Had a similar experience buying an Octavia, got the best price I could on the internet & then went to a couple of local dealers & one matched it.

Be careful if you buy through a broker to ensure the car is a genuine UK car, not EU/Irish as I believe these only come with a 12 month warranty, not the 3 year/60000 mile that UK cars have.

I dont know if the RS qualifies for the free 12 month insurance but if it does Skoda are now offering free insurance or

I bought a car off the Net, and it is an Irish spec. No dealer could match it as it's a Fabia saloon (!) in Comfort spec. In the UK the saloon essentially is Classic spec with electric windows bolted on.

I had one problem in the first year (warped petrol flap - known issue apparently) which a dealer fixed with no problem.

I bought a warranty from a third party, which does not cover as much as the Skoda one would have, but when the driver's seat belt after 1 year (and just under 4k miles) the underwriters stumped up 50%.

I have never had second-rate treatment from a Skoda dealer regarding service (it's all income to them). They just had to make a note on their records that my imported saloon as an 8v engine rather than the UK standard of 16v.

Imported Skodas now benefit from a 2 year warranty. This is the relevant quote from Skoda UK's FAQs:

Question:

I want to import a Skoda. Will my car still be covered by the Skoda warranty?

Answer:

Vehicles purchased prior to 1st Novemeber 2001 will b provided with a 1 year manufacturers warranty. Vehicles purchased and registered after this date will be provided with a 2 year manufacture

Hence these are some the reasons I'm selling my 52 plate Leon Cupra..

I want a quality car... not a problematic car....

Try both... I now actually prefer the vRS...

:cheers:

Dazz

ecklad said:

I now actually prefer the vRS...

...to a Leon Cupra, I presume, but surely not to a 4x4?

Time to talk to the dog........

Its NOT 4x4 its... 95% FWD and 5% 4WD

My old 90 Quattro WAS!!! ... with its diffs locked....

If Skoda brought out a Vrs 4x4 with the 210 or the 225 engine then yes I would be VERY interested.......

:p

:cheers:

Dazz

ecklad Wrote

Its NOT 4x4 its... 95% FWD and 5% 4WD

:shocked: Can this be right Denis ? . :rofl:

If Skoda brought out a Vrs 4x4 with the 210 or the 225 engine then yes I would be VERY interested...

Dazz

Took the words right out of my norf.

ecklad said:

Its NOT 4x4 its... 95% FWD and 5% 4WD

As far as I am concerned, the original Audi Quattro was the only Audi really worthy of the Quattro name. The 90 may have had permanent 4WD - with all thats disadvantages as well as advantages - but a true Quattro it was not!

The 4x4 system used in the Octavia is more clever by far than the permanent system used in the 90 Quattro - which for 95% of the time didn't need 4WD. :rofl:

It's a pity I'm a girl dog because I would like to go looking for a 17" wheel to *** on .......

It's a pity I'm a girl dog because I would like to go looking for a 17" wheel to *** on .......

PLEASE NOTE

PLEASE NOTE what?

If something needs reporting to a Moderator, please press the appropriate button.

Time to let the dog out........

Pee Ess: 4x4s have 16" wheels.

eek slide, big drop off; sore bum.

4x4...well debate till the cows are in; oh they are; okay it's a capable 4x4, as to when it's 4x4 and not...the only true 4x4 is a landy. As per Denis; both approaches have there advantages and major disadvantages. I am under no impression that I can go into a muddy field and expect to 4x4 my way out; I might but I do not expect to.

As for the 210 bhp 4x4; cough they have to an extent been out. Consider for a moment the cost of the vRS over the cost of the normal 1.8T elegance say. Now the 4x4 costs a bit more than the normal 1.8T elegance aswell, understandable, loads more gubbins underneath. Okay so now do a few umms and arr and the 4x4 option with a chip and "stiffening" work works out more a bit more than "a cheap motoring option", but you get a well priced 4x4 vRS IMHO for 18k tops if you did remap, springs, ARB and dampers. Thats my 2p anyway.

Glad your having a look for the vRS. I have seen a few pop up, depends on luck I guess new v 2nd aswell of course. Definitly try the 4x4 there is somthing not right coming out of a sport hatch, it WILL feel wierd. But given a few hours it clears and it's great; pushing round corners you get a feeling of where understeer should be coming, but instead you can apply the power to provoke her into oversteer sensations and generally make a bloody quick exit of a corner . Of course electronic gubbins accounting for all the hard work, but you can pretty much do anything, far surpassing my previous hot hatch (Primera GT), in 150 or 220 mode. With all that said I did love the vRS, but at the time was dead set on estates; why are vr4's so dam expensive :(

Good luck on your hunt and keep us posted

:drive1:

Originally posted by DGW

As far as I am concerned, the original Audi Quattro was the only Audi really worthy of the Quattro name.

Well, that would not be the original quattro that had manually locking center and rear diffs, Denis?

Instead, to me, any "quattro" with the fantastic second-generation torsen centre diff is a real quattro! Audi have come a long way since then, sadly diluting the quattro name by putting the badge on their cars with transversely mounted engines equipped with the Haldex limited-slip clutch. However, the quattro IV system used in the bigger Audis these days is pretty clever stuff. Of course it still has the superior mechanical torsen diff but now it's working to incorporate traction control and ESP, leading to controlled slip/lock not just between front and rear axle but through the ABS electronics also between the left and right wheels. So the latest-generation quattros will not lose traction until all four wheels have lost touch with the ground...

