Koni Street rebuilt.

[nta16]

Full off topic warning:

 

@D.FYLAKTOSI never followed or listened to Judas Priest (another Brummie (Birmingham)) band, that track is the type I would have listen to up until about the mid-1980s, reminds me of Iron Maiden and the cover very much of Bat out of Hell album cover.  At a 'local' pub we once frequented I meet a lady superfan of Iron Maiden though she would have been very young when the band released their first album, self-titled, with the singer before Bruce Dickinson.  The superfan thought Bruce Dickinson was fantastic and he was the band, to counter this and have a bit of a joke I said my favourite Iron Maiden track was Transylvania which she seemed to nod approvingly to, I don't think she knew this was an instrumental track and before Bruce Dickinson joined the group.  You can have fun with cider drinkers, they're so mellow.

 

[nta16]

@RicardoM how on earth would I have any friends if I am as you say I am!!

 

And that poster, how very dare you, I've not got a bloated pot-belly (well not any more, well not much of one), I can bend into an engine bay and still see all the little parts beneath my belly..

 

I am still working on the embroidery on your belly-braces straps, hard going because of the thickness of the straps, also still working out the positions of the LED lights to counteract belly shadow and positions of mirrors to be able to view the small parts out of your sight.  Do you want a pouch adding to store emergency use beard and hair touch-up make up products because that will be an extra charge.

 

Pssssst, look up dead pan verb.

 

[D.FYLAKTOS]

1 hour ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

I dont recall they had a skoda sticker though

 

 

Me neither remember something specific, maybe were black colour but i am not sure.

Never learn or heard from another driver what brand they were.

[Thefeliciahacker]

51 minutes ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

black colour

Indeed 

[Dean]

Right, enough is enough, now.

Guys, sort it out and stop annoying each other. I'm sick of the reports. Keep on topic, and remain friendly.

The only warning that I'm given out.

 

[D.FYLAKTOS]

@Thefeliciahacker At 1993-4 i drove the Favorit Pick-up, City-Highway-Mountain Roads (the last of course in very normal style).

5-6 days per week, everything was ''stock'' so before i buy my Felicia i knew by first hand how Skoda stock suspension-brakes-engine rev up-lights etc performance was.

 

Also at 1998 before i buy my Felicia had read 4T magazine road test here in Greece (with Dyno included) which mention the softness of the suspension and the inclination in turns.

So before you born i knew what kind of car i am going to buy and what i would change after the warranty period.

[Thefeliciahacker]

1 hour ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

Also at 1998 before i buy my Felicia had read 4T magazine road test here in Greece (with Dyno included) which mention the softness of the suspension and the inclination in turns.

So before you born i knew what kind of car i am going to buy and what i would change after the warranty period.

Why after the warranty though???????

Afraid of something?????

[D.FYLAKTOS]

2 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

Why after the warranty though???????

Afraid of something?????

 

Back then we had no internet, no auto-forum, only informations by magazines or rumours.

Everybody was saying that in first service in Skoda (was an obligation to go there) if they found something aftermarket they will cancel at once the Warranty.

That's why nobody changed everything and let it "stock", even a bulb.

After the 2nd year you could install anything you want.

[Thefeliciahacker]

41 minutes ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

 

Back then we had no internet, no auto-forum, only informations by magazines or rumours.

Everybody was saying that in first service in Skoda (was an obligation to go there) if they found something aftermarket they will cancel at once the Warranty.

That's why nobody changed everything and let it "stock", even a bulb.

After the 2nd year you could install anything you want.

I wonder why would skoda cancel the warranty on a better part that would improve the vehicle 

[D.FYLAKTOS]

17 minutes ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

I wonder why would skoda cancel the warranty on a better part that would improve the vehicle 

 

No aftermarket ECU-chip accepted, no subwofers (ICE), no custom exchaust manifold, no HID bulbs etc, only Skoda authorised accessories and if they didn't had what you asked simply you couldn't install it in those 2 years.

If in those years you had a problem (any kind) they put automatically the blame on that and cancel the Warranty.

 

They put any engine oil-filter, any air filter they want, you had no power on these matters.

