, I've got xenons and they're excellent, sat nav is a bonus, rear parking sensors can be useful too to protect the paintwork. You can retrofit cruise control for around £120 if it's not fitted. Apart from that, it'll be down to personal preference.

All in all, it's a great car as many people on here will attest.

Another thumbs up from me!

I've had a 10 plate petrol for 6 months now and love it! Mine doesn't use any oil and had no problems at all. I retro fitted the satnav for about 600 quid- bit cheaper than the dealer price of 1600!!!! Coming from the mk1 I felt the car sat a bit high up with a slight bit of body roll and nose diving under braking. I stuck a set of eibach springs on and even though its only a 20mm drop it has transformed the handling without smashing every speedbump and looking " chav " . I would say the maxidot would be a must if buying new, this will be the next thing ill be looking into with the Bluetooth kit as well. My friends are all driving audi and Volkswagens with an extra 5-10 grand on the price tag and to be honest there nice but pretty much the same inside. For a " family " hatch that goes like the brown stuff off a shovel you can't go wrong! Mines the race blue colour and draws a lot of attention with random people coming up asking what's it's like, with the " oh but it's a Skoda though " line then walking away very surprised at the quality. Good luck with your purchase buddy

Thanks for the replies guys.

I think I've probably read enough to start properly looking. The only issue I'm finding at the moment, is that they seem to be very rare! I'm really set on getting the blue colour as I feel that looks fantastic.

It's interesting what you say above about the badge, a lot of people are so oblivious to the fact that SKODA is part of VW now and are not anything like the cars they were 10 years ago!

I'm looking at private seller ~40-60k mileage, blue, no mods and hopefully xenons or any additional equipment. Autotrader, Pistonheads and Parkers only bring up about 10 in their searches, so I'm thinking this might be a long waiting game! Doesn't seem to be any in that sort of range on here at the moment, although I did see a few were sold not that long ago which I would have been very interested in!

Unless you guys know of anywhere else to look?

I've gone from a Smelly Diesel to a petrol, 11 plate Tsi but the Proper ones have the DSG gearbox, just like mine and are Yellow

An Utter Dream

The End

Unless you guys know of anywhere else to look?

eBay Motors and Skoda's used car website are good too...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Cars-/9801/i.html?Manufacturer=Skoda&Model=Octavia&_nkw=vRS&_dmpt=Automobiles_UK&Fuel%2520Type=Petrol&rt=nc

http://www.skoda.net.r66.co.uk/index.aspx

You have heard the saying - Good things come to those that wait .

Just dont rush at the 1st race blue you come across, if you have ANY doubts about the car after test driving it, walk way, as unless you're 101% happy then you will always have that niggllng doubt in the back of your mind that you should have waited & looked elswhere.

Happy hunting

I've written a bunch of stuff about my octavia on my blog on pistonheads, but to answer your questions:

Petrol consumption - averaging 33ish overall. you can get 37-8 easily on a run.

Common faults - anything to look out for on this model? - rear suspension geometry, get it checked.

Gearbox - what's this 6 speed manual like to use? Smooth? - yep, same as a golf, leon etc.

What's the low/mid range power like? - pretty good, same engine as a golf gti.

Steering - how good is the steering? - ditto.

Seating - are the bucket sports seats comfortable? - not as good as my gti i had previously, but grippy and comfy.

Grip/Traction - how's the cornering and traction.. does it stick well? ok as with all fwd, can be made better with rear arb or WALK.

Essential extras - anything I should look out for? Hoping for one with xenons, lots out there seem to be pretty basic but most factory options can be retofitted if necessary however xenons would be pretty difficult to do.

You have heard the saying - Good things come to those that wait .

Just dont rush at the 1st race blue you come across, if you have ANY doubts about the car after test driving it, walk way, as unless you're 101% happy then you will always have that niggllng doubt in the back of your mind that you should have waited & looked elswhere.

Happy hunting

Yeh won't be rushing any purchase, It's more of a want rather than need at the moment

Doesn't seem to be any decent ones on that eBay link for the price I can afford and same goes for Skoda used unfortunately. Would love to look at the 2009 facelifted versions, but probably looking at £7k max, so a 2005-2009 mk2.

* Thanks again for your opinions above *

Edited 17 October, 201213 yr by Wardy-

I've gone from a Smelly Diesel to a petrol, 11 plate Tsi but the Proper ones have the DSG gearbox, just like mine and are Yellow

An Utter Dream

The End

A good unbiased objective post. I would prefer petrol myself but i like my diesel. Petrol not an option this time though maybe next time. Would definately recomend DSG as an essential extra as is cruise control and parking sensors. For me anyway but everyone is different. I wouldnt bother with xenons myself id rather have sat nav or something useful as the car comes with headlights as standard that work fine. Would maybe avoid yellow though to help resale values. White is good.

Not sure what age you are after....I have an 06 petrol vrs and have been very happy with it.

Petrol consumption - claims 36mpg... Realistic? How much do you get on average?

