Are you enjoying it?

 

For the things it does yes.

 

It is clearly more grown up than the Fabia and better put together, the economy is better and it's a much nicer place to be at a cruise on the motorway.

I think, potentially controversially, it's a better looking car than a mk2 Fabia (which isn't avialble with the 'right' engine anyway) although slightly "softer" looking than the mk1 VRS.

The budget Accelera tyres certainly add interest to the handling.

They are comlpetely fine in the dry and i've never had an issue at speed on the move; but i had a properly "oh the front's gone, better lift, oh now the rear's gone too" moment in the damp at ~15mph on a roundabout near my house.

If i was doing more miles on trickier roads rather than 99% sitting in traffic, or if Mrs Pasty was commuting in it during the winter, I'd deffo have to put some more competent rubber on it.

 

Do I miss the things it doesn't do/have? yeah a bit.

 

The missing ~40bhp over the old red car is a bit of a downer but the difference in character between PD and CR is the real change.

I often find myself going for a 7th gear in the Fabia but shifting down to 5th in the Ibiza.

In all honesty i feels a bit grown up. A bit sensible. A bit like it's wearing slippers rather than racing shoes.

 

Does it feel like it wants to be driven fast? No.

Once it's going fast does it feel like it's enjoying it? No.

Does it feel like it would shine with time on track? Even more no.

Would a remap solve it? Maybe.

Do i wanna bother? In all honesty probably not.

 

I think it's the perfect sensible car at a time in the Pasty's lives when we need sensible.

I mean it's got silver wheels?! What's more sensble than that!!

 

I agree ^

I agree ^

+2

yes i know

 

I did almost buy this to offset the dullness though....

 

 

 

...didn't though :(

yes i know

I did almost buy this to offset the dullness though....

...didn't though :(

You should have! Any more news on if your firm is doing the Eco racing

 

The ESP also does funny things over negative G which kill the throttle and annoys me.

 

 

 

I found the same on my Octy vRS

You should have! Any more news on if your firm is doing the Eco racing

 

My brother had a blue one before which he only sold so he could by an S3

He keeps talking about a trackday toy and i reckon he'd be good for £450 or so

 

No word whatsoever. never heard anything after the initial conversation and now the main (pardon the pun) driving force behind the idea has gone of on sabatical.

ah well we'll see.

 

 

I found the same on my Octy vRS

 

yeah its wierd.

There's a slight crest on my "alterante route" to work which has a bump just before is drops down again and the ESP kills the throttle.

Very odd, especially as i'm sure it didn't kick in when things got all sideways on the damp roundabout.

I did mine before fitting,stealth mode.

2 more tanks of fuel and 46.7 and 55.3 mpg

 

"ohh a drop to 46.7 you must have done something interesting then?" I here you ask....

nope i just vented the tank 3 times while filling up as i had 10p a litre off at Tesco!

 

added together the above average 51 so that's more than acceptable.

 

Car still performs admirably.

Hundreds of miles of motorway, main roads and country back road travelling and it's never missed a beat.

It really is all the car you could ever need.....unless you need excitment but I find occasionally wringing our all of 3rd gear to about 110 helps aleveate the boredom 

and let the modifying begin

 

i said it wouldn't happen but here we go

 

some goodies arrived in the post yesterday 

fanfare please.

I present.....

 

NEW SIDELIGHT BULBS

 

 

I know i know but what can i say when i go - i go big

 

In all honesty i'd just noticed how crap the OEM headlights bulbs were and was ordering some spares for the winter (as Mrs Pasty's Fabia blows at least a pair a year) and thought I'd see about whitening thing up as well.

 

they were a pretty horrid yellow colour

 

 

 

and despite being blue the new bulbs are much whiter

 

 

one of each clearly shows the difference

 

 

half done

 

 

 

 

 

 

so the end result goes from 

 

to this

 

 

 

pretty happy with the results given what is an £8 investment and an hours hours knuckle damaging under the bonnet

main issue then was that the OEM dip beam bulbs were still crap and still yellow

 

 

luckily "Ultra Power Bulbs" do a H7 bulb to match their side lights

 

 

 

so everything is now clean and crisp and white

 

 

Do they look good? yes

are they actually any good at illuminating the road in the dark? no idea and in all honesty i doubt it!

but they can't be any worse than the OEM bulbs and if all else fails i've still go them to switch back or these to put in instead

 

 

shall wait for there clocks to go back in a few weeks and see how it goes

oh and if bulb mods weren't enough to get your juices flowing i also continued the winter prep by getting some new wiper blades.

