This isn't a thread to start WW3 about which is best, I'm not interested about economy or practicality, just an honest opinion from those who have owned a Fabia Vrs (mapped 170bhp' ish) and the Mk 1 Octavia Vrs (standard). Give me your drivers view.

I may be interested soon in an Octavia Vrs (about 54/55 plate) late Mk 1 so your honset views please.

Cheers

Depends a lot on what you're after - big car, small car. Outright performance vs fun factor and better fuel economy.

What kinda driver are you, do you do lots of short or long distance driving, etc etc.

Both are good cars in their own ways, the Octy is more suited to those who need a lot of room and the performance ain't bad either :D

Will depend largely on what kind of roads you travel on. For twisty back roads, the Fabia is the more comfortable but as a result the handling is less sharp and more wallowy. The Octy turns in and corners flatter but on anything less than a perfect surface it feels very skittish and easily unsettled. For motorways and smooth A-roads, the Octy excels.

My advice would be to drive the Octy and see how you think it goes.... (also remember there are other brands aside from Skoda which may offer what you want )

Chris

at the end of the day... the octy is da bestest innit! lol, i can tell you why i bought my octy if that helps...based on my personal opinion that in black/silver/white it looks better than any furby goes like a scalded monkey on roller skates, sounds better than a diesel and has room in for 2/3 mountain bikes without having to fit a rack.

personally furby for me was only worth it for the economy although i do know they have similar performance i couldnt handle having to live with the noise of a diesel and having to change gear at 4000rpm.(i love brisk driving)

if i had my way though id of bought a black leon cupra 1.8t with nice alloys fitted, thing is there werent any about at the time.

I'd take the Octy - in fact I did, twice

Not sure about Chris's point on twisty roads though and as for the op saying outright performance v fun and economy.......

As Chris says though, I'd look at a Mondeo or a Focus....

i do know they have similar performance

:rofl: :rofl:

(i love brisk driving)

I have been known to drive along briskly (at times ). I too dislike diesels but they can be punted along at a reasonable pace, so I'm told

i should of put "i like pretending im colin mcrae or a touring car driver" as for skittish on b roads i think thats down to driver confidence not the car, i had my octy over the moors recently chasing a focus rs thats tuned to 260bhp and after the 30 mile stretch i was still there chewing his back bumper.(yes he can drive btw). the limiting factor wasnt handling it was the road surface (anything over 80mph meant getting seriously airborne).

a mapped fabia and std octy are in the same ball park aint they?

i had my octy over the moors recently chasing a focus rs thats tuned to 260bhp and after the 30 mile stretch i was still there chewing his back bumper.(yes he can drive btw).

He can drive, yet he couldn't get away from you when he had more power, less weight and better handling? :P

My comment on B-road skittishness was after going on a route with a chap off here (who shall remain nameless ). We've run the route a couple of times in the Mondeo and the Octy vRS and on the smooth A-road stuff, the Octy felt very planted and sure footed, but on the rougher B-roads with ruts and potholes and inconsistent surfaces, it felt a lot less planted and the car wasn't at one with the road. Driver confidence? I don't think that's an issue

Chris

Nope, I don't think they are. Seeing as it costs the same to remap an Octy as it does a Fabia, I think its fair to say that if the owner was of the modding persuasion he remap either of them...

The standard Octy weighs less so will have a better PWR than the remapped Fabia, although it will have less torque. It does however have a wider power band. Remap it and the Fabia won't see where it went I'm sure Jason could confirm this....... albeit from upside down

He can drive, yet he couldn't get away from you when he had more power, less weight and better handling? :P

My comment on B-road skittishness was after going on a route with a chap off here (who shall remain nameless ). We've run the route a couple of times in the Mondeo and the Octy vRS and on the smooth A-stuff, the Octy felt very planted and sure footed, but on the rougher B-roads it with ruts and potholes and inconsistent surfaces, it felt a lot less planted and the car wasn't at one with the road. Driver confidence? I don't think that's an issue

Chris

Chris, he wasn't comparing it to a Mondeo, he was comparing it to a Fabia. The Mondeo or the Focus will outhandle the Octavia, assuming both are standard.

Chris, he wasn't comparing it to a Mondeo, he was comparing it to a Fabia. The Mondeo or the Focus will outhandle the Octavia, assuming both are standard.

