Hi All

         Ive just passed one year with my Fabia vRS. A bit of background on my car. We moved from the town to the country and well I needed a car. I was on my wifes insurance for her Civic for years. This didnt matter one sod as I had to start from ground zero.. All I wanted was a s**tbox to take me to work and back.. A diesel. I didnt want repayments or any of that malark and if it lay down Id just get another ball of dung... I thought a Mk5 TDi Golf would fit nicely but My insurance for a Mk5 06 Golf was astonomical .. So I looked at a Nissan Tiida which was just grim - Just horrble... Beggars cant be choosers but even a beggar would cringe ... I know they are reliable ..... and I need reliable as I cover about 110km a day ...!!

 

I saw a video with some lad with a heavily modded MK1 vRS and he said they were well worth it - I checked my insurance out and it was €1256 which was worth it ... or €1178 for a diesel Tiida. I came across mine by pure chance - She was a small bit modified which is dodgey but she seemed well minded so I just took a chance !!! It takes me back 25 years driving it and every time I just smile.

 

Im going to say it now my Fabia exceeds all expections I had.... We live over narrow roads and the Fabia is just the right size - I often seen the late John Mullholland take many a so called fast car in the rallies in the late 00's ... I also go on the motorway and the car is just planted stable and totally unstressed. Giving me 50 mpg+ . No real smoke either even she is a small bit breated on.

 

Apologies lads we work in Euros and eurotrash kilometers here and everything is inflated. I have a good mate with a garage so mates rates apply. When I got the car the gearbox wasnt great so the failure was bound to happen. Putting in the SRE made a great difference. Tax is steep as she is taxed on engine cc .... ! In this half arse country they dont want you driving a fun car ... well feck them and double feck them. Unless sommit bad happens I intend to drive the Fabia as a two fingers up to the government ... !

 

These wee cars are a well kept secret ...

 

You might think the below is steep but the service costs are low and the repayments dont exist - She did fail teh NCT on brake hoses so I just got Goodridge .. If she needs anything now it will be uprated stuff as it costs only a small bit more than the standard !!

 

Hopefully Ive got this right !!

 

Car	2005 Skoda Fabia vRS
Mileage at Purchase	116,322 km
Mileage Now	149,518 km
Static Costs
Cost at Purchase	€2,000
Cost Now	€1,500
Tax	€673
Insurance	€1,256
NCT	€58
NCT Re Test	€22
Diesel	€2,400
Total	€6,409
Repairs/Servicing			NCT Retest
126,415 km			137,328 km
Oil/Air/Fuel Filters + Oil	€72		Goodridge Metal Braided Hoses	€92
Thermostat	€22		Labour	€80
Labour	€80		DOT 5 Brake Fluid flush and Replace	€21
	€174			€193
			Gearbox Failure
			143,022 km
NCT Prep and Servicing			Sachs SRE Clutch kit and DMF	€780
136,832 km			Slave Cylinder	€35
New LH rear Caliper	€100		2nd Hand 02M gerbox from 06 vRS	€120
Oil and Filter	€38		Recovery	€100
Labour	€80		Labour	€200
	€218		Service Oil and Filter	€58
				€1,293
Tyres and Alignment			Sundries
137,119km			Cabin Heater	€32
Tyres Nan-Kang 215/45x16 x2	€180		VDO Oil Temp Sender M14x1.5	€21
Alignment	€40		Oil Pressure Sensor VDO copy	€38
	€220		Gauge panel for MK4 Golf	€12
				€103
Grand Total Repair and Servicing	€2,201
Grand Total Fuel	€2,400
Static Cost Less fuel	€4,009
Bottom Line	€8,610

Are you quite young, any NCB? The cost of insurance seams quite high. I'm sure I paid no more than £450 per year for my (standard) mk1 vRS.  Tax looks very expensive too. Are the "Static costs" over 1 year or added up over a few years?

 

I also noticed those tyres are not the standard size. They should be 205/45 16, not 215s. Are they the same as the other 2 (and spare)? I'd also not recommend buying cheap budget Nan-kangs, remember tyres are the only thing that have contact with the road!!

 

I loved my mk1 vRS, but moved on now. However I do miss the torque and economy the diesel gave,

Edited 29 March, 20206 yr by Jim H

Nankangs are ok, I bought a car with them on a few years ago and was surprised how good they were.

Yeah ! That's over 1 year alright unfortunately ! 

 

I wasn't driving my own car for 8 years and because the car was 14 I was limited as to who I could get insurance with ! The NCB on my wife's car didn't matter 1 jot ! The tax is a total rip off in this country ! Cars pre 08 are taxed on engine cc so a nice 04 530d BMW is over €1800 to tax per annum !! After 08 they are taxed on CO output ! A small bit fairer - my wife's 08 2.2 CDTi civic is €270 per annum !

