I've made enquires about trading my Monte Carlo diesel in for a Spaceback spec I've gone for is Corrida Red, Style Pack & 17" Ray wheels, I fancied a 105 TSI as I only do about 10K miles PA since I took early retirement so don't need a diesel if I go for a car that's in stock is there any difference in the current spaceback spec to the launch spec I seem to remember I read that there is?

I just can't make my mind up but I'm 95% there but the sticking point was the cost of the very very expensive Ray wheels but having seen some on a car in the showroom they do look good.

try taking a good test drive with both the 15"and 17" wheels, on a variety of roads to check ride comfort, if your roads are like they are here then 17" wheels with rubber bands are not  good choice if you like your spine intact, but the monte has 17" if I remember

 

also look at the cost of the tyres, £40-£50 extra per corner for reasonable tyres over the standard 15" wheels

 

round here we have a lot of alloy wrecking curbs

 

its a compromise between looks and comfort, and only you can make the choice

I'm looking to trade a TDI monte for a TSI Rapid and will follow this thread with interest.

I considered getting the wheels as cheap as possible (£573 inc del off ebay?) then fitting Toyo T1-Rs at £312 fitted so the tyres aren't as dear as I thought, I'm used to a harsh ride with the Monte basically I'm useless at making my mind up when it comes to cars to be honest.

As above really I am looking at Rapids and have looked at a few Spaceback. One thing that I notice is on the 15" alloys the wheel arch gap seems a little high. I have compared them with cars fitted with the 16" or 17" alloys and they look much better. The Spaceback does look better re wheel arch gap than the Rapid anyway.

I've recently priced up some 17" tyres for my other car and the Kumho and Rainsport 3 comes out at roughly the same as the above quote for Toyo, that's Black Circles fitted.

There's not many Rapids fitted with the optional Camelot alloys at the dealers (that's used cars) but I've book marked just a few to go have a look at.

If I make the swap from my Fabia Monte Carlo to a Rapid I'll be looking to put the spare set of Monte 17in alloys on the Rapid, they need a refurb so I'll decide at the time whether they'll stay black/dark anthracite or maybe refurbed silver.

I am unsure as to how they'll look on a Rapid with a standard ride height. Any thoughts ?

I swapped from a Monte TDI 105 to the Spaceback TSI 105, came with the 15" wheels as it's what was already on the car brand new and the ride is so much smoother compared to the Monte, also seems to be much quieter in cabin than with the Monte. The first few drives pulling up at traffic lights and stopping I thought I stalled the engine with no noise at all at standstill

I have no doubt that putting the Montes 17s on a Rapid will result in a poorer ride but as I've got the wheels I'll try them as after all I am already used to the ride in the Monte!

If the ride is unacceptable I'll swap back and put the Monte wheels up for sale. If the ride is ok I may run the 17s in the spring/summer/autumn and revert to the 15s as winter wheels, with winter tires.

I did start another thread asking if anyone had any images of a Rapid with Monte wheels but to no avail, someone did post a picture with Monte VRS wheels which are similar and it looked good.

The wheels I'd seen on a Spaceback were the Ray style in black & Silver which looked good on the car I suppose the ride even with 17" wheels should be better than the Monte Carlo but the chance of a test drive with a car with 17"s fitted is remote we had the test car for 3 days & was happy with it but it was obviously on the stock wheels. 

Before the salesman rings me are fewthere any changes from the launch spec as the car offered is from stock so may be a few months old??

Don't think there's been any spec changes on the Spaceback yet.

Having trawled through a few posts it seems the early Rapids didn't have the switch in the front for the rear elec windows??

Neil.R     Is there any reason for changing to a petrol engine from the diesel?

 

I've really looked at all the possibilities of these cars and just can't quite find the one I want, we are talking secondhand.  So having set my mind on a petrol of whatever model, I've now seen a possible diesel in the spec I want, anything I should be worried about in the diesel engines?

Having trawled through a few posts it seems the early Rapids didn't have the switch in the front for the rear elec windows??

 

That is true but it doesn't apply to the Spaceback.

That is true but it doesn't apply to the Spaceback.

That's just what the salesman said when he rang me back.....

MickA..the only reason is cost 1) I don't do the miles I used to 2) The cost difference between a diesel & a petrol is £1750 (list price) which is a lot of tanks full of petrol!!

3) Diesel is approx. 6p a litre dearer at the pumps. If you are doing the big miles theres nowt wrong with a diesel & there is a saving for a diesel on VED.

I've had 3 diesels 2 VRs's & 1 Monte Carlo the worst thing Skoda did was drop the 130BHP engine.

Cost is the main factor as I'm now semi-retired & we also have a 2010 MG TF &  a Triumph Tiger 800 to run!!

Cost was the reason I went with a 1.2 TSI as well - there were (and probably still are) some good pre-reg deals around when I got mine, and as I was borderline on the annual mileage (15-16k) as to whether it'd really worth the while with a diesel I opted for the petrol.

 

It's a cracking little engine, I've no experience of the 1.6 diesels though so can't really give a fair comparison.

the reason they dropped the 130 1.9TDi was it apparently could not meet the EU5 emission regs, I seem to remember something on here about it could only manage 2 injections of diesel per cycle instead of 3 or more it required to reduce emissions and noise and common rail did not suffer from cam shaft wear as the injector are feed by a separate high pressure pump and not driven off the camshaft

I think all power outputs of the 1.9 TDI were dropped because of EU5 regs, hence the range now being a 1.6 and a 2.0 - It's a shame, you see what I assume to be ex-taxis with that engine in that have done 300k miles (saw one with 500,000 miles once) and 12 months MOT. Pretty impressive longevity.