Dont see the point of buying a new car to modify , better to buy the right car in the first place , its getting so you could buy a used R35 GTR for new Octy money , if you want a performance car then its much better to buy one rather than try and mould something totally unsuitable into one

I enjoy the modifying of the car though. Being a new car to the modifying scene was one of the things that interested me the most about the Fabia. Plus with the amount i have paid out for car and modifications I reckon i would need at least another £10k to get a car that is as much fun, as quick and able to do the things the fabia does.

Your right I could buy an R35 but id get raped on insurance and servicing, then there are brakes and tyre costs. All substantially more than what i pay for the Fabia.

Take Mallory park the other day. Brand new Mountune Focus RS costing over £40k( mine has cost me less than £18k including all modifications) . He couldn't lose me down the straights or in the corners, we were both having a great time. We were even having a joke about it how i was managing around 15mpg and he was only doing less than 5mpg. His tyres cost £200+ each, his front brakes £1000+ to replace. Mine tyres are £105 each and the front brakes can be done for under £300. My road tax is only £125.....I could keep going all day.

Literally have just sold our vRS estate for a Blackline. Fabia is proving just not quite so big enough for us as a one car family; and as well as it goes have just about had enough of the 31mpg average economy

Drove a new crTDI170 vRS earlier this afternoon and i was massively underwhelmed with the engine.

I enjoy the modifying of the car though. Being a new car to the modifying scene was one of the things that interested me the most about the Fabia. Plus with the amount i have paid out for car and modifications I reckon i would need at least another £10k to get a car that is as much fun, as quick and able to do the things the fabia does.

Your right I could buy an R35 but id get raped on insurance and servicing, then there are brakes and tyre costs. All substantially more than what i pay for the Fabia.

Take Mallory park the other day. Brand new Mountune Focus RS costing over £40k( mine has cost me less than £18k including all modifications) . He couldn't lose me down the straights or in the corners, we were both having a great time. We were even having a joke about it how i was managing around 15mpg and he was only doing less than 5mpg. His tyres cost £200+ each, his front brakes £1000+ to replace. Mine tyres are £105 each and the front brakes can be done for under £300. My road tax is only £125.....I could keep going all day.

I love modifying cars as well but if you feel the need to modify a brand new car then you bought the wrong car, for 18k you could have bought a well sorted Evo 10, I really dont think road tax and insurance come into it they are often equivalent to a few tanks of fuel if you want a 400hp performance car then something like an Evo will always be superior to a cobbled together Octy VRS

I'm stunned you claim to have spent so little on yours especially taking into account the rebuild

the rebuild only cost me £650.

In a couple of months I'll be in the final year of warranty and it'll be bye bye vRS...... helloooo M135i :-)

Im happy woith mine for the moment, but im buying a second car anyway so how long i decide to keep the Fabia is any ones guess. Testing a Focus ST estate next week. If i like it, im buying it. Even got the go ahead from the wife.

I prefer the Fabia due to its size at the moment but would consider an Octavia afterwards

The octy must feel more stable on motorways but its not a super mini like the fabia.

Edited 5 January, 201313 yr by Ad Lav

Im happy woith mine for the moment, but im buying a second car anyway so how long i decide to keep the Fabia is any ones guess. Testing a Focus ST estate next week. If i like it, im buying it. Even got the go ahead from the wife.

Sat in one of those new STs the other day - nice motor. Wife approval is always useful lol. My SWMBO wants a 120d. Have started the process of brainwash ahem sorry explaining the need for the 3.0 6-cyl turbo in preparation for ordering the M135i haha! "Yes honey, you will feel soooo much safer with 320bhp under your right foot. Anything less is just dangerous!" ;-)

This wasnt the reason I got rid of it, the reason was insuring it as a second car (in the insurers eyes as a new driver - don't ask!) was proving to be expensive

If you push admiral on their multicar policy they'll put your ncb on both cars.

Your right I could buy an R35 but id get raped on insurance and servicing, then there are brakes and tyre costs. All substantially more than what i pay for the Fabia.