 

The tyre size is a bit rare as the wheels are different ! Our spannerman Dave calls them "polish wheels"

 

Years ago I had friends who were Toyota Corolla GT Twin Cam mad ! The tyre of choice were Nan Kang- I chose them on the strength of previous experience ! They are really good wearing, strong, reasonable grip and for the miles my wee car is covering they were a good choice for me ! 

 

As I said she has far surpassed all my expectations - I got the car already modified so it's a chance you take and she has paid me back in bucketfuls - she had the potential to be a money pit but if I was giving a chunk of my wages to some PCP financed Hyundai I'd be a lot worse off 👍

 

 

Hi All

         Well we are now 2 years down the road with the Fabia and you know I absolutely enjoy every minute of being in my car ! As far as the money I spent last year its about the same - Well last year we had a gearbox failure and this year we had a major outlay on the suspension. I don't in any way begrudge the wee car after all she needed it badly and she has been totally transformed. The fun is back in driving again ! I spent 4 months really nursing the car but it was worth waiting for ! The tyres were completely shot at this stage so I put on nasty's as the alignment was that far out I didnt want her destroying good tyres - 

 

The old expression of "Right tool for the job" expression I have used on many an occasion but it is true. I have resigned myself to the simple fact that an old car needs maintenance and a new car needs paying for. My car is far from mint but it is a great runner and makes me smile all the way. I have a great relationship with a VW/Audi/Seat/Skoda independent who is an ex rallycross driver so again the maintenance is on a mates rates business plan!! 

 

I am still tinkering at the light pod and when I get this painted I will get the back and front bumpers painted as well - Both are scruffy and let the car down ! 

 

Hopefully I done this right !! 

 

 

Its a wonder your car is in kms, I take it the speedometer is only metric aswell? My mk1 is a full southern car and it reads in miles, it is a 2001 though. 

I hope when you get your alignment sorted you buy a set of decent tyres. As said above tyres are the only things that touch the road! Never skimp on tyres or brakes. Only use premium or at least decent mid-range tyres. However, I can now see why you've done it, don't want to waste money scrubbing good ones, just remember to switch when sorted.

 

Performance is desirable, stopping (especially in wet) is essential!

Edited 11 April, 20215 yr by Jim H

3 hours ago, Jim H said:

I hope when you get your alignment sorted you buy a set of decent tyres. As said above tyres are the only things that touch the road! Never skimp on tyres or brakes. Only use premium or at least decent mid-range tyres. I can now see why you've done it, don't want to waste money scrubbing good ones, just remember to switch when sorted.

 

Performance is desirable, stopping (especially in wet) is essential!

I have Accelera PHI-R tyres on my Monte Carlo. 65 euro a corner and are very good quality. I've driven with them on Ice covered roads, waterlogged roads and Bone dry hot roads with them and I think these are going to be my go to tyre. I cant express how good these are especially considering the cost.

On 11/04/2021 at 15:06, Jim H said:

I hope when you get your alignment sorted you buy a set of decent tyres. As said above tyres are the only things that touch the road! Never skimp on tyres or brakes. Only use premium or at least decent mid-range tyres. However, I can now see why you've done it, don't want to waste money scrubbing good ones, just remember to switch when sorted.

 

Performance is desirable, stopping (especially in wet) is essential!

 

Yeah that is right Jim ! My car had bad suspension for 4 months and the tyres were past it - I stuck on them nastys as I was waiting for the suspension and there was no point in putting good shoes on as she was cutting them up! I have put on a full set of NanKangs this week and it made an awful difference! They are a hard compound but have decent grip ! 

 

As DieselMonte said before we have really bad roads and Michelin Pilots or Pirelli P-Zeros wouldn't last us 3 weeks till we had them busted on a pothole 

 

I always thought it was a funny one with the kms thing ! My car was originally a NI reg and has the odometer in kms - the Speedo is in miles and the NCT history is highly fishy having miles at the start then kms ! At 16 years old ,€2000 and a private sale you are taking a chance but she has been good to me and I am going to drive on ! 

Am I understanding that right? You pay over 600 euros pa in road tax?

34 minutes ago, Cheapas said:

Am I understanding that right? You pay over 600 euros pa in road tax?

In Ireland for a 1.9litre engine pre 2008, yes.

A 1.6l pre 2008 is 514 euro iirc. The high tax is what made older cars very cheap to buy, covid seems to have done away it though. Insurance is also a robbery especially if you dont want a blackbox. Newer cars are expensive but you used to get away with importing cars from NI or the UK and paying a registration tax (which in and of itself is illegal under EU law but Ireland makes enough money from it to pay the fines off and still make money) But last year they added a stupid Nox charge and priced them out of reach aswell. My Monte carlo was 4000 euro itself and ended up costing 6500 ish to 7000 euro registered in Ireland not including insurance. Still a better car than any of them for sale in Ireland but you cant help but feel cheated by the whole thing.

