The Fallen......

[RainbowFire]

Skoda bretheren

 

A moment;s silence if you please, for the passing of  the fallen: YD57FLC, a 1.9 Elegance hatchback ("Nelly" as in Nelly The Elegance). A trusty workhorse and friend whilst under my right foot, has now been put up for "spares or repairs" by the person I sold her to some 2.5 years ago, apparently suffering from "timing failure" (although that's not how she described it failing the other day). (No details will be put on here, such as price or location.)

So another one sadly bites the dust......long may the rest live.

 

....and with that, the family fleet has gone from 4 Skodas to, in a couple of weeks, none. The Elegance, as you can see, has died, and I'd already replaced her in the fleet with a BMW E36. The Scout was traded, for a Golf 1.5 Eco thingy estate. My brother's MKIII Octy is a fleet car, and comes to the end in a couple of weeks....he's taking the cash instead now, And the Citygo has been traded for a Polo by my sister-in-law. The other 2 cars in the family are Kia.

And with that it's time to close the nigh-on 9-year relationship with Briskoda too.

So long and thanks for all the fish.........

 

[Guest]

42!

[gav_is_con]

Maybe if something changes you may come back to Briskoda. 

E36 is an old 90’s model, maybe you scratching an itch, lol 

[RainbowFire]

3 hours ago, gav_is_con said:

Maybe if something changes you may come back to Briskoda. 

E36 is an old 90’s model, maybe you scratching an itch, lol 

 

Hmmm, I know what you'e saying, but my  E36 is a convertable, something that Skoda don't do. I have the last, closest, effort, which was the Fun Truck, which was also 90's tech, and the differencte between the 90's tech shows really......and I don't fancy another Fun, they really are not the best drive. The E36 does feel more "connected" than any VAG car I've driven.

 

Also the E36 has no CANBus to mess things up, no control modules to configure, and (believe it or not) is a doddle to take apart and repair. The other, major, attraction is the way they drive too, so a car whose design is 30 years old, they drive quite nicely. My problem is a car has to "have something" I want - YD57 did - economy 75mpg. Scout had power and 4x4 - moving things around at work. But those things have changed and Skoda doesn't have that zazazing any more. The cars really are dead easy to work on, parts are plentyful and knowledge is unbond and freely given. Owning and running one is quite a joy really.

 

What I do find quite telling is that amount of under 25's, and ladies that the E36 community has, is far more than, say Skoda. For the same money, you can have a Skoda Felicia 1.3 or an E36 316 compact, or better.And most of the young ones are not using them for arseing around or drifting, they are being used as daily drivers, and being looked after. It seems that te E36 is almost a cult as well as a classic, lik E30. The cost of ownership isn't too great either, insurance for the younger ones is not a huge amount more than other car (if at all), so you can run a better car for not a lot more money. Despite protestations to the contrary, old Skodas are not cheap to run/repair/ play with.

 

For a car whose drivers have a certain reputation, as a bunch of owners, the community and community spirit rivals that of any other brand (and exceeds it in places). In the groups and forums, we have no arrogant "I know everything, bow before me" members. Each opinion and suggestion (unless it's "paint your engine silver") is respected, quite different from certian forums. The ladies and the younger ones are treated as equals too. There is understnding that there are new owners (we have lots members who have cars older than they are) and they are welcomed with open arms. It is hopes that they will keep the spirit alive. In here, for example, I don't think there's any young or fresh blood in the classic section for more than a week, before they're never seen again.

 

So, sadly, something has got to change quite drastically with Skoda, for there to be any attraction for me. If Skoda had made an exciting car 20/30/10/2 years ago, I suspect things would probably be different today.

[gav_is_con]

1 hour ago, RainbowFire said:

 

Hmmm, I know what you'e saying, but my  E36 is a convertable, something that Skoda don't do. I have the last, closest, effort, which was the Fun Truck, which was also 90's tech, and the differencte between the 90's tech shows really......and I don't fancy another Fun, they really are not the best drive. The E36 does feel more "connected" than any VAG car I've driven.