Albeit i ordered the right size but the wrong fitment and have to send them back today

why can' t the arms have universal hook fitment rather than the button type (or rather why didn't i check)

Bottom line the streaky smeary OEM blades will be no more in the near future

ta-dah 

 

 

6000 miles in and the car is growing on me.

Despite it's inbuilt safey and boringness i do actually really like it now.

It is a lovely place to be and it still have the shove to excite when the need takes you

and on that note.....

 

whoopsie

 

look what just arrived

 

 

 

 

excitement level should shortly rise.

 

although this has been counteracted by the fact the dealer are now chasing for a service and MOT.

I'll have take the latter and will push them hard to get them to do it FOC - they are supposed to be offering free MOT's if you always get it serviced at the dealer - and tell them the service can wait

Moved to members cars section.

Box fitted in around an hour. Simple as can be really.

Take out OEM plug put into box plug put male box plug into sensor.

Repeat for the boost sensor.

Which itself is much easier to get at if you take the under tray off and go in from underneath.

Have snapped part of the sensor plug release button off though which may make it interesting if I ever decide to undo the process.

Hardest bit was how to run the cables to avoid moving parts, water and excess heat and then deciding where to locate it.

Luckily with the Ibiza having its battery in the boot there's plenty of room to play with.

Even still I went for the velcro'd to the air box method, and I'm pretty sure it's fouling the sound deadening in the bonnet :peek:

It's also good to know that despite being second hand the box has been well used.

Plugged it in and it was already on map 3+ or "full whack" mode.

Some food then a road test me thinks!

Two word review:

Ooooooooh yeah!

latest fuel up says 45.6mpg.

some traffic yes and indeed some hooning as a "test" of the tuning box but not a massive amount.

 

Concerned that the tuning box might cause some issues as it turns out that despite being sold as CR140/170 compatible it came off a 2014 Superb which has a new engine and thus different software than my 2010 Ibiza.

DTUK are happy to support me (even though being a second hand purchase they have no real obligation) and can wipe the box an load the correct software.

Issue is that'll cost £75 which almost takes the expenditure back to the cost of a new unit and getting on for the cost of a proper remap .

 

We'll see.

If i'm cruising around getting 30mpg then something is going to have to give and in all honesty i think i'd just take it off and try to sell it rather than paying to correct it.

Moisture on the roads + spiky 185bhp + the cheapest tyres you can buy = busy times for ESP

 

so what's new in the last 2 months ummmm not a lot.

 

Tuning box has now started responding to button presses whcich it didn't do when i first plugged it in.

This means i can now change the map and they are clearly very different, with the + and - settings ramping up or toning down things even more so.

 

fuel has does take a hit because of it though.

 

filled up at the end of november and was given 45.8 mpg

temped my right foot a bit and got up to 46.9 for that next tank

switched the box off for 99% of the enxt tank and got up to 50.2

switched it back on when i filled up again and that tank has just yeilded 46.9 again.

 

Obviously not conclusive as it takes in all kinds of driving between the different tanks - the 50.2 includes a motorway run of approaching 400 miles rather than sitting in traffic on a normal tank.

Who knows but i know that a loss of around ~5-10 mpg over the tank is worth it for the extra responsiveness and power which brings the car alive on the more aggressive maps.

 

hmmm what else.

 

The service countdown started appearing on the dash.

the trip computer will display the miles left at the press of a button so i knoew i had around 2000 miles left.

it them ominously went 5 when i started up,

then 4

then 3

then 2

then 1

reluctantly i started it again to be greeted by a bong and a service message on the dash.

 

turns out it counts down the last 5 days to an annual service for you....whichi s nice.

 

I am however ignoring it.

My understanding is that the car was taken in part-ex at a main Seat dealer in November of last year and serviced early December.

It then sat on a forecourt until I bought it in March.

i don't think i need to stick to the prescribed service routine given that break.

 

Problem is now that it thinks it needs a service the touch of a button mileage countdown is gone.

As such i reset the trip computer and am waiting for it to reach the appropriate number (around 1600) before booking it in.

 

Has reached a milestone though.

Was complete fluke that i managed this picture though as the total mileage covered isn't displayed when on the move so was by pure luck that i reversed into the garage and saw this!

 

 

Means 9000 miles in 10 months.

A lot more than expected but given the Ibiza is a nicer place to be on longer journeys when it comes to doing 400 mile round trips to Cornwall it normally gets chosen over the Fabia.

 

Overall though the car has performed faultlessly and done exactly what we expected of it.

It's impressed that much that i actually looked at purchasing another one to replace the other Fabia.

Couldn't justify it though, the Fabia's not doing anything wrong or costing us any money so couldn't warrant scraping together another ~£6000 to do the switch.