DieselMonte, always assumed the UK had the most expensive road tax in Europe. Used to pay £ 260 ish for our 1998 1.9 td, now pay £20 pa for our 2008 1.4 td Fabia. 

Actually budgeted on the road tax saving paying the purchase cost of the Fabia in a few years.

That's a crazy amount of money for an average working person in a run of the mill diesel in your country to budget for. 

Are older petrol cars cheaper to tax?  Is this an anti diesel government  policy ?

Just now, Cheapas said:

DieselMonte, always assumed the UK had the most expensive road tax in Europe. Used to pay £ 260 ish for our 1998 1.9 td, now pay £20 pa for our 2008 1.4 td Fabia. 

Actually budgeted on the road tax saving paying the purchase cost of the Fabia in a few years.

That's a crazy amount of money for an average working person in a run of the mill diesel in your country to budget for. 

Are older petrol cars cheaper to tax?  Is this an anti diesel government  policy ?

So far as I remember the tax was only for displacement so a 2l diesel and 2l petrol pre 2008 would be the same yearly road tax. My 1.9 sdi and VanhireBoys 1.9tdi would be the same tax even though ones twice as powerful as the other. Diesel itself is usually 10c per litre cheaper here though, atm its hovering around 1.35 here for diesel and 1.45 for regular petrol. My monte carlo is only 180 euro a year tax as its 2012 and is taxed on c02, but it was Very expensive cause of the nox charge when I imported it. Its only in the last year they have tried to be 'eco-friendly' but its just had the effect of inflating the price of cars in the south even more, Irish goverment has a knack of just pricing people out of stuff they dont deem ok. But the infrastructure for electric cars outside of big towns is non existant and electric cars arent cheap enough here to make anyone consider getting one. Even though we pay a lot for road tax and registration tax (only applies to importing a car mind) and fuel and insurance, our roads are shockingly bad and they never seem to bother salting them when they actually need salting. They are a potholed, uneven mess with silly speed limits, on a 50 mph road everyones doing 70mph (safely) and the odd person will do 30mph and slow everyone down because you can't easily pass on these roads.

Sort of long rant and sorry for hijacking the thread but its a pretty rotten state of things and no doubt they'll only be getting worse from here on out.

So in general would you say the cost of living in Southern Ireland is more expensive with the euro or are average wages higher than UK to compensate for your higher costs? Sorry if this is straying away from the original post, just curious.

I know that as an average wage earner here in the UK we would struggle to run the 2 cars we have on your figures. 

We drove to Ireland on holiday for the first time in 2019, staying in Belfast then Dublin. Certainly seemed more expensive in Dublin.

Just filled up today- diesel here £ 1.20 p/l.

This this country is a complete rip off republic - Many years ago a band called The Boomtown Rats had a song which got banned here called Banana Republic. The lyrics of that song still ring true. This is way before DieselMonte's time and I remember it in primary school ! 

 

The Irish government do not want people keeping their older cars on the road - What they want is everybody going in every year for a new car to prop up the Irish motor trade. Everybody is on some form of finance agreement that most can ill afford. Mark my words lads the next financial crash will be car related. 

 

To expect a young fella like DieselMonte to fork out €7000 for a 2012 car makes my blood boil. 35% of that is red-tape ... And all because he wanted sommit nice and sommit different.  If right was right then DM would be driving the VRsDi but having tax at over six times the initial price of the car has put an end to that. 

 

This country is an absolute money pit and with Brexit now they have increased the taxes on goods coming in from the UK. You know a shark wont eat a Revenue Commissioner - Its called professional courtesy  

 

I will keep driving mine on now even if the tax is high - I have never had a car that can make me smile as much as my Fabia. Its a real hoot to drive and when I pull up at the school gates for our offspring, the look of distain over the fake Dolce and Gabanna sunglasses from the overweight once yummy mommys in their PCP financed double parked Hyundai Tuscon's make it all worth while. 

 

I have ranted now so its back to work 

 

 

 Had all the  Boomtown Rats LPs at 15yrs ! My previous guvnor even nicknamed one of his drivers Geldoff as they don't like Mondays!

Seriously tho wife always said daughters friends used to make snidy remarks about the state of our car on the school run. My reply was it's paid for, who cares. The saving on pcp costs go to overpaying mortgage, a lot better use for our money. When I read some of the stories regarding pcp makes me cringe. Suppose it's a generation thing. As a yougster couldn't afford cars, it was all motorbikes. When finally could afford cars  found not really bothered what I drive as long as it's cheap.