You couldn't look or check their work or decide for anything.

 

"Come to us or you are Out" was their style and many times that lead to arguments with customers.

They want to have you more "tighten" as they could to take more money as long they could.

 

[nta16]

@Thefeliciahackerbefore you were born, and some time after, car manufacturers and their Dealerships used to operate all sorts of restrictive practices so that they kept the work, turnover and profits to themselves, though things were a lot friendlier and looser before VW took over Skoda.  I don't mean mods to the cars just standard parts and work.

 

In the UK in the mid-80s Skodas had a 2-year warranty from new, this might have been to promote the brand in the UK I don't know but to my memory, and I might be wrong, the likes of BL and Ford it was 12-months and perhaps even Honda was only 12-months then.

 

Daewoo were the disruptors when they came to UK by giving their cars a 5-year from new warranty (for no additional cost) to their supposedly such poorly made cars, this was an extra 2 or 3 years warranty over the likes of VW at the time.  Also the Daewoo showroom staff were on salary only and no commission unlike all other high pressure sales staff in other Dealerships and were very much hands-off and there to help you, very different to other Dealerships.  The other big brands here soon went about getting Daewoo dismissed as they did with Skoda in the 1980s.

 

I think it was Hyundai that first had a 7-year from new warranty here, again the others were IIRC 3 years at most without additional charge and again ironic that even well made cars like Toyota and Honda wouldn't risk such warranty in the UK.

 

IIRC ironically for Little Britianers it was the EU that stopped some of the restrictive practices operated by car manufacturers, like VW, and their Dealerships.

 

Edited 17 January by nta16
spelling

[Thefeliciahacker]

2 hours ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

They want to have you more "tighten" as they could to take more money as long they coul

Ah I see always you will blame anything else than what doesn't fit your argument. 

They did it because they want to keep quality under control as long as they would need to pay for your vehicle. 

They wanted to stop someone from messaging up the car they would have to fix 

[D.FYLAKTOS]

30 minutes ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

 

They did it because they want to keep quality under control as long as they would need to pay for your vehicle. 

They wanted to stop someone from messaging up the car they would have to fix 

 

You speak for things that you haven't lived because you were unborn.

They could cancel the warranty even for the funniest thing, a set of HID bulbs and a set of aftermarket bulbs in cabin-trank for example.

On the other hand they didn't accept the ECU-chip for Felicia but they were selling the ABT programme for the next models, the first was ''bad for the engine, could ruin it'' but the second was ''good with guarantee performance and low fuel consumption'' huh?

 

The K&N filter was Bad but their unknown brand to you paper filter was Good, the were never reveal to you what oil the put in your engine and after you went all those years to them and they took the most from your money:

No windshield screen, no door seals, no 5th door shocks etc, no throttle, no MAP sensor etc...Out of production and Slaaaaam the dooor in your face !

Then what? With face down you start searching for Aftermarket, yeah those products which you were laughing few years back.

 

[RicardoM]

Skoda Felicia was created as a cheap family car to compete on the small cars markets. Those who bought a Skoda Felicia were poor or middle class people. That is a fact.

It is delusional to think that by putting all kind of parts on it (bling bling), the car will become a totally different car. No, Felicia will remain a small family car.

In present times, Skoda Felicia is the car for people without much money who can not afford a better car. People keep it for nostalgic reasons, but otherwise it lacks many things. To make it really better, you would have to spend so much money that it would be wiser to buy another more powerful, more comfortable, safer car.

[Thefeliciahacker]

3 hours ago, RicardoM said:

Skoda Felicia was created as a cheap family car to compete on the small cars markets. Those who bought a Skoda Felicia were poor or middle class people.

Agree it was a selling point being dirt cheap...

 

3 hours ago, RicardoM said:

In present times, Skoda Felicia is the car for people without much money who can not afford a better car.

I have to dissagree, keeping a felicia currently costs an arm and a leg, much cheaper to maintain something from the 2010s and up

 

3 hours ago, RicardoM said:

To make it really better, you would have to spend so much money that it would be wiser to buy another more powerful, more comfortable, safer car.