 

Also the E36 has no CANBus to mess things up, no control modules to configure, and (believe it or not) is a doddle to take apart and repair. The other, major, attraction is the way they drive too, so a car whose design is 30 years old, they drive quite nicely. My problem is a car has to "have something" I want - YD57 did - economy 75mpg. Scout had power and 4x4 - moving things around at work. But those things have changed and Skoda doesn't have that zazazing any more. The cars really are dead easy to work on, parts are plentyful and knowledge is unbond and freely given. Owning and running one is quite a joy really.

 

What I do find quite telling is that amount of under 25's, and ladies that the E36 community has, is far more than, say Skoda. For the same money, you can have a Skoda Felicia 1.3 or an E36 316 compact, or better.And most of the young ones are not using them for arseing around or drifting, they are being used as daily drivers, and being looked after. It seems that te E36 is almost a cult as well as a classic, lik E30. The cost of ownership isn't too great either, insurance for the younger ones is not a huge amount more than other car (if at all), so you can run a better car for not a lot more money. Despite protestations to the contrary, old Skodas are not cheap to run/repair/ play with.

 

For a car whose drivers have a certain reputation, as a bunch of owners, the community and community spirit rivals that of any other brand (and exceeds it in places). In the groups and forums, we have no arrogant "I know everything, bow before me" members. Each opinion and suggestion (unless it's "paint your engine silver") is respected, quite different from certian forums. The ladies and the younger ones are treated as equals too. There is understnding that there are new owners (we have lots members who have cars older than they are) and they are welcomed with open arms. It is hopes that they will keep the spirit alive. In here, for example, I don't think there's any young or fresh blood in the classic section for more than a week, before they're never seen again.

 

So, sadly, something has got to change quite drastically with Skoda, for there to be any attraction for me. If Skoda had made an exciting car 20/30/10/2 years ago, I suspect things would probably be different today.

I do get what you are saying. Can’t say I agree with it all, lol 

We had a dabble with an E36 coupe 318is 1999. For us it just bled us dry having come from a Golf TDI too. Trailing arm bushes. Alignment costs. Brake lines. None of it cheap when talking BMW, even at an Indy. 

The clutch was never right when hot and I think we had a throttle body issue too. However, it absolutely had the wow factor drove like it was on rails and even with 150bhp was a lovely engine when you gave it some beans. Oh I forgot to add someone stole the M3/M-tech type bumper off the front one day. Insurance paid out a small fortune. Even though I read about those cheap nuts with a security head. E30 apparently is still the ultimate one people still rave about. 

E36coupe.com was really useful at the time and that helped me out a lot like Briskoda. 

Cars have become more functional for me. Except when I had the Fabia vRS for fun too.

I do give admiring glances when seeing an old car of any sort even the pug 406 diesel on the M1 today, where they are still going 20 years on. They might not look too good though. Lol 

 

It’s good to hear someone’s thoughts and I wish you all the best 

[RainbowFire]

10 hours ago, gav_is_con said:

Oh I forgot to add someone stole the M3/M-tech type bumper off the front one day. Insurance paid out a small fortune. Even though I read about those cheap nuts with a security head.

 

 

Doesn't happen so much these days, but M bumpers are still expensive, just not as espensive as in the past.

 

Oh and yes, the E30 is still the daddy.

 

 

10 hours ago, gav_is_con said:

Cars have become more functional for me. Except when I had the Fabia vRS for fun too.

 

 

And I therein lies an issue.....even the 316 can be fun to drive, whilst remaining practical, and the fun only increases as you get bigger. Today's cars there is only 1, maybe 2, that are fun.

[andyoctavia]

I have had our Skoda for 7 years now, and to be honest in some ways it is one of the best cars we have owned. However, the words I would use to describe it are - "steady" or "does what it says on the box", it doesn't light any fires. It is our main car which does the most miles, approaching 180K now.In the past, I have owned a lot of different cars, from British classics - MGB's, Triumphs to more modern Fords, Mazda 3 (horrible), VW's, but more importantly 5 Alfas and 3 BMW's.

I had E28 and E34 5 series Beemers and they were lovely, but I always wanted an E39 5 series or an E36 M3, I think they are great cars.

Our 2nd car nowadays is a 1.9 JTd Alfa GT, a 2008 model with 110K on the clock. I love it every time I get into it and look back every time I walk away after locking it.

Sometimes you need a bit more than "steady".