On the news other day the MP for Holyhead was saying that Irish haulers are bypassing UK ports and sailing direct to France , ferry companies are moving ships away from UK - Ireland routes,  to Ireland - France with consequential loss of jobs on her patch.

Maybe in a good few years things will get cheaper in Ireland without having to rely on UK imports.

1 minute ago, Cheapas said:

 Had all the  Boomtown Rats LPs at 15yrs ! My previous guvnor even nicknamed one of his drivers Geldoff as they don't like Mondays!

Seriously tho wife always said daughters friends used to make snidy remarks about the state of our car on the school run. My reply was it's paid for, who cares. The saving on pcp costs go to overpaying mortgage, a lot better use for our money. When I read some of the stories regarding pcp makes me cringe. Suppose it's a generation thing. As a yougster couldn't afford cars, it was all motorbikes. When finally could afford cars  found not really bothered what I drive as long as it's cheap.

On the news other day the MP for Holyhead was saying that Irish haulers are bypassing UK ports and sailing direct to France , ferry companies are moving ships away from UK - Ireland routes,  to Ireland - France with consequential loss of jobs on her patch.

Maybe in a good few years things will get cheaper in Ireland without having to rely on UK imports.

Hopefully. Most parts I've needed to buy for my cars have been pretty cheap, its just everything else thats expensive. When I got my Monte Carlo the nox charge was only implemented the month before, needless to say that was a shock! I still have got a very nice example in the end and since its been cheap enough to run, I've been able to keep a few euro aside for my mk1. Even still, if we use my monte carlo as an example, the price of all cars seem to have gone way up since last year. Most of the ones for sale here have a lot of curb rash and mines not got any. Generally speaking, NI cars are better kept, not run on as tight of a budget as ones in the south would be and are much cheaper to purchase anyway.

Since I live near the border a lot of people get away with driving Northern cars anyways. It seems that Customs dont care unless someone rings them up and complains.

1 hour ago, Cheapas said:

Irish haulers are bypassing UK ports and sailing direct to France

According to UK trucking magazines, the Irish hauliers are avoiding having to do WrecksIt transit paperwork on their loads.

If you run a car on NI plates would you not need an address in NI for the insurance?

1 minute ago, KenONeill said:

According to UK trucking magazines, the Irish hauliers are avoiding having to do WrecksIt transit paperwork on their loads.

Absolutely crazy situation now. Without boring you all to death in 1985 when I started you needed customs forms for every country. When you arrived back at Dover you waited for customs clearance in the port, from an hour to hours and hours . Over the years it improved to not needing any clearance unless you imported from outside the EEC,. Now we seem to have gone back 30 years , but without the infrastructure of customs handling agents with their knowledge. 

Last week we had one of our tankers stuck in Belgium for 2 days due to customs demanding an ATA carnet which is a temporary import clearance for rock group /music equipment. Our tanker had liquid food stuffs on!

More car related used to work for a firm involved in importing VOR items for Rover cars from Italy to Cowley . This was a next day service in 2 hops- Italy to France then we picked it up and drove overnight to Uk. Geeefco did the same with Peugeot parts. 

No customs needed .

As I said in my opinion we've regressed, and I don't blame Irish hauliers with trying to distance themselves from this mess.

33 minutes ago, Cheapas said:

If you run a car on NI plates would you not need an address in NI for the insurance?

Yes, but I think you can put your insurance on a northern car but you wont be insured to drive it in the north, if you insure it with a southern insurer and address. A lot of people around here have family in the north and just use that address.

I understand the need to lower your insurance costs, not sure I'd try to get around it that way though. Insurance companies being what they are with their reluctance to pay out, always been 100% honest with ours, just not worth the risk of them finding out . 

Surely if you say you live in NI, have a bump in Southern Ireland , you'd have to prove residency in NI?

Council tax form / utilities bill etc?

A lot of people do the Border Fox thing ... Its hard for the customs to police in Monaghan, Cavan, Donegal. 

 

A yellow plater down in Galway is like driving your car with an arrow pointing at it 

 

Well 3 years down and 90,000 kms or 56,000 miles - This year the car was relatively stable mechanically wise - I did have an issue with the injector loom and just after leaving the car at Dave's the whole family got Covid so I didn't need the car anyway !! 

The price of second hand cars at the minute is unprecedented - It was the case that any car with an NCT commanded €700 - Now that has gone to €1500. What puts people off a 07 or before car here is the engine cc based tax. The price of diesel is really shocking and is set to continue for the foreseeable. 

 

The original intention was drive until the test was up then get rid for sommit cheap again and run it until the test was up - Any mechanical failures and get rid but that plan has now well and truly fallen by the wayside !! My insurance has gone down to a more acceptable level and this coming year its down to €633 Fully comp - Must be my age  Now wheres that light pod again !! 

 

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