After 4 years away from the fold, being a contented Seat Altea owner, I am now looking at coming back to Skoda and purchasing another Octy vRS, albeit a Mk 2 diesel this time. I have been scanning the classifieds recently, and have seen one or two likely candidates, and see that they come with either 17 inch or 18 inch alloys. Whilst the 18's would obviously look better, I am wondering if they adversely affect the ride/handling characteristics ??

Can anyone enlighten me please ??

Handling is a little harsher on 18" but not much. Tyres are also a similar price.

I doubt there will be too many with 17". The 18" became pretty much standard fit in 07

Cheers mate, but having looked around the classifieds for the past few weeks there do appear to be quite a few on 17's....was this the standard fitment, with 18's being an optional extra ??

I've found 17" wheels firm and 18" ones hard. Handling difference between the 2 negligable. With all the potholes around these days the lower profile tyres do not soak up the bumps and more likely to suffer rim damage.

Cheers mate, but having looked around the classifieds for the past few weeks there do appear to be quite a few on 17's....was this the standard fitment, with 18's being an optional extra ??

It was an 'option' but Skoda was doing them as part of a free options pack. You got 18" wheels, dual climate, rear e/w and the jumbo box/armrest. That one one of the plus points when I got mine in 07. What age are you looking at?

Budget is around 10.5k, and ideally would like a face-lift model on a '10 plate, but although there are one or two petrol's around, the diesel obviously commands another 1k premium, so realistically am probably looking at a pre face-lift '09 plate.

Just watch out the for the special edition, the alloys on them look good but are soft as butter. Lot of people bending them on pot holes.