I should have posted here first, but I got all exciteable and went straight into the Octavia forums!

I drive a 156 GTA SW (which I'm keeping - I love it to bits) but am about to buy my wife a new car to replace her reliable but dull as ditchwater Focus 2.0. The (petrol) Octavia vRS estate - in black, on 18's, is way out front. It's a perfect size for us, looks good, and is an ideal spec at a good price - although I like leather interiors and gadgets and multicylinder engines - as well as quite a hard ride - my wife does not. The Skoda image - a bit like the Alfa one in being "alternative" - is ideal for me as well, I would struggle with a beemer, merc or jag in this respect.

So unless we hate it on the test drive I'll be ordering within the next few weeks. This will become our faimily car/my wife's car - we'll both drive it quite a bit. We have a daughter under 2, and like our sports like mountain biking so I like an estate to chuck everything in.

If anyone's interested, I held a race license for 3 years and raced in 3 different Caterham championships starting with the Academy, I also had a Hayabusa engined Fisher Fury for a bit, which was madder than a box of snakes (when it worked). I still keep my hand in with a bit of karting and the odd trackday where I hire Caterhams, and sometimes do trackday instruction unofficially for friends - doubtless I'll become embroiled in debates on the finer points of handling if I get the vRS and appear on here a bit!

A belated welcome to Briskoda.

Handy person to know by the sounds of it, and so local as well!!!

If you fancy a more detailed look around an Octy then feel free to drop me a line.

Welcome to Briskoda