Was I comparing them? :P I only talked about the Octy's handling (I'm assuming he has a remapped Fabia so knows what they're like )

Chris

well i didnt exactly give you the full story. just the short version.

over these exact roads

i arranged a day out. me and dave in his focus, both being ameteur rally drivers went first so we could open the cars up a bit

this is his car, its actually a show car for an audio company so in fact weights alot more than standard.

over the route he led and i followed with us stopping at bits an bobs to take pics and to let the others catch up. the roads were empty with high visibility meaning we could push as hard as we liked and upto 80 we were fine, bumps in the road and a sense of not wanting to stuff the car into a wall limited us to this. All the way round the route dave led and couldnt pull away from me. he even commented how impressed he was with my new purchase. there endeth the story. not once have i ever felt like my octy was skittish, infact compared to my old focus the octy is alot less "flickable".

just my 2p and of course i cant comment for anyone elses experiences, just trying to offer mine to help the lad make an informed decision. Ive also done the A64 at night at some serious pace and the car didnt feel skitty then either. like i say i think one persons opinion of how a car is acting on the limit can vary from anothers quite a bit.

ps i stand corrected about the mapped furby. did plant it vs a member on here a while back (in spotted forum if you search my posts) he says his furby vrs is std and my octy is mapped. i was stunned how slow i pulled away from him so either he told me porkie pies or there isnt as big a performance gap (to about 80 from a rolling start) as i took it to 6500 before changing which is what i based my comment on.

Ah that may be the difference then as on my "private" route, speeds in excess of 80mph may have been involved down similar roads

Chris

na, we couldnt push passed 80 cos of the bumpiness of the roads, both of us got airborne at least 4 times and we didnt want to go anyfaster as it wasnt worth losing control for the sake of trying to lose each other when there was nothing to gain from doing it.

Id also comment that the most dissapointing thing about my mapped octy is that on tight winding roads the inside wheelspin is a nightmare when your trying to push on a bit.

Personally having owned both I'd say the octavia was far let skittish than the fabia. The fabia suspension as standard is harsh compared to the octys.

Once rolling a mapped Fabia will have a nice ability to keep up with a STANDARD Octy, up to about 100 mph. Higher than that, and it's game over.

Also if the Octy had been given a similar treatment (map) it ought to muller the Fabia, unless that has been heavily modded aka Jason etc

I have NOT driven a 'standard Mk1 Octy vRS' but it ought to be pretty fast - I have driven a standard Fabia vRS and the handling is just not that great, far too much roll, bit bouncy too. With the Eibachs and the Koni FSDs things improved loads.

There are plenty of better handling cars out there, the Focus (sporty versions) being one for sure, and Mondeos don't handle badly either

Personally I reckon just try a few different cars out, why restrict yourself to Skoda, and get the one YOU want

I drove a few standard Octavia vRS, and their clocks didn't go around like my Fabia did.

I drove a few standard Octavia vRS, and their clocks didn't go around like my Fabia did.

Is that cos the speedo is properly spaced on the Octy? :P

Chris

i got rid of an 04 fabia and got a mk2 octy 6 months later i got rid for an fto,and just got rid again for another fabia,imho the octy was pure dull where the fabia puts a smile on my face every time:D

I thouroughly enjoyed thrashing my old Octy. I'd say the car wasn't so much skittish as quite crashy on bumpy surfaces due to the suspension being quite firm.

I don't think it's as important to upgrade the suspension on the Octy as it is on the fabia as the standard set up on the Octy is quite good anyway, and suits the weight and dynamics of the car. One thing that made a big difference though was getting a new ARB and new bushes to go with it. It transformed the cornering, and I would recommend an upgrade in this department as the standard bushes disintegrate on sight of a speed bump.

I didn't have mine mapped as there was wheelspin in standard mode. I only ever lost a couple of "challenges", an old RS4, a Porsche Carrera S, and a Seat Ibiza Cupra. I had to move out of the way of both of the Germans on the motorway, and I couldn't keep up with the Ibiza! Lol. Oh, and Humberside Constabulary Safety Camera Partnership as well. The buggers, I got hammered by a brightly coloured Ford Transit which was stationary at the time....

Is that cos the speedo is properly spaced on the Octy? :P

Chris

I was waiting for that from you. On your clocks, does the needle even work? :P

I was waiting for that from you. On your clocks, does the needle even work? :P

Nope!

HTH

Chris

I drove a few standard Octavia vRS, and their clocks didn't go around like my Fabia did.

Jason mentioned that on his Fabia the dials rotated a whole 180 degrees in a matter of milliseconds - fast moving dials obviously fitted as standard to Fabias

HTH

Yeah but he used unconventional methods to gain THAT kinda performance of the needles :P