I've driven in Holland quite a lot without seeing the slightest trace of a hill. You're exaggerating! [/quote:7be4ffb70a]

Denis: on the motorways, yes, but where I live I have to attack a dyke broadside every morning and afternoon...

Not to mention our holidays in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and good old Blighty - where they invented the hillclimb. :lol:

Matt

The hillholder seems an overly exotic solution for coping with the odd polder or two, but having posted I realised that it would also be useful for coping with busy multi-storey and underground car parks! I hadn't heard of the device before you mentioned it - I thought you might have meant billholder, along the lines of the parking ticket holder as fitted to the Octavia's windscreen - and am now much the wiser!

PS Are you really ready for a car without it? :shock:

I know, it's a huge sacrifice.

Dutch

Sold the STI last week, got the 4x4 on Saturday.

Initial impression, why didnt I do this before, you wont be disapointed.

Stuart

Stuart,

So your topic title could have been 'Why I chose an Octavia 4x4 over an STi'... :lol:

Unbelievably, that makes it even worse for Subaru - a marque that I still love to death, don't get me wrong. Yesterday I went to the Amsterdam car expo where they held a driving course that included a wet-surface test. Enjoyed myself to death watching a plain 2-litre Impreza drive circles around all the classier European FWDs. The apparent envy among the other drivers resulted in their trying to emulate the Scooby, eventually leading to a Laguna skidding off the course totally out of control, severely damaging its front, side and rear. It was a total blast! :lol: :lol:

But anyway, I only test-drove the plain WRX and had an idea that the STi - especially the new, torqueier MY03 - would be a better pick, but just too expensive for me. But your story conveys a similar experience to mine - very ordinary pulling power under 4000rpm, making it very hard to enjoy in daily traffic. I was under the impression that the STi had this pretty well covered in 265bhp standard mode - or that it at least would give you the old thump in the back when the turbo finally starts to sing - but you've just gone and ditched a 300bhp STi! :shock:

Can imagine about the reliability, though, with the 300bhp mods - you can't expect to retain iron-clad reliability, can you? However, my Legacy has never failed me in the three years I'm running it so a "regular" Scooby indeed deserves its praise as being ultra-reliable. They are definitely up there with the other Japanese marques. I've driven three fast Hondas in eight years without a single reliabitilty niggle - absolutely faultless and a sheer joy to drive. The new Accord chassis is way up there with BMW, maybe even better, just too bad Honda don't do 4WD and are slightly overpriced (here at least).

The 4x4 will be my first European car, so fingers crossed reliability-wise...

Cheers,

Matt

Dutch

My STI was a 96 Jap Import so not the newest of cars but I still managed to spend

Originally posted by Dutch4x4

Don't actually drive a Skoda as yet - it's arriving in April, as the March production run in the RS/4x4 factory will do RS interiors in the 4x4 for almost no money

To keep you posted: I have heard today that "my" car's bodyshell has arrived from Mlada Boleslav and that it will be built up at Vrchlabi starting this Thursday. So it's part of the first week's March production run. Although the chipping, the lowering, etc. still need to be done on arrival in Holland, I could be driving the car later this month instead of April...

Dutch

where did you get this info from , your dealer? Thats cool to know that your car is actually being built ! Bet you wish you could go over and drive it back yourself!!!:p

Dutch,

When you finally decide on how much to lower your car can you let me know the figure, just for reference of course

Stuart

Duncan,

Yes, the dealer gave me a call. He promised me to keep me posted on every stage in the production process. He is (well, seems like!) a friendly, decent bloke that will tell it like it is - probably because I will become one of his "interesting" customers and the fact that I won't be paying the bills but my company will.

Anyway, he proved correct on the speed-bump issue - any lower than the RS will be impossible around the streets of Amsterdam - so until proven otherwise I will trust him on other issues as well. That's after discarding four other Skoda dealers that came across as, erm, car dealers.

Yes, I wish I could go and pick it up myself! Skoda actually have a customer center at Mlada Boleslav for such things, but then I would be needing Czech license plates to take it home... I've heard that the Audi customer experience at Ingolstadt is even better. German customers will be treated to a full day of champagne and kaviar while they watch their TT, S3, A8, whatever, being finished on the production line and rolled into the zippy congratulatory here-are-your-keys-sir area at the end of the line. I'd say: :cheers: !

Stuart,

Given the above I will probably go for 30mm lower on the standard 4x4 rideheight. That will mean it will end up slightly above RS height - a practical daily-driver ground clearance that will still look the business in a wolf-in-sheeps-clothing kind of way, so without being too offensive.

Remember, I'm not the kind of guy who will go for 18" all-round and track-day ground clearance. Part of that is character - only just fell of my chair when I heard the quote for 17" all-round! - but it's also the fact that it will be a company-owned car. Although I can indulge in many things that the boss will pay for, the company wouldn't want to pump endless money into their employee's thing with speed!

