Hi, a new Octavia vRS estate (in black, petrol) is currently leading the race by some way to be our next family/my wife's car. We'll be able to purchase as soon as test drives etc are sorted.

When I bought my car, also a very dark colour, I had Armourfend protective film fitted top the nose of the car and also the wheel arch extensions . I got it fitted almost immediately (as quickly as I could book the fitting) but I still got some chips in the 3k miles before that. I've been very happy with it.

It occurs to me that the painted bumper/spoiler of the vRS, the bluff nose, and the black paint might be a recipe for chips - has this been a problem for anyone?

Thanks in advance - and especially to VRS195 who'se pics on here are some of the best I've found of a black vRS estate for comparison purposes!

Have done 22,000 miles in my Oct'y in just under 3 yrs with no stone chips.

I have had my silver L&K for one week and acquired 6 stone chips. The sickening thing is that being a new car I have hung back from the back of all cars.

I have had a Volvo Cross Country for six years from new and when sold it had one mark on the bonnet and none anywhere else. I thought I was an excellent stone dodger.

My wife has had a Fabia for five years and that has acquired a host of scratches, so I cant help but feel that Skoda paintwork is not the standard of Volvo unfortunately but I have to live with it now for five years.

david

I have had my Dark Blue Elegance for just over 1 year, nearly 40000 miles and it breaks my heart every time I wash it and find another stone chip. I really don't want to count them but it is in double figures already!!!

This is my third car that I will be doing high mileage in and it already has more chips then the previous 2 put together (Toyota and Nissan). I agree with the post above about the quality of the paint finish. It is just not as good.

Mark

I think stone chips are a sign of the times, with the poor state of our roads and the lack of maintenance.

I had armourfend on my Subaru, I wouldn't let them any where near my car again.

I had armourfend on my Subaru, I wouldn't let them any where near my car again.

Stu,

Why not ? I was considering this option myself as the amount of stonechips the Leon has attracted leads me to think I need to do something with the VRS.

It isn't as invisible as they claim.

You still get stone chips, but you get them in the film. OK so it doesn't damage the paint but you still see and feel them. Larger stones do still cut through it and chip the paint.

They damaged my car while they were doing it.

They had several attempts at fitting the film correctly and failed.

It's expensive, you may as well have the bonnet resparayed every year if it bothers you.

Need I go on.

Then a respray it is!

I had the Leon done by Chipsaway which is fine for small areas but a scuff they did on the front has not stood the test of time over about 10k miles so I may be getting that resprayed in the near future. The rest of their work was and still is fine though.

It isn't as invisible as they claim.

You still get stone chips, but you get them in the film. OK so it doesn't damage the paint but you still see and feel them. Larger stones do still cut through it and chip the paint.

They damaged my car while they were doing it.

They had several attempts at fitting the film correctly and failed.

It's expensive, you may as well have the bonnet resparayed every year if it bothers you.

Need I go on.

You must have had a poor fitter - they are independent and I'm sure there's a fair bit of skill involved. Mine was excellent, and the results on my Alfa - 30k miles on - are still excellent.

You can choose which parts of the kit you want fitted. I chose not to have the bonnet strip fitted as it is the most obvious piece (I have a few leading-edge bonnet chips as a result). If I chose again I would also not have the panels fitted behind the wheel-arches, as these are the most obvious and serve little purpose unless you reverse at motorway speed regularly... On the nose of the car the film is barely visible even close up.

Chipping depends quite a lot on the height of the car and how much of the nose is painted - it looks to me like the vRS might be susceptible as it has a bluff, painted nose...

I had every part available for the Subaru, back of door mirrors, leading edge of bonnet scoop, inside the door handles, over the boot aperture on the rear bumper, rear wheel arches and of course the whole front including the foglights.

They gave me some story about it needing to be fitted in sterile conditions so I went to the head office in Nazing, in fact they ended up redesigning some of the parts using my car as a template and cutting them while they had the car. Independants just order a kit from them and fit it.