Just about to hit my third year of driving, and respectively... My third car! My first car (March 2012) was a 2003 Mercedes A190. Lovely little car, did me well for my first year - but I'm very heavy footed and I think it was running rich from the dreaded common ECU problems, so was seeing 18MPG, 23 on a run.

Then in March 2013, I bought for £1,450 my Skoda Fabia Mk1 Comfort 1.9 TDI. Brilliant little car but already had 135k on the clock.

Possibly the best purchase of my life so far that car was, and even though every suspension component needed refreshing, it was immaculate in every way and ran like a dream. In that year I covered about 12,000 miles. Thank god I went diesel! Ran the car for a year with no problems at all, as in, at all! But back in December it did give a hiccup by randomly stopping and struggling to start. Easily fixed but got me thinking - maybe I should spend the money I've earned on a new, more reliable car. So I saw the Monte Tech on GL Derby's website and instantly fell in love with it at first sight, deposit down - wait for the demo period to be over. And here we are.

Picked the car up yesterday and done 30 miles up until now! And all I have to say is.... I absolutely love it! It looks superb (), it drives like a dream - same suspension setup as the vRS but so much more comfortable (probably due to it being a diesel and an estate). Interior is awesome with the Amundsen, so easy to use despite it being a touch screen. The engine is amazing. It's so quiet for a diesel, and what I like is that it only really grunts when you give it a run for its money. Already seen average consumption of 55MPG! Will do a proper test when the tank is empty and I brim it for the first time.

I have lots of small plans for the car, such as:

LED DRL's (probably CREEs)

Osram nightbreaker bulbs (will see how these perform through the summer and decide on HIDs come winter again, as I drove it at night last night and the lights seemed fine.

Chrome bulbs all round

Rear drums painted

Front callipers painted

MFSW (the tech doesn't even have left hand side buttons and they would be a great mod for me)

Don't think I want to remap or get a tuning box as it's already full of grunt and still easing in to life. I'll decide for sure in a few months.

Very cosmetic things then. Shall keep this updated when it needs to be

That's the brother to my car. I picked up USN yesterday from Doncaster :-)

Driven the car for 3 weeks now, and the odometer reads 2323. Absolutely loving every second of it! Given it a right good wash a week ago with super resin polish however after yesterdays rain (after prolonged dryness) the dust has become super blotchy on the black paint. Euergh! Probably a summer car rather than winter then!

 

So far i've seen amazing MPG, 65MPG at some point. Averaging out at around 58-60 normal driving and 54 spirited driving. All I can say, is that it REALLY doesn't like cold, short trips. My run to work is only 2 miles across town and a lot of the time it is either early morning or late at night commuting. This drops my average to around 34MPG. However I have absolutely no regrets of going diesel in the Mk2. It's powerful, torquey, and even on cold trips it is cheap as chips to run. I wouldn't have been happy with a TSI and I know that for sure, I love the grunt. 

 

Mods? Not much. I've just today installed the LED DRL's which are 100x better than the standard filament, and I have tested a "racechip" my friend owns on it, with the max recommended settings and i'm tempted... for £102 it provides a lot of grunt, and so much better power delivery through the rev range. I know a remap isn't best for me, the removability is key. (no comments please). Bare in mind its a PCP car.

 

My next purchase will be some silver indicator bulbs and hammerite from work for the brake calipers and drums (can't decide on red or black still).

 

Which LEDs did you get for the DRLs? Nice monte, they do look good in black !

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281112776357?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

 

Very fast delivery (ordered Monday night, arrived Wednesday morning), and for £35 they really do work well - the side diodes really help fill the entire housing, and they are much better than the originals as I said. Definitely recommend. Fitting was 5 minute jobby too!

Not a massive update - but personal plate now all sorted for my car. The Nicholson family Fabias Yes, the first two letters on the plates match too. so all that distinguishes them is the "J" and "L"

 

Also gave the Monte a very quick wash at the weekend and a hoover (had about half an hour to play with before work and it was filthy.)

 

Got some silvervision indicators on the way, and if I can bring myself to it, ordering a HID kit. Still debating that £50 spend.