Agree on the lowering thing. My RS is now standard ride height for a RS. Tried it with the lowering springs, didn't like them so took them off. I found that under "enthusiastic" cornering the rear tyres would rub the arches. Also found that if you loaded the boot/trunk you could get rubbing at "normal" speeds round corners. Yes, mine does get loaded, especially for track days and Ring trips. Usually have a tool chest, trolley jack and 4 spare wheels, oh and when coming back from the Ring, 5-6 cases of beer and some wine.

Also noticed that when you fit the lowering kit it alters the visual balance of the car. As standard it looks higher at the rear, once lowered the front looks too high, IMHO.

Thought I'd better answer the thread title, for those that don't know.

I had a WRX on order, had picked the options and everything.

I then sat down and worked out what it would cost to run. Once that number went past

Dutch

I know what you mean about the speedbumps , they are everywhere up here too! In fact i have to reverse my car into my garage as there is a slight 'ramp' in the road before my garage door and she just will not go in frontways (took someone up when i first bought her to watch my front spoiler...they stopped me pretty sharpish!!!) Oh and you seem to have found yourself a good dealer there!

More news from the production pipeline!

The car is now in its final QA stages and its shipping to Holland is imminent.

Mind you, I was doubly surprised by this most recent update. On the one hand, I was disappointed to hear that the car is still in the Czech Republic, with its actual production being two weeks back. That's hurting my patience! On the other hand, this means that the Vrchlabi factory takes two days to build it and two weeks to check its build quality. So no stone is being left unturned. A reassuring thought...

(I wonder how this practice compares with the ma

Who was it that said something here on the time/space continuum stretching around them while waiting for a new car to arrive?

Well, strangely , I'm having the same experience, but at least I now know that the car's at the dealer's, that the lowering thing has been done (slightly below standard non-4x4 rideheight, and I'm pleased with that - nice and practical) and that we still need to wait for Oettinger to perform their trick and for me to separate the Scooby from its mobile phone kit and hand over a brand-new Kenwood M9021 for a combined build-in. Looks like it's going to be mid-April after all...

so the toys actually take longer to deliver than the car.....

sign of the times!!

April 17 will be the day...

It's been long enough!

Just over a week, bet you cant wait.

You bet I can't wait!

Yet would you believe it? Oettinger messed up!

Their chip was due arrive back from Germany yesterday - in fact it was due to arrive last week! - with the final stuff to be done here at the dealer's this morning. Guess what? It didn't.

Dealer is now all over the phone to *#%&% Germany, but the upshot of it all is - no car.

Well, maybe tomorrow...

So this is how it works - and how it went wrong:

1. You all know that Oettinger, Abt, etc. don't do a specific remap but only provide new software. So one programme approved by VAG because they (most probably) use it themselves to differentiate within their regular model line-up. It isn't better than a remap - most probably it's not as good - but as it provides a standard modification it's so much easier warranty-wise, as VAG know what they're in for.

2. To maintain warranty for the customer, Oettinger seems to have access to the VAG chassis and engine code database in order to report back which car/engine combination has been given their upgrade. Each chip has its unique code so Oettinger's work is simply to replace their new code with the old one in the VAG database, and send their chip to the dealer, where it will replace the original one. It's easy money!

3. For some reason, my original chip's code wasn't available at Oettinger. This meant that last week the dealer had to send the original chip to Germany, to allow Oettinger to read it out, causing more delay. However, it was promised that it would be sorted this week, with the delivery taking place this morning.

So that's German thoroughness for you.

:cheers:

Will I still be taking the new car out for an Easter joyride? I hope so...

Originally posted by Dutch4x4 in this post

2. To maintain warranty for the customer, Oettinger have access to the VAG chassis and engine code database in order to report back which car/engine combination has been given their upgrade. Each chip has its unique number, so Oettinger's work is simply to replace their new code with the old one in the VAG database, and send their chip to the dealer, where it will replace the original one. It's easy money!

Interesting... I wonder if a UK owner could have their car "chipped" on the continent, and thereby avoid the warranty issues, because it's VAG approved, and their database says so too...

Don't think it will work that way - it's still Skoda UK that will or will not uphold your warranty claim. It's their rules, and they say it's not allowed.

Regardless of the actual process involved, the argument is basically the same - some importers will uphold warranty and feel safe about it, so why won't the others? There is no rational argument to support the latter stance.

So the chip finally arrived later today... The car's there for me to pick up tomorrow morning.

Oh, and to add another twist to the Oettinger saga - the reason for the week's delay was that they simply hadn't done an Octavia 4x4 turbo with the ARX engine before! So they had to modify their software using the original chip that was sent to them, instead of taking an off-the-shelf chip. No easy money for them this time!

So it had nothing to do with chassis numbers or VAG messing up, it was simply Oettinger's over-confidence that they had a chip to match any 1.8T engine...

Anyway, my chip is a first-of-a-kind, so still some sort of "remap"

Mattijs - as I won't be on the BB for the next few days (easter hockey festival!) let me be the first to congratulate you on your new car :cheers:

(Now if it doesn't turn up tomorrow you can blame me for counting chickens etc ) Have fun :drive1:

Stu, thanks!

You'll understand that we will be spending our Easter weekend somewhat differently.