Hi all,

Just continuing with the nice habit of new people bringing their experiences to the forum...

After a three month long wait I picked up my black Furby VRS on Tuesday. It had been in the garage for the past week as I needed to wait for license plates :( . (In Belgium you do not get plates with the car, the license plate in effect 'belongs' to the person and will never change)

Right, after the excellent handover from the guy of the garage (named Willy.... yes Willy ) I tentatively pulled away...

Day 1:

the car feels great, firstly the satisfaction of finally getting to drive my very own VRS after ordering it and being on the forum each day reading about them... So big smiles already. (cheesy grin more like - no harm in that)

Gearchange is solid but smooth, throttle very nicely controllable, suspension nicely sprung (although even through the first few light bends I could feel the urge for Eibach's). The engine was much more silent than expected and very supple. Sticking to 2500 rpm without letting the engine 'tug'. Great..... fastest car I've owned, slowest I've ever driven.... all in good cause though. Fuel consumption averaged: 55 mpg.

Day 2:

Really liking this. Car feels so solidly build, love the interior, nothing out of place or silly plastic marketing add-ons. The outside looks so good in the flesh (but car could already do with a quick wipe).

The steering wheel feels fab, car responds immediately to imputs, throttle so smooth, car pulls with no effort whatsoever. Amazing. Loving it already. Getting some strange looks from 1: other Fabia drivers, 2: **** brigade (yes, we have them here as well though in a slightly different 'package'), 3: people driving traditional other makes wondering what the Fabia badge is doing on the front of the car.... funny actually. Fuel consumption average: 55 mpg. Already covered 400 mls at this point. The xenons are absolutely brilliant, the mechanic at the garage defo did not set them too low as seems the case with other's on the forum.

Day 3:

Because of the mileage and the car is getting run in, I have pushed a bit harder on the throttle after the engine warmed up (it warms so much quicker than I thought it would): YUP, that's why we wanted the Furby with the big taka engine in it! Taking it to 3000 rpm and letting the revs get there more rapidly (though far from full throttle!). Speed builds effortlessly, on the motorway it could pull a 7th gear I think. At 70 mph (+- 115 km/h) it does 2100 revs in 6th.

Still finding nice new angles to the outside of the car, and after the initial setup of the seating position (very easy) the car is just so comfortable. Perfect size for what I need. Fuel avg: got 60 mpg.

Day 4:

Passed 1000 miles (and I do not have a job where I need to drive loads). Time to press the accelerator half way ... Brilliant! Am stunned at how easy the car shoots forward. Ya gotta love torque (and no, do not wish to start a discussion about torque again here) The engine should be unwilling and loud as it's new, instead it is smooth, quiet (once moving, you only hear tyre and wind noise) and fuel consumption is an excellent 50 - 60 mpg. On the motoroways though.... 72.5 mph (= Nat. limit in Belgium) is just so SLOW. The car is half asleep... quick prod on the metal pedal (sorry, cheesy mood as its Fri afternoon) and ahaaa, NOW we're motoring. I've done 100mph (in Germany of course) and the car just wants to keep accelerating. This was at night time. Did I mention the xenons are brilliant? Had some nice roads to try the handling and it isn't as bad as I feared, going by some reports on here. Even managed to get the back end to do a nicely controlled squeal. The body roll is indeed a little excessice, but easy enough solution for that. I do find the brakes very spongy. Haven't tried any emergency stops (to see what they can do), but at this moment in time they do not inspire too much confidence (yes I know, go for the 312mm upgrade).

Day 5:

The car is absolutely fabulous. People that I have taking for a drive are shocked and they love it (they'd better keep their hands of my precious......). Fabia's are very popular over here, but the VRS is never to be seen.

The car drives so well... Got my HU fitted last night (Alpine CDA-9835R, a 2004 model as I didn't like the GlideTouch control) - and the Biolite display matches the interior prefectly.

So what do I have: a car that drives better than I thought, plenty fast (for now), handles well (as mentioned Eibachs will be first to go on), great build quality (then again, at day 5 even a Daewoo should still stick together), looks fab, so easy to drive - in short, best buy I could have made for the money. Looking forward to years of happy motoring now... as well as spending my money on mods (though they are really strict over here).

I expected a lot, but already feel that I got more - can't say fairer than that.

Have a nice weekend all!

The Piper

Good story! Glad your happy as me

So you're enjoying it then? I was getting Deja Vous reading that!!

Hello and Welcome, looks like your going to be clocking up quiet a few miles in your new VRS, enjoy.

FAO Dave_Fox, saw your photos on another thread, very nice wheels, I guess you've gone for the eibach's and 25mm drop as well. Looks good.

Only seems like yesterday since I drove away in my one with a massive "dead chuffed" grin on my face. The gleaming black bodywork, shiny tyres, the new car smell, the brightness of the seats, only 12.6 miles on the speedo...

14000 miles and 6 months on, and it just gets better every day. Its loosened up wonderfully, its silky smooth, feels more potent, and 60mpg is easily achievable (in the right frame of mind, of course). Really makes me upset to see swirl marks, stone chips and a wee bit of bumper damage though :(

Ah well, nothing a trip to the bodyshop won't sort!

Make sure you keep an eye on the oil, and start to use the power a bit more. They liked to be pushed from time to time, stops the turbo clogging up...

Excellent review.

I'm getting nearer and nearer reaching for the cheque book. I really must sort out a test drive

Great review, and it really shows you've been reading up, whilst impatiently waiting for the arrival of your new motor And looks like you're not dissappointed with it either

Happy driving

Great Report

another satisfied vRS owner good to hear!

Already put 1500 miles on my "new" PD130 and loving the engine a lot. Nowt wrong with the PD100 engine, but the 130 appears to be much better in most ways.

Welcome! :wavey: My one memory of Belgium is crossing the border from France at about 80mph, and suddenly finding the road surface went from super smooth to pretty bad! :( Right on the "welcome to Belgium" type sign. Hope all roads aren't like that.