Moving on.....

[willias400]

All,

 

Just to let you know that with a heavy heart I traded in my near enough new 14 plate Fabia VRS Estate last weekend.  It just wasn't big enough unfortunately as we discovered when we tried to go away for the weekend in it a couple of weeks back.  We ended up taking my partners hatchback as we could get more stuff in the back seat with the dogs in the boot.  Loved the car, but I'd come into some cash so traded up for an ex showroom demo Seat Leon ST FR 184PS TDI with all the bells and whistles.  I'm more of a diesel man it has to be said and tried to get an Octavia VRS estate, but couldn't find anything close to the price and spec of the Leon.

 

If anyone wants a nice one it's at Westgate in Grimsby.  It's up for £15k.  They only gave me £12k for it so you'll have some bargaining power! :-)  It only has 1,200 miles on the clock and a lot of that was done just driving up to Grimsby!  There's not a mark on it and it hasn't used any oil.....yet!

 

I'll wish you all the best with your Fabias and pop back on every now and again.

 

Cheers.

 

 

[vrskeith]

shame you had to take the financial hit

[vrskeith]

BARGAIN at £ 13500 then!!  

[willias400]

shame you had to take the financial hit

 

Indeed, but hopefully it will benefit someone on here.  It already has paintwork protection on too so don't let them sell you that!

[fabandy]

That Leon should be a great car - do tell us how it feels to drive etc in comparison - ride, handling? Enjoy!

[vrskeith]

All,

 

Just to let you know that with a heavy heart I traded in my near enough new 14 plate Fabia VRS Estate last weekend.  It just wasn't big enough unfortunately as we discovered when we tried to go away for the weekend in it a couple of weeks back.  We ended up taking my partners hatchback as we could get more stuff in the back seat with the dogs in the boot.  Loved the car, but I'd come into some cash so traded up for an ex showroom demo Seat Leon ST FR 184PS TDI with all the bells and whistles.  I'm more of a diesel man it has to be said and tried to get an Octavia VRS estate, but couldn't find anything close to the price and spec of the Leon.

 

If anyone wants a nice one it's at Westgate in Grimsby.  It's up for £15k.  They only gave me £12k for it so you'll have some bargaining power! :-)  It only has 1,200 miles on the clock and a lot of that was done just driving up to Grimsby!  There's not a mark on it and it hasn't used any oil.....yet!

 

I'll wish you all the best with your Fabias and pop back on every now and again.

 

Cheers.

Thanks for the Fabia MK3 thread survey /members views.

Was good,shame, Skoda won't use half of our suggested ideas!

As usual Customers or potential Customers get ignored.

 

Has anybody ever been approached by Skoda UK for a design or Customer survey.

If they were to read this site they would get it for free!!

[Big Sheep]

Has anybody ever been approached by Skoda UK for a design or Customer survey.

If they were to read this site they would get it for free!!

 

Yes. A marketing company sent me a survey to complete on behalf of Skoda not long after I had purchased my vRS. It was full of useless generic questions that I couldn't be bothered to complete. I felt let down because this was one car where I really wanted to express what I thought were the positives and negatives. As you suggest, the best place for Skoda to do their market research is right here!

[MidlifecrisisT]

I like the interior of the new Seat Leon's. Looks very nice indeed. Puts the fabia vrs to shame really. I appreciate that they're more expensive than a Fab though, so should really expect a higher spec interior I guess. I own a fab vrs estate myself and just wish it was a little snazzier inside. But exterior and power/ride of the fab VRS oh my god, I am in love with her :-)

Some nice power on the new ST too :-)

[Miller73]

Ouch, that must have been some depreciation hit for 3 months of ownership, but I guess you can afford it!

[willias400]

Yes, ouch, there was a big hit and I wouldn't have done it had I not sold my previous house and got some money out of it etc.  We needed something bigger so took the loss.  It could have been worse as I got a fair discount when I bought it.

 

Funny thing was I had a call from Skoda UK about three days after I changed wanting to know if all was well with the Fabia.  She was very shocked it had already gone as she'd never had that before, but we had a laugh about it.  I should have taken the opportunity to provide feedback that a MK3 VRS is required!

 

I'm very chuffed with the Leon.  It's light to drive, maybe too light in some respects but for an estate it handles so well.  The engine takes me back to my old VAG PD TDi days as they've managed to get that 'shove in the back' feeling again from low down in the revs which I think has been missing.  The acceleration is great for such a big car, it pulls very well.  It's not as quick as the Fabia but much more refined and a great motorway cruiser.  It's so comfortable too, it has lumber support, well placed arm rest etc.  You can sit down very low in the car which I prefer.  One of my only minor grumbles with the Fabia.  It's a low car anyway and reasonably wide, which probably explains the handling.  It's lower than my partners BMW 1 series F20 on the drive.

 

If I had one minor issue, the boot isn't as big as you'd think.  It supposedly has 587 litres with the seats up which is one of the biggest in its class and the reason I didn't opt for a 3 series BMW or C class Merc.  The thing is, with most new estates now, the rear end is very nicely shaped, it's not squared off as they used to be and whilst this helps the look of the car, it does affect space inside.  It has a variable boot floor which helps drop it down, but it is quite shallow with the boot floor level with the bumper etc.  There is still enough room for our big dogs which is what we wanted, but the boot isn't as deep as the Fabias as that's a taller car.  We can get loads more on the back seats though which is what we wanted ultimately too.  As mentioned I tried to get an Octavia VRS but they are rare, popular and pricey, so it was either the Leon ST, a VW Passat (177), or a Skoda Superb (170).  The Leon won on kit, looks, price and performance.  I can just about squeeze it into my garage too which I think I would have struggled with on the other two.

 

Cheers.

[fabandy]

Sounds great! Thanks for writing the details of how you are finding it. You have a great car there - enjoy! Andy.