.

Are you really saying, you could have a GTR, but chose not to? Yeah it's not as cheap as a Fabia to run. But there is no comparison. Insurance for me is 500quid different. Servicing is not that bad for a car that will get to 100 under 7 seconds. Oil and filter 130quid. But tyres and brakes are not cheap, but much cheaper and better products than dealer prices.

I really like your car, and have you to thank for a lot of info I've gleaned from your posts. So I'm not having a go. I just think if you can get into one, do it. There is nothing better.

Saying that I guess it depends on the track you use too if it's for tracking. I took mine to knockhill and it's too fast for it at my skill level.

I'd love an R35 Skyline i really would but I couldnt afford to run it and i certainly couldnt afford to run one on trackdays like I do the Fabia.

Ive read too many threads about guys with R35s and astronomical running costs. They are no where near as cheap to run as you say and certainly MUCH more expensive then the Fabia. They also appear to be spitting out gearbox's and clutches like its going out of fashion and some of the repair bills for minor things looks to be hypercar expensive. It'd be cheaper to buy a second hand porsche but then thats no good for me. I like hot hatches, thats my fetish.

Sat in one of those new STs the other day - nice motor. Wife approval is always useful lol.

The interior trim is vastly superior to the fabia thats for sure. Big fan of the recaros as well.

Looked at the ST in a couple of dealers and without even asking both criticised the MPG of them, saying they were getting mid 20's.

Found that bizarre, don't they normally lie?

I'd love an R35 Skyline i really would but I couldnt afford to run it and i certainly couldnt afford to run one on trackdays like I do the Fabia.

Ive read too many threads about guys with R35s and astronomical running costs. They are no where near as cheap to run as you say and certainly MUCH more expensive then the Fabia. They also appear to be spitting out gearbox's and clutches like its going out of fashion and some of the repair bills for minor things looks to be hypercar expensive. It'd be cheaper to buy a second hand porsche but then thats no good for me. I like hot hatches, thats my fetish.

I guess it appears expensive from the outside when you read about Nissan charging 1.2k for a plastic splitter. But you can buy carbon fibre one for 300quid.

But take it from me, it's not that expensive. Take a look at Litchfield's website for prices. That's what I pay at Nobles pretty much.

Some people pay more, but then they're the type of person who pay rrp on a car without a thought. And some dealers take advantage of them. Sadly.

Gearboxes had issue with solenoid. But very few and easy prevention of putting in bigger magnets in sump. And they are good for 650torques and horses.;-) You can break them by abusing but not easy. Can't think of more than 5 gearbox failures and they were all sorted under warranty. 3 were solenoid. Never heard of a clutch issue unless past stage 5. But then that's expected at almost double stock power.

But if you would rather buy a Porsche for reliability, you'd be off the mark there too.

I will give you that a Fabia is cheaper to run. Lol

Edited 6 January, 201313 yr by MisterS3

The focus st estate looks good fun - not a fan of the centre console/dash layout, too many buttons

Same space in it as a fabia vrs estate, not much quicker given that it has 250bhp! Stock vrs 7 secs ish and stock st 6.5 secs...

I'd buy another vrs (estate this time) and play about with it again saving more money than buying an st lol

Would love for Skoda to bring out a special edition vrs like the mk1 - I would buy another vrs estate if it had leather and xenons.

I chased down a octy vrs yesterday. Will cost too much for me to change, got offered a new fabia but I await a rapid vrs or a mk3 fab vrs

Drove a CR DSG and have to say it drives a great deal better than the Fabia.

Feels a lot more planted, lovely weight to the steering, brakes are razor sharp by comparison. The 170 engine naturally isnt quite as sharp and is less manic than the 1.4 but is fair to say its got tons of shove and it most definitely is not a slow car. DSG seems much smoother than the dry clutch unit in the Fabia and have to say it suits the CRs character perfectly.

Fair to say the TSi would be that bit better still but the CR seems a much better bet for lower running costs etc. Have no regrets changing whatsoever.