Felicia cannot currently be used as a daily, too much faff, too much hassle, way too high of a risk, In a vehicle currently worth at most 3k, when you have spent that exact amount in the last 2 years to fix it up, driving it is just a pure risk, a risk you will loose 6k, the same ofc should be said bout the brera

[nta16]

You can have a pensioners' car like a Felicia and drive it like a pensioner or you can do as D.FYLAKTOS and have some fun with it, or anything between the two opposites.  There can be a lot of variables as to whether it's a good economic thing to keep and run the car in either condition, especially given the very low mileage the cars do.

 

A Porsche or Audi are good cars to drive but only at well in excess of legal speeds otherwise they are very boring whereas a humble car can be great fun at speeds below the legal limits.

 

Many people own many cars that are totally unjustifiable on economic and other grounds, I forget the figures but in the UK the majority of car journey are  (very) short and very often with just the driver in a 4/5 seater car.

 

[D.FYLAKTOS]

19 minutes ago, nta16 said:

You can have a pensioners' car like a Felicia and drive it like a pensioner or you can do as D.FYLAKTOS and have some fun with it,

 

Here in Greece the companies tried to pass a message to the customers (drivers) and the magazines-TV shows etc (via paid commercials-sponsors) the engineers-mechanics promote the ''German model" which is for them:

''Buy a new car, don't change nothing, go every time to the Official repair-shop to keep the Warranty, pay whatever they charge you, keep the car for 5 years and when the new model arrives sell your previous car and buy the new but with the same tactic as the older".

Thus you are always under a debt (loan from bank) and always under commitment with the car company, we know this and when we hear a guy in hysteria about not making upgrades we know that somehow is related ''with the System".

 

Here are some examples of what the official Skoda repair-shops charging to the customer: 70€ for a thermostat (NOT with plastic housing), 50€ for a coolant sensor, 250€ for a clutch, 380€ for alternator etc and every time you had a complain about the price the answer was always the same ''but its original part".

WHICH is ''original''? Has the customer ever saw the part inside a white cardboard box with the stamp Skoda on it? Never ! If you ask them to give you the labels from the box to have the codes for your diary they were never provide them, all they do was to write in the service book ''change of... (the name of the part)... and the odometer note and that's it.

The use whatever they wanted and charged the unsuspected customer whatever they wanted.

[nta16]

5 years!  Wow you are let off lightly in Greece.  😄  Here they want 1, 2 or three years.

 

Car manufacturers don't make much money on the cars, they make money on the car parts though.  The Dealership don't make much money on the cars but do on all the extras they selling including the finance deals, and yet another finance scandal is being exposed and investigated. - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67945385 

 

[RicardoM]

All car service shops get their money mostly from the price of the parts and less from the labor costs. They offer a certain guarantee for the parts they sell and for the labor. Yes, the prices are high because car repairs are not always easy jobs and there are many costs involved to run such business. Of course, there is always the cheaper alternative to buy the parts and do the repairs yourself. That is, if you have the knowledge, the skills, some space, and you have the money to invest in tools.

 

As for Skoda Felicia; nobody said it is a car for pensioners. It is a family car. Husband, wife, one kid, two at most, for short to medium trips.

You will never make a real performance car from Skoda Felicia unless you pay much more than the value of the car itself. That is, if you have big money or take a loan from the bank then pay for years. In which case, it is much effective to buy another second hand car with better performance.

 

It is all about money. Win a lottery, get an inheritance, be successful in your profession to have a big salary or have a successful business of your own. If not, you stay with a Skoda Felicia and you save money for months or years to buy from time to time one new 'performance' part and dream you have an Audi Quattro.

[nta16]

1 hour ago, RicardoM said:

As for Skoda Felicia; nobody said it is a car for pensioners.

I did.  That is how it would be perceived over here because it's too old now and was too lower sales volume when new to be a regular site on UK road even when new, so now very rare.  I actually saw a dark blue 'T' plate one being driven on the road just before Xmas, sightings are very rare.  When new the average age of the purchaser was higher than with mainstream brands and when I had mine when I was in my 20s all the other owners I saw were a generation or two before me.

