Hello all, as you can see Im new to the forum, and new to Skoda Cars. Ive owned 7 fords over the past 8 years, currently driving a Red ST2 Focus. The question I have is that the running costs of the Focus are proving to be too high, and Im looking for something fun to drive, but with way better fuel economy. What Im really asking is advice from someone who has went from a performance car to the Fabia VRs, and how they have found the transition.

Cheers for the advice.

Darren

ooooh this will be a lively debate!!!

there's pleanty of ex-scooby owners etc who will come along soon enough

They've all needed a remap just to be remotely satisfied with the performance drop I'll bet. Also, the Fabia will not go round the twisties anywhere near as well as the Focus.

In addition, the mpg is not as good as everyone will have you think. I get about 46mpg on average using the brim method, whereas the silly little computer thing says I'm getting closer to 50.

Thats still a hell of a lot more than matey boy will be getting from his Focus ST though !!

Answer: Go test drive one and see what you think. It is a car of mixed talents, ecomical, comfortable cruiser that can be a blast to drive quickly when desired!

loads of fun to drive.(had one nearly 3 years now.) remap,sport springs, rear arb, induction kit and uprated brakes. After that lot it's almost as good as anything else out there thats twice the price. then you think about running costs & it will beat all other small hot hatches! low tax & insurance groups with great econamy to boot. :thumbup:

I've had big power before but for smiles to the pound this wins easily.

Go drive one and see. then do the maths,even with options it's still cheaper than the rest!!!

One thing about fuel efficiency remember that the cost of diesel is currently about £0.869 and petrol is £0.839 so diesel is roughly 4% more expensive.

So lets say the petrol does 30mpg average then to counter for the more expensive diesel then it should be about 31.5mpg.

So taking the post above 46mpg average then its really 14.5mpg more frugal.

One thing which will annoy you with any of these VW TDI's with the 6 speed gear box is that 1st gear is super short and in congestion driving your constantly switching between 1st & 2nd or if you leave it in 1st your pulling very high revs.

The other thing is like with all TDI's when you over take you dont change down you change up early - it took me ages to get used to this but its the quickest way & the way a diesel should be driven.

You really dont need to rev beyond 3000rpm ever really change up at 2,500-2,800 if "going" for it.

Another thing you will notice is that its pretty nippy 30 - 70mph but as the speed goes up the its not the diesel's strong point. I found that over say 80 its acceleration really tails off where in a 220hp petrol you have 70mph to go and it will be quick up to 120-125 before the acceleration starts to wane.

Mind you in the real world we dont drive like that and if we do its exceptionally rare.

Chees for the quick replies guys, will def go try one out, and will prob have a go at the 2.0 TDi Octavia. Im currently getting 21MPG in the Focus, and that driving quite conservatory, all motorway driving, so gettng 200 miles for

Chees for the quick replies guys, will def go try one out, and will prob have a go at the 2.0 TDi Octavia. Im currently getting 21MPG in the Focus, and that driving quite conservatory, all motorway driving, so gettng 200 miles for

I would have though on a motorway run you would get more than 21mpg in it.

Unless you drive a diesel correctly the fuel saving wont be that great, I have a few mates that have switch to diesel and at best only get 30-36mpg out of them.

I would give your ST's engine more ime to bed in before you make a change maybe keeping off the boost will help things. Even my 820 barge will do 39/40mpg on a motorway cruise.

Economy in the vRS will be about double that of the Focus, and thanks to low down peak torque of a TDI, you'll get a big shove in the back. Performance and handling will leave you wanting though so either budget for big mods or just get a better paying/2nd job and keep the Focus

Chris (ex Scooby owner!)

As an Ex Scooby owner myself I moved to Fabia vRS which was slightly modified .

The car is great at what it does and I wouldn't hesitate to have another if the need arose.

I've not driven an ST but performance wise I would expect it to be similar to mapped Octavia II vRS TFSi. That being the case I think the Fabia will leave you wanting both in terms of power and handling.

