4 minutes ago, MarkyG82 said:

Thanks both. And @shyVRS245 I get it's caliper that gets in the way (or not in this case) but the disc size does have a big impact on caliper position hence the terminology used. Sorry if it touched a nerve 😉

I only put the disc comment in bold as @Kenai pointed out lots of rubbish in the early press releases about why the special edition 245 came with the 19" Xtreme alloys. With the right winter wheel it's probably possible to fit 17" wheels but safer with 18".

@MarkyG82 are you still on the hunt for a new motor as the £21,995 Velvet red Superb 272 with VC, Canton and Supernova alloys looks a great deal for someone with low mileage as well on a 19 plate advertised here on Briskoda?

@shyVRS245 I'm a little off actually getting anything as waiting for finances to be right. It does look good though. I think I have given up looking for a new build as the depreciation would be too much. Can't see it being an easy task selling an ice car in 5-6 years time. Even a phev. So I'm thinking a used 245 is up the top of the list followed by a 190/220 sportline and a 280/272 sportline. Main reason for the beast to be in 3rd is the annual tax. Unless I can find a wagon that was under 40k rrp with DCC and VC 🤞

Picked my Geminis up and they're heavily curbed so will need refurbishment. Now to choose a colour.

 

I suppose I'm wondering if they're genuine Skoda wheels. Is there a way to tell? Did they produce the Gemini in a silver finish? 

1 hour ago, phil7 said:

Picked my Geminis up and they're heavily curbed so will need refurbishment. Now to choose a colour.

 

I suppose I'm wondering if they're genuine Skoda wheels. Is there a way to tell? Did they produce the Gemini in a silver finish? 

They did indeed. Quite rare though. 

2 hours ago, MarkyG82 said:

@shyVRS245 I'm a little off actually getting anything as waiting for finances to be right. It does look good though. I think I have given up looking for a new build as the depreciation would be too much. Can't see it being an easy task selling an ice car in 5-6 years time. Even a phev. So I'm thinking a used 245 is up the top of the list followed by a 190/220 sportline and a 280/272 sportline. Main reason for the beast to be in 3rd is the annual tax. Unless I can find a wagon that was under 40k rrp with DCC and VC 🤞

Yeah no what you mean high spec 272 Sportline Plus hatch are usually over £40,000 new so incur the extra VED for the first 5-6 years hence I bought a basic one last year that was originally £39,000 but lost £15,000 in just 9 months before I bought it making it a bargain for me and guaranteeing slow depreciation for a few years at least.

11 hours ago, shyVRS245 said:

Yeah no what you mean high spec 272 Sportline Plus hatch are usually over £40,000 new so incur the extra VED for the first 5-6 years hence I bought a basic one last year that was originally £39,000 but lost £15,000 in just 9 months before I bought it making it a bargain for me and guaranteeing slow depreciation for a few years at least.

That is why I dont buy new cars. To lose nearly half its value in just 9 months is insane. Now with covid 19 and new car sales almost at a stop compared to last year. Used car values will depreciate further as people are not changing their cars like they were.

 

Or... new car aren't being built so the demand for young used goes up driving up the price.

8 minutes ago, Ecomatt said:

That is why I dont buy new cars. To lose nearly half its value in just 9 months is insane. Now with covid 19 and new car sales almost at a stop compared to last year. Used car values will depreciate further as people are not changing their cars like they were.

 

 

I don't think used car prices are dropping. If anything I think they've firmed up. 

 

Less new cars = less supply on used market.

 

More demand for 2nd hand cars as people worry about being tied into lengthy leases.

 

Higher demand and lower supply = price rises. 

11 minutes ago, phil7 said:

 

I don't think used car prices are dropping. If anything I think they've firmed up. 

 

Less new cars = less supply on used market.

 

More demand for 2nd hand cars as people worry about being tied into lengthy leases.

 

Higher demand and lower supply = price rises. 

Like the last recession prices will drop as people will be risk averse about taking on new finance and some people will have less available income. Just wait till the tax payer has to start paying the covid bill for all the people who were furloughed. Lots of redundancy and unemployment putting increased strain on the benefit system for those less fortunate to get another job. The cost of living will rise again causing less usable income for people. Tax and NI will no doubt be raised to pay back furlough

Hopefully self employed will pay more tax as they were paid at the same rate as an employed worker. We are all cosey at the moment but give it a few months and it will kick in fully.

 

Anyhow I am going off topic.

Stick to the 19s as they look better and I am lead to believe are lighter per wheel.

Edited 24 August, 20205 yr by Ecomatt

25 minutes ago, Ecomatt said:

Like the last recession prices will drop as people will be risk averse about taking on new finance and some people will have less available income. Just wait till the tax payer has to start paying the covid bill for all the people who were furloughed. Lots of redundancy and unemployment putting increased strain on the benefit system for those less fortunate to get another job. The cost of living will rise again causing less usable income for people. Tax and NI will no doubt be raised to pay back furlough

Hopefully self employed will pay more tax as they were paid at the same rate as an employed worker. We are all cosey at the moment but give it a few months and it will kick in fully.

 

Anyhow I am going off topic.

Stick to the 19s as they look better and I am lead to believe are lighter per wheel.

 

100% agree, I was talking about the current situation but the future does look bleak. 

 

I'm still on the fence about the 18s v 19s but leaning towards the 18s...

I drove the 245 with 19inch wheels with standard suspension on rough country roads. I was amazed at the ride comfort compared to the same on pre facelift I’d owned and no different to my current Leon Fr on 18 wheels. The 19 look so much better and fill the wheel arches.

