Hi All,

 

I get my new Octavia VRs Estate next week , it'll be my company car and hence they were a little tight on letting me add some fancy bits!

 

I have a couple of questions.

 

Do I need to have Smartlink installed on the car to get Apple's CarPlay to work and if so is it really worth it - I use Spotify ALOT!

 

And also would you recommend remapping the car - I'm based in Norfolk , I've had a quote from Clive Atthowe for £399 for a Revo installation - is that a good option or not?

 

Apologies if these questions have already been asked once before.

 

Appreciate any advice.

 

All the best

 

Jambo

Yes, I do believe you need SmartLink to get CarPlay / Android Auto integration. To me it's a must have - I use Maps and Spotify daily.

Just be aware that searching is not possible in Spotify via CarPlay, you need to have saved artists / albums or playlists.

Thanks for that Malakim.

Thought about a dtuk tuning box? Very good reviews and you can sell it on when/if you give the car back

Hi All,

 

I get my new Octavia VRs Estate next week , it'll be my company car and hence they were a little tight on letting me add some fancy bits!

 

I have a couple of questions.

 

Do I need to have Smartlink installed on the car to get Apple's CarPlay to work and if so is it really worth it - I use Spotify ALOT!

 

And also would you recommend remapping the car - I'm based in Norfolk , I've had a quote from Clive Atthowe for £399 for a Revo installation - is that a good option or not?

 

Apologies if these questions have already been asked once before.

 

Appreciate any advice.

 

All the best

 

Jambo

I've wondered about this too, but the old old question of worry keeps popping up in my mind, i.e, if anything seriously goes wrong, I do believe if they dig hard and deep enough, they can find out if it's been 'tinkered with', and thereby reject a claim under warranty.

 

True or false, I do not know.

 

I had my first Fabia vRS REVO'D back in 2004.

Excellent and awesome and I would use them again in a heartbeat.

 

In fairness, I think most of the tried and tested big name ones are probably just as good

Thought about a dtuk tuning box? Very good reviews and you can sell it on when/if you give the car back

I'd second that. 

Had a DTUK box on my combo van 5 years ago, and the extra power boost was extremely smooth and  linear 

Thank you all for your comments.

 

I've been in touch with a chap this afternoon who fits tuning boxes - Bluespark.

 

They do one that will increase the bhp to 231bhp/468nm for £280 + fitting.

 

Does anyone have any experience of them at all? Are they any good?

 

Again, advice and comments appreciated

 

Jambo

Most people on here seem to go for DTUK tuning boxes although I have a tdi-tuning box which will be getting reprogrammed for my vRS in a few weeks. They are all in the same ball park price wise

DTUK do seem to have a very good reputation, and I personally and generally speaking, always tend to go by recommendation on as much in my life as possible.

 

Lot of choice out there.

 

Never heard of Bluespark tbh. Not necessarily a bad thing though. Try and get some research done on them before purchase is all I would say.

Edited 18 May, 201610 yr by Adenuf

I've just had a look on the bluespark website. They don't actually have a product listed as available for the current vRS (184PS) and it appears that their vRS tuning box is for the CR170 engine in the MKII.  Their price also seems a little too cheap at over £100 cheaper than the offerings from DTUK and TDI-Tuning

Remapping a company car....wtf?

They've not put the most recent models on their website but they do know have a tuning box suitable for the Oct III

Thanks all for the suggestions, I'll go for a tuning box over the remap.

It may be an odd thing to do with a company car but I'm going to be stuck with it for nearly 4 years and in it everyday so I figured it was worth a little investment on my part to have something more fun!

Be interesting to see what your company's insurers think.

I think the REVO price is a standard quoted price.  I think they still have the switchable settings too so you can drop back to factory output.  Clive remapped a previous vehicle of mine, a 2002 Seat Leon Cupra and I had no issues at all, plus Clive knows his stuff, he did a lot of work for me on my Mk5 Golf GTI.

Be interesting to see what your company's insurers think.

Or warranty voiding, or the Inland Revunue for changing the emissions of a company car?

Is there a torque limit on the vRS DSG gearboxes that remaps / tuning boxes are likely to breach?

Be interesting to see what your company's insurers think.

That is an excellent point. Thank you. I hadn't even thought of that.

Best leave to leave as is , I think!

I wouldn't bother with car play, you can just stream the music by Bluetooth. I only ever have nav screen on anyway.

Still get wheel controls via Bluetooth as well.

Does CarPlay not allow you to navigate music through the cars infotainment? Surely easier than pi**ing about with a tiny phone screen when selecting music on the go. Although you could argue you shouldn't be doing that anyway I guess.

That is an excellent point. Thank you. I hadn't even thought of that.

Best leave to leave as is , I think!

You could always ask them politely, as these manufacturers always claim that re-maps and tuning boxes allegedly give better fuel consumption! :sun:

 

Don't believe it myself, but there must be some element of truth in their claims, somewhere, somehow. 

Going back to re-maps, do REVO installers always produce the same results and equally give good identical service, or are some installers/downloaders better than others somehow?

I really enjoy having CarPlay. 

 

I use Apple music and artists and albums can be easily searched through Siri directly from the voice button on the steering wheel. 

 

First I thought I'd miss Google maps for navigation, but the more I use Apple Maps, the better it's getting to know me and my usual commutes.

 

Having Siri read you messages aloud , and letting you reply by voice is also a nice feature.  

 

All in all I'm really pleased with CarPlay 

Jambo

I've got a 184 vrs with a revo re-map from Clive Atthowe, I live in Norfolk, can always take you out in mine.

Had no problems with it, awesome service and map.

Tom.