Had plans to test drive about 5 or 6 different brands, ended up test driving the Fabia twice and a Ford. Found out some bits that were standard on the Fabia, were an optional extra on the Ford but enjoyed the drive of the Fabia so much, i bought one.

Needed a bigger daily driver with a baby on the way, but I don't do boring cars. The vRS was the same tax and insurance as my Alfa but significantly faster and better MPG plus the boot is huge. Always had a soft spot for the mk1 as well since watching the likes of Toni Gardemeister and Armin Schwarz blatting around in the WRC

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Condition

Economy

Insurance

The wife wrote off our Mk1 Fabia so we bought a Mk2

Boot space for our Newfoundland

Mondeo -spec, space, comfort and performance.

 

Fabia - how it looked, spec, performance, economy.

 

Not disappointed in either case, the Mondeo could be a little better on economy but you don't buy a 200 bhp car and then worry about fuel consumption!

Fiesta - Dad gave it to me, it'd been sat on his drive for about 6 months, all I had to do was stump up the cash to get the sills welded for an MOT pass. Hated it, the engine was excellent though to be fair.

Fabia - Put simply, the reason I bought it was I liked it, cost me £2k, did over 50k miles in three years of ownership, spent a little bit of money on it for maintenance other than the normal consumables, and got a £1.5k trade-in on it from the dealer.

Rapid - Again, simply I like it - It's understated, I don't want something gaudy. It's got a mahoosive boot space, lower emissions than the Fabia, no MOT to worry about for a whilie etc. The 1.2 tsi is a cracking little engine and gives me great economy. It's not a perfect car by any stretch of the imagination, but I remain very pleased with it

Price, tuneable, anonymous, uninteresting to the majority of the population, big boot.

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Budget

Boot space (buggy and shopping)

Reliability

Not a mundane Mondeo

Boot space

Fuel economy

Did I mention boot space.

As a brand I was impressed enough to get a Fabia for our second car (based on boot space, costs of a properly reliable second hand car - Mrs H plus little one broken down in a country lane is not appealing.

As others have said, now that the prices are creeping up I would like...but may not be able to afford another Octy.

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Was a toss up between the wifes favourite car,Audi A3 and an Octavia 2 my fave.    You can guess who won :love: .

Swapped my Mk2 Octavia vRS TDi for my 1.2 TSI Fabia Monte Carlo Tech estate. Got the space I need, toys I like, got a good deal and unlike the car before it, no big bills to worry about!

My Pug 306 was being killed not-so-slowly by a 50mile daily commute, and the fuel bill was around £300 a month.  3 AA call outs in a 3 month window, and another £100-£200 a month on repairs pretty much sounded the death knell for it.  When you've spent double the value of the car on just keeping it running over a few months, it's time for it to go.

We decided to look for something that would save us a bit in fuel and give us something a lot more reliable, and if we were going to start spending proper money I wanted something I'd be comfortable in and enjoy too.

I used PistonHeads to look for quick cars that were also economical and in budget, and only the VAG PD 130 engine fitted the bill. Given the choice between the mk4 Golf GT TDIs that I saw every day, and younger Fabia vRSs, that I didn't remember ever noticing before on the road, it was a bit of a no brainer.

 

A few test drives absolutely confirmed things, the vRS is a very easy car to just get into and drive. Comfortable to cruise in, predictable steering response, great power and torque when needed, but totally civil the rest of the time. That last point was important, because while I could afford a GTI or RS Clio, or Focus ST, I'd heard plenty about all of them to suggest they didn't make amazingly comfortable daily drivers and didn't behave well when driven like a grandad.  And then there was the economy. It'll be a few more days before I can get a realistic picture of how much less I'm spending on fuel, but its looking like that £300 should come down to at least £200 and probably further.

 

Simply put, for a balance of performance and economy, nothing else came close.

I didn't want to buy a Focus at all. I wanted an S2 Elise or a Z4 to replace the Fabia. But seeing as our other car is an RX8, and we go on camping holidays and annual trips to Orkney, I had to change my ideas. Needed something with boot space that doesn't melt your groceries, doesn't drink fuel and has decent handling. Focus fit the bill. Had it a year now, love it. (happy story)

Whatever random idea came into my head...

 

Tried to stick with Skoda but I'm finding the new style a bit boring and the "fun" models lacking in fun.

Must be why I keep ending up going back to a mk1 Fabia VRS and my trusty Yeti.

Jeremy Clarkson said it was the best car in the world, so who am I to argue

 

Wanted an Octy vRs but also fancied a Defender, so compromised - though I'm probably happier with the Yeti than I would have been with either of the other two.

The reasons I bought my car (Octavia 1.6 estateTDI)

1/  I needed to replace my 03 Freelander TD4

2/ I went to look at a new Yeti but took my wife with me

3/ she saw the new Octy and said that is suited her better than a Yet ( she doesn't drive )

4/ she liked the colour ( Denim Blue)

5/ The test drive was more convincing than the wife.

6/ there is more space in the estate than the Freelander 

7/ Much better fuel economy than the Freelander

8/ No road tax

9/ lower insurance

10/ I love driving it

11/ The wife stopped nagging.

Best regards to everyone. George

 

Bootspace and specification. Still got the Fabia in the family, dad runs it and he gave me the Merc in return for it (fair deal I guess!)

 

Fabia was great, but was returning me with dire fuel economy and had no where near enough boot space (musician). Merc goes like the clappers but still returns 45ish mpg (auto) and on a run will return 600 miles to a tank of diesel.

 

Only downfall is it's a lot lower than you'd think and I bottomed it on the drive last night, and it's now leaking ATF :(

Edited 5 April, 201412 yr by Goblin

Th final selection was all down to dealer experience and their ability to do the deal once they knew I had a genuine price for them to match.

Being given time to discuss the range and drive a car without ever being asked "closing" questions left a very positive impression.

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