28 minutes ago, Ecomatt said:

That is why I dont buy new cars. To lose nearly half its value in just 9 months is insane. Now with covid 19 and new car sales almost at a stop compared to last year. Used car values will depreciate further as people are not changing their cars like they were.

 

 

It's only lost nearly half it's value if you ignore the fact you can (and have been able to for a while) get £9,000 off list on a new Superb 272 Sportline Plus  just by using a broker like Broadspeed. In reality it's lost more like £6,000-£7,000, which whilst still a big number, isn't anywhere near half it's value as a '£31,000 car'.

 

RRPs these days are bordering on a fiction to make people think they're getting amazing deals or that their lease has 'beaten depreciation', nobody sane is walking into a dealer and paying RRP for new cars unless they're something special (think 911 GT3RS on release for example, where they could be flipped for more than new almost immediately).

8 minutes ago, ima said:

I drove the 245 with 19inch wheels with standard suspension on rough country roads. I was amazed at the ride comfort compared to the same on pre facelift I’d owned and no different to my current Leon Fr on 18 wheels. The 19 look so much better and fill the wheel arches.

 

Was that with DCC? 

 

The looks are subjective but they certainly fill the arches. 

When I test drove my car, it was on the stock 19s.

The ride was fine from what I could tell, although the roads weren't rough.

 

However, as the OP has seen, the 19s were kerbed and it seems they are just kerb magnets.

Also, the style of the Xtremes is not to everyone's tastes, certainly not mine.  A friend described them as some kind of weird geometric experiment, which I thought was apt, lol.

 

I got the garage to swap with another car and got some Geminis put on. I much prefer the style. I have to admit that 19s look better on a lowered car though.   
I kinda felt like mine looked a bit on stilts on the 19s mind.  

 

I wouldn't mind multispoke wheels in 19" myself, just not the Xtremes.    Although I wouldn't trust the wife to drive the car with them.....

Edited 24 August, 20205 yr by Alex-W

2 hours ago, phil7 said:

 

Was that with DCC? 

 

The looks are subjective but they certainly fill the arches. 

Nope no DCC. Roads were bad too as I wanted to check. We all have different comfort levels but to me if felt better controlled and comfortable compared to my Leon. Much better than my prefacelift which I thought could get a bit rough. I was sold as I’d been a bit unsure until I drove it. What a car it is😀

On 20/08/2020 at 22:48, phil7 said:

Hi all,

 

put a deposit down on a VRS today, very happy with the spec apart from the 19 xtreme alloys which aren't to my taste personally. 

 

Has anyone gone from the 19s to 18 gemninis, or vice-versa? If so, how did you find it and what differences did it make? 

 

Anyone thinking of swapping from 18s to 19s then let me know haha. 

 

Really looking forward to picking the car up but I have to work out how to get to Southampton to Brockenhurst on a bank holiday Monday when the trains aren't running 🙂 At least I can get to Southampton from South Wales I suppose! 

 

I've just gone from 19'' to 18'' and the car behaves much, much, much better now. But my new rims are Oz Racing Omnia, which are some 3.5 kg's lighter than the geniune vRs 19'''s. Also, ContiSportContact 5's helped, too.  Nevertheless, my general thought about this subject is: When a car is sold with more than one wheeling option, I presume that the chassis and suspension tunings are optimized for one of them. In the case of vRs, I reckon that this is 18''.  In this regard, you would not be downsizing the wheels of, say, a Peugeot 308 GTI or a FK8 Civic Type - R, because they are sold with only one wheeling option and should have been optimized for that option. 

Edited 24 August, 20205 yr by theVrsMan

4 hours ago, Ecomatt said:

 I am lead to believe are lighter per wheel.

 

Just to pick up a minor point here - 

I have read they are lighter although I'm unsure if that was a comparison of like for like tyres.

The difference was small I believe.

 

However, weight is not everything.

Distribution of mass is also significant when it comes to rotating mass.  You could have something that's lighter but if the mass is towards the outside of the wheel it'll still require more energy to spin and have more angular momentum when spinning.
Generally, lighter is better but when you're talking small differences it's hard to tell.  A smaller wheel with a larger tyre will have more mass towards the centre of the wheel and arguably be better.

 

I'm not which is best here, I'd just be wary of assuming one way or the other.

 

@shyVRS245 has already posted in this thread the weight of the Xtremes and Geminis, with tyres, the Gemini's are lighter, marginally.

To wrap things up, we basically want to go lighter for two reasons: To reduce the rotational inertia of the wheel + tyre combo and to reduce the unsprung mass. The former is not a really big deal, in my opinion. For fuel consumption, in constant - speed cruise, rotational inertia does not have any effect because the car is not accelerating. In variable speed driving, yes, the car would accelerate easier but also decelerate easier when you coast the car, two effects to cancel each other, in terms of fuel consumption. The main effect of reducing the rotational inertia is related to performance. In this respect, I don't really think that, it will matter for a car that is that powerful. If we were talking about a supermini with a 1.0 liter naturally aspirated engine, even a small reduction in rotational inertia would definitely be felt, but, this is hardly the case for a 2.0 TSI vRs. 

 

But the latter, unsprung mass...I think this is a completely different story and I guess my positive experience about downsizing the wheels is mainly related to this.  

Does anyone know what the grey on the inner spokes of the Geminis and Xremes is please? Looks like titan grey but I'm not sure.

 

Thinking of painting the Geminis all one colour but need to decide which one looks best with the meteor grey paintwork. 

Also, anyone want to see some extreme curb rash?!