 

Lat year I did see a bright green and white one, or it might have been Favorit, difficult to tell as it was a bit too far away on the big roundabout with traffic lights and the driver wasn't hanging about, and I have seen a red Favorit Estate parked up somewhere a couple of times, other than that I might have seen only one more Felica that I've noticed being driven on the road in the last few years.

 

The following site tells you how many are registered in the UK (2013-2023) it will have errors and doesn't mean the car is used on the road, the model variants may be mixed up and I am not sure how the data was input in earlier years so some model variates might not even exist  - https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?page=1&q=skoda+felicia

 

Edited 18 January by nta16

[RicardoM]

1 hour ago, nta16 said:

The following site tells you how many are registered in the UK (2013-2023) it will have errors and doesn't mean the car is used on the road, the model variants may be mixed up and I am not sure how the data was input in earlier years so some model variates might not even exist  - https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?page=1&q=skoda+felicia

1,200 Felicias in 2023 is a very respectable number for the UK. Knowing how strict the MOT is in there, I think they are well maintained despite high costs for the parts and humid weather.

[D.FYLAKTOS]

I know guys which bought a much more expensive car than Felicia and still making upgrades spending tenths of thousands of euros for HP, big brakes, fancy spoilers-airwings etc and after few years again the same.

I wonder why nobody is blame them? Because they have money and if you start harassing them in a forum will tell you "my car, my money so **** you".

 

On the other hand i remember till Friday the "Skoda repair-shops" accusing the aftermarket ECU chip for everything but Monday morning they were promoting the ABT chip "it's reliable, guaranteed, no problems, will improve performance and fuel consumption" etc. If you asked for certification etc they were answering about test in Germany, Engineeres etc.

Suddenly the ECU-chip was "good for Skoda" huh?

[nta16]

45 minutes ago, RicardoM said:

1,200 Felicias in 2023 is a very respectable number for the UK. Knowing how strict the MOT is in there, I think they are well maintained despite high costs for the parts and humid weather.

Yes all things considered that is a respectable number but also bear in at the end of September 2023, there were 41.3 million licensed vehicles in the UK, 3.58 million were cars.

 

Figures were not given on the How Many Left site but some of those Felicia may well have been on SORN so not (legally at least) used on the road for possibly a long time and not had a MoT possibly for a long time as it is free to apply for SORN and it remains in place until the car is taxed again or other declaration. - SORN - https://www.axa.co.uk/car-insurance/tips-and-guides/sorn-everything-you-need-to-know/

 

I sold a car a good running and presentation car in 2005 and the chap said he was going to keep it and fully restore it before giving it to his son when he was 21, the lad looked about 5 at the time, over 18 years later it is still on SORN and AFAIK has been since the road tax I put on it ran out.  Plenty of home gardens or 'drives' and domestic garages with old cars in them just rusting away over here, some with small fleets of them a few with loads.

 

I would put a photo up of a local one with Mercs from various decades but you can hardly see them for the undergrowth and trees that have grown around and perhaps through them.

 

[D.FYLAKTOS]

A simple search in auto-forum of Seat-Audi-BMW-Porsche etc you will find drivers with high HP car talking about upgrades (keep in mind the car are already high powered from the factory) and no one there dares to harass them ''why you want to install this or that'' as 2 they do here.

The father of Felicia was Favorit, a ''small family car'' but won in WRC.

Nobody says that with few upgrades his ''civilian'' Felicia will become a kit-car Felicia but to have to give explenations because he rebuild his suspension is hilarious.

 

On the other hand some guys still use Felicia out of asphalt

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/520304-skoda-felicia-in-gumbalkan-2022/

Do they thing had a 4x4 Jeep? No but still enjoy their car in everything they want, that's the point, the driver to be happy with what he is got.

If someone thinks that everoby must have-adopt his ''grandpa style'' blaming daily all the others which drive different than him then the answer (as we say here in Greece) is: ''there is a river, dive''.

[Thefeliciahacker]

1 hour ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

but won in WRC

bro be thinking that kit car has anything to do with production car other than the name hahaah