I tet drove the CR170 2 days back. Obviously not a fair comparison with mine but it felt horrific lol. Not driven a stock Octavia since 2007 lol. My Octavia was only stock for about 4 weeks lol.

I prefer the 6 spd DSG though.

The diesels drive v differently to the TSi's thats for sure Sy but I think horrific is a bit of a strong description for it.

Yes its a bit slower off the mark but once its up and running it'd keep up with a standard TSi at sensible motorway speeds. In an ideal world i'd have probably factory ordered a TSi but that it was 2k more expensive than the Blackline with similar options there was no contest, cheaper to PCP too on account of its better residuals. Its horses for courses it really is but I personally like the fact its a 140mph car with a realistic 500+ mile range and lower running costs that the TSi just cant match

Horrific compared to mine i said. Mine is obviously heavily modified so not really not a fair comparison but it felt horrensous compared to mine.

Basicaly all the talk of diesel shove and kick in the back from the torque etc is IMO false. It was very very smooth and but it felt like it wasnt pulling at all.

I dont think it would keep up with a stock fabia either, I switched mine into stock mode to have a comparison on the way home and i dont think it was comparable at all and I think the figures back that up as well. Fabia @ 180Hp/1240kg = 145Hp/ton v Octavia @170hp/1440kg = 118Hp/ton . Even comparing peak torques of both cars the fabia is practically the same: 184lbft/1240kg = 149lbft 225lbft/1440 = 156lbft/ton. 7lbft/ton more torque wouldnt make up for a 27bhp/ton deficit.

That drive for me basically let me know that the TDI really isnt for me. I couldnt live with the performance for that long, and I have to agree with Jonno VRs from the OctyII forum because thats exactly what he said as well. As he said his stage 1 tuned CR170 vRS was slower than his stock 2.0TSI vRS that replaced it. And I know from experience that the Fabia is very comparable to the TSI Octavia vRS until some pretty large speeds.

that blackline is an absolute steal though. Great spec with it.

I agree to an extent, the CR choice was largely my head overruling my heart but I think i'll be thankful for that when I start appreciating the lower running costs.

I'll miss the Fabia when it goes but I know which is the all round better car. Also I tend to think because of its raucious nature and that it is considerably noisier and less refined than the Octavia it feels quicker than it actually is. I personally at times feel that after then strong initial pull off the mark that the Fabia is strangely lacking in higher mid/top end pull; often feeling like I have to rev it unnaturally hard to get real go out of it...almost like at times the twincharging set up betrays its small capacity...just my opinion.

As it happens the standard 170 diesel actually makes 258lb/ft torque not 225 as stated above, not that it makes huge sums of difference but its still 74lb/ft more than the Fabia makes standard.

And yes Sy agree the Blackline is a brilliant offer, if they'd also offered a TSi choice may well have been different :-D

As it happens the standard 170 diesel actually makes 258lb/ft torque not 225 as stated above, not that it makes huge sums of difference but its still 74lb/ft more than the Fabia makes standard.

So it does, my mistake, still slower though lol

So it does, my mistake, still slower though lol

Indeed cant argue that point :-)

I'd love an R35 Skyline i really would but I couldnt afford to run it and i certainly couldnt afford to run one on trackdays like I do the Fabia.

Ive read too many threads about guys with R35s and astronomical running costs. They are no where near as cheap to run as you say and certainly MUCH more expensive then the Fabia. They also appear to be spitting out gearbox's and clutches like its going out of fashion and some of the repair bills for minor things looks to be hypercar expensive. It'd be cheaper to buy a second hand porsche but then thats no good for me. I like hot hatches, thats my fetish.

No one was comparing a r35 to a Fabia but to a heavily modified Octavia take one of those to 350hp and the bills will rocket to r35 levels soon enough

Hot hatches are fun for going down to the shops but are not proper performance cars and not a cheap route to speed my point is if that's the way you want to go that way then its better , cheaper and easier to buy the right car in the first place