On a motorway run I get around 33mpg if I take it fairly steady. Much less around town (as to be expected). Overall happy with the consumption/performance ratio

Not sure about common faults....will leave that to the experts on here.

Very happy with the gearbox (not got the dsg model). Low range power good, mid range fantastic.

Steering & grip etc....you can throw it into sharp bends, long sweeping bends, brake very heavily and it seems to take all of it in its stride. Not noticed any surprises with the handling. You have to go pretty hard to upset it.

It can struggle with 1st gear traction if you push it hard but once you are in 2nd you get a great surge of power.

Extras....If I was buying now I would want

Xenons (I like them)

Radio with AUX input (for mp3 etc)

Jumbo box (centre console)

I have 18" wheels and the tyres are about £110 each. I believe that the oil needs topping up between services. Other than that I have had no expensive outlays.

Good luck

Oh yes.....parking sensors with an estate.

I'd say you will struggle getting a decent mileage one with the extras for that money, there's plenty on the bay around the 7k mark with fairly low to average mileage with no extras. Suppose it's a trade off between mileage and extras. I'd go low mileage any day as the nice bits can always be added later at a lower cost IMO all depends on how long you're looking at keeping hold of it. I'm bias but the blue is definatly the best colour, comes up lovely with a bit of elbow grease! White is also pretty smart. I was torn between the two colours but after looking at both in the flesh the blue won hands down. The years you're looking at come with the stream head unit but its an easy swap for the bolero ( later face lift ) these go for peanuts and are loads better than the stream.

A good unbiased objective post.

Thank You kind Sir

Always Unbiased Me

I'd say you will struggle getting a decent mileage one with the extras for that money, there's plenty on the bay around the 7k mark with fairly low to average mileage with no extras. Suppose it's a trade off between mileage and extras. I'd go low mileage any day as the nice bits can always be added later at a lower cost IMO all depends on how long you're looking at keeping hold of it. I'm bias but the blue is definatly the best colour, comes up lovely with a bit of elbow grease! White is also pretty smart. I was torn between the two colours but after looking at both in the flesh the blue won hands down. The years you're looking at come with the stream head unit but its an easy swap for the bolero ( later face lift ) these go for peanuts and are loads better than the stream.

Yeh that's basically what I noticed and I would definitely pick the lower mileage over the extras - I mean they're called extras for a reason! Blue's the only way to go for me.

Have you looked on Pistonheads, a few on there.

Have you looked on Pistonheads, a few on there.

I have mate, but not much on there for my budget at the moment.

Seen this on autotrader, thoughts?

http://www2.autotrad...201241488552508

Edited 17 October, 201213 yr by Wardy-

If it is a want rather than a need I would wait and get the TSi facelift version (with a DSG). I think the TSi engine is more frugal (I get 40mpg motorways and 30mpg in town) but I will stand corrected.

It's the best car I have owned (although only had it 6 weeks).

Had a peek on autotrader, looks like a tidy car. Like khurram77 said I'd wait for the facelift. I originally was gonna go for something like that but saw the 10 plate and had to have one- straight to the bank manager and owned it the next day! Not everyone's ideal but I'm impatient. Still, looks a decent car in principle, low miles and parking sensors. There's stacks of the pre face lift about so if you do, I'd go in low as he sounds like he needs it gone. Good luck

Love mine , had it 4 years and I cannot fault it, only problem was the air con compressor , everything else is spot on , cannot think of another car that has the overall blend of performance practicality and reliability as this and mines a very early car, mind you it's only done 34k , when i replace it its likely to be with another frankly and I have never done that in 35 years of driving

I have had mine for 5 years. The longest that I have kept any car. It still makes me smile and has had no significant problems after 50000 miles.

That Autotrader one looks pretty decent.

I have had mine six years , again the longest I have kept a car, there is nothing wrong with the stream, most have 6 cd changer, the Bolero looks nicer in the Facia, but even £600 is IMHO is a lot of money for no better sound, it might store loads more ( card sd slot) and shows on display, but my mate`s is slow to load

The ebay one looks good

Had a peek on autotrader, looks like a tidy car. Like khurram77 said I'd wait for the facelift. I originally was gonna go for something like that but saw the 10 plate and had to have one- straight to the bank manager and owned it the next day! Not everyone's ideal but I'm impatient. Still, looks a decent car in principle, low miles and parking sensors. There's stacks of the pre face lift about so if you do, I'd go in low as he sounds like he needs it gone. Good luck

Admittedly the facelift version looks much better, but can't warrant paying another £3-£4k on top of maximum budget.

so my search for a MK2 vRS continues...

Currently looking for:

- Metallic Blue mk2 2.0L vRS

- Manual

- Petrol

- Up to 70k miles

- Hatchback

Really struggling to find any decent models where I'm located. All of the well priced one's are too far up north! I've missed out on 2 really good buys however, because I couldn't get there in time before they sold, so hopefully something will turn up soon.

Did anyone else find these difficult to find? Autotrader returns about 4-5 results, pistonheads 0! and parkers about 3-4.