The Octavia II chassis is very composed and in either PD140 Sport, vRS TFSi or vRS PD170 form it might suit your needs better than the Fabia - that is of course if you want to retain similar performance to the ST.

If you simply want economy, reliabilty and generally cheap motoring then the Fabia vRS will suit your needs and a little more.

I don't think you are alone in thinking the ST is expensive to run, I have heard similar talk several times and I expect there will be a few making their way onto the used market for that reason.

hi mate iv come from a fez zs, racing puma and st170 to the fabia vrs and im happy.

mpg is great but as said depends how u drive.

It is quick but you might want to fettle which is easily done and rewards you well.

Handling is good but if your gona push it (track day) youll want more

Overall i cant fault it and iv been trying as im a ford man thru and thru and it was a difficult choice to make, but im happy now and i know i made the right choice

Well ive had 3 octavia vRS'S and i didnt find the performance drop too hard to deal with but then again my fabia is 210bhp and 320lb/ft which makes it a lot more fun

Reallistically they are about as fast as you should want to go on the road, unless you live on an island where there are no speed cameras, traffic or people. Had mine a week now and I'm loving it, tried driving it like a grandad to work (17miles) today and got 56.7mpg, drove it home at more realistic speed and got 52.4, according to the computer, all whilst trying to run it in. I have driven a few fast cars over the years and the fab compares reasonably well, it's never going to be in the supercar league but what do you expect for less than £13k new?

The heater is crap though as it takes about 3 miles to warm up, if you have the quick clear window on the ST you will miss it unless you always park it in a garage.

Handling is reasonable, i came from fiesta zetec and it is probably a bit better than that but also has the ability to soak up bad roads a bit better.

I would have though on a motorway run you would get more than 21mpg in it.

Unless you drive a diesel correctly the fuel saving wont be that great, I have a few mates that have switch to diesel and at best only get 30-36mpg out of them.

I would give your ST's engine more ime to bed in before you make a change maybe keeping off the boost will help things. Even my 820 barge will do 39/40mpg on a motorway cruise.

even driving the ST like a granny , you will be hard pushed to get in excess of 25mpg , it is a heavy car , 1465kgs , and has the very thirsty Volvo 5 cylinder in it, the best thing about that engine is the noise it makes

Reallistically they are about as fast as you should want to go on the road, unless you live on an island where there are no speed cameras, traffic or people

:confused::confused::confused:

Chris

:confused::confused::confused:

Chris

Note the use of word 'should'.

Fabia vRS, 16k miles, bought six weeks ago.

Winter diesel and cold to very cold weather, but use Millers Diesel Powerplus, most journeys only 3 to 10 miles so far (but I do give it a boot whenever possible - so intoxicating).

Fuel consumption - last 4 tankfuls, brim to brim & then calculated

39.5 39.5 42.5 42.8 approx.

I'd say this is almost a pretty 'worst case' scenario - short of caning it around a race track.

Reallistically they are about as fast as you should want to go on the road.

Seconded.

... most journeys only 3 to 10 miles so far.

In that case you have never really warmed it up! - takes 20 minutes or so to get it thoroughly warm in winter. Once warmed through, it's much more civilised.

I find it takes a good 4 miles on the m'way for the needle to approach the middle, and even then that's only the coolant temp. The oil would take a little longer.

A 380-400 mile run for me (a 38L tankful) works out at about 46/ 48 mpg on average and that's sitting mostly at between 70 and 80 mph with some town driving thrown in. How people get the mythical 55mpg is beyond me unless they sit at 56mph in 6th all day and only drive in summer.

The standard power of the car is perfectly adequate for normal use and enthusiastic driving. A remap will make it simply mental with the added 'joy' of putting the power down onto the road and not smoking your clutch.

It gets to above legal speeds very easily even in standard guise. A remap would bring it into hot hatch territory but it depends on personal preference whether you have that done.

I'd buy a standard one....drive it for a bit and then get a remap if you think it needs it.