Originally posted by DGW

The 4x4 system used in the Octavia is more clever by far than the permanent system used in the 90 Quattro[/b]

I agree that the Haldex clutch is very clever, cooperating with all the brake and throttle electronics in the ECU/CAN. It's much, much better than the synchro system used by VW before, and also Volvo in their early XC70s before they also wisely switched to Haldex. Stating that Haldex means a 95/5 torque split is a gross simplication indeed. That's true in a no-slip situation but that's not what it was designed for!

But at first I had my doubts too, coming from the VC systems used in manual-gearbox Subarus, which have a 50/50 torque split in a no-slip situation. And because of the electronics used with the Haldex clutch, I understand that fully lifting the throttle in a corner will actually disable ESP. Then again, if there is one thing I learned from driving Subarus it's keeping the power down in corners

I now think that the Haldex system has several advantages that the VC systems do not have. A painful one would be that when your coilpack gave in you would be able to be towed with your front axle lifted :p

(On that note, I have seen - and heard! - several Impreza AWD systems being demolished by police tow trucks in Amsterdam, towing away Scoobies that had parked in all the wrong places. Crack, bang, clunk!)

Finally, help me out here: was the 90 quattro part of the third quattro generation that came with the manually lockable rear diffs that locked solid when switched on and automatically came off when gaining a little speed?

Originally posted by ColinD

eek why are vr4's so dam expensive :(

:drive1:

VR4's are so expensive because there ain't many about! As a former Galant driver, I had a look around when I ditched my company car, but one dealer reckoned that there's less than 200 in the country! For those of you who don't know, the VR4 is the Mitsubishi Galant V6 with 4wd, twin turbos and (I think) 276 bhp. I drove one very briefly, once.:shocked: 0-60 in 5.6 -and it's an automatic estate!

Phil

My 90 quattro shared the exact mechanical's of the Ur-quattro

with lockable centre and rear diff's and IS a proper quattro.

It could do 0-60 in 9 seconds and topped out at 130mph.

It had success in rallying... Not a proper quattro .... BEHAVE!!

The original 10V Ur-quattro was actually not that good, huge understeer, big turbo lag, lift off oversteer, poor gear ratio's

The best Ur-quattro was the 20V version, as this came with the

Torsion Diff and a much more tractable engine.....

The Haldex system is for the majority of the time 2wd,, only when slip is detected from the front wheels does any drive go to the rear wheels....

Don't get me wrong,, I would go 4WD all the time... and as previously stated if the Vrs came with 225BHP and 4WD I would jump at the chance of owning one...

The true Quattro system is full time 4WD not part time in as in TT etc.........

:cheers:

Dazz

OK, ecklad, was your 90 Quattro one of the original ur-quattros or not?

Time to let the dog out....Thats IT....

Originally posted by ecklad

My 90 quattro shared the exact mechanical's of the Ur-quattro

with lockable centre and rear diff's and IS a proper quattro.

It could do 0-60 in 9 seconds and topped out at 130mph.

It had success in rallying... Not a proper quattro .... BEHAVE!!

The original 10V Ur-quattro was actually not that good, huge understeer, big turbo lag, lift off oversteer, poor gear ratio's

The best Ur-quattro was the 20V version, as this came with the

Torsion Diff and a much more tractable engine.....

The Haldex system is for the majority of the time 2wd,, only when slip is detected from the front wheels does any drive go to the rear wheels....

Don't get me wrong,, I would go 4WD all the time... and as previously stated if the Vrs came with 225BHP and 4WD I would jump at the chance of owning one...

The true Quattro system is full time 4WD not part time in as in TT etc.........

I'm confused here, Dazz, so perhaps you as an "Audi-phile" can help me out. We have an "original Ur-quattro" and a second-generation "Ur-quattro" with the torsen diff described above and that, I agree, is infinitely better than the first-generation car. But can a second-generation still be "Ur" (meaning original)?

What's the Audi community's common opinion on this? Does the 20v with torsen diff also qualify as an "Ur-quattro", meaning that it's the outward design rather than the internals that makes the car an original "quattro"?

I can imagine the difficulty here. First, quattro was a car. Then it was a 4WD system. Now it's a badge for all Audis with some sort of full-time or part-time automatically engaging 4WD system...

Oh, your 90 quattro sounds like a proper quattro to me!

About Haldex - of course it's FWD in no-slip conditions, but I have come to accept that there are no real objections to it, also considering its price, weight and simplicity (which is actually a bonus). Sure, it has a slight delay, but Subaru's viscous-coupling systems do too, even if they have a no-slip torque split of 50/50. Both cannot beat the instant torsen reaction, but if you want that, you'll have to pay. Torsen is just too expensive in the Skoda/Subaru price range. With my choice limited to Skoda, Seat and Subaru and comparing the VAG 1.8T with the Scooby's boxer, I found the 1.8T much more useful in the common rev range. As for my choice between Skoda and Seat, you have first-hand experience of why... (oh, and that big boot too).

Also, your "majority of the time" can shrink significantly depending on conditions, engine output (210hp in my case) - or driving behaviour . And it's precisely for these circumstances that I want 4WD, not for going offroad. Otherwise I wouldn't have lowered my car! In no-slip conditions I don't really care whether my torque split is 50/50 or 95/5. I don't see how that would matter. In fact, the FWD bias will make for easier parking. :p

Dutch,

I think your 2nd paragraph pretty much nails in on the head. I suppose the name "second generation ur quattro" pretty much relates to the addition of the torsen diff and of course the 20v engine.

I must admit to being a bit confused when Audi use quattro now. I mean the TT and S3 has the Haldex 4x4. So does the S4, RS4, RS6 etc have "proper" quattro i.e standard 50/50 split but variable dependant on circumstances?

The 90 20v, 90 20v coupe S2, RS2, original 200 based S4 all had the true quattro system IIRC.

Cheers.

Adrian.

The Ur-quattro applied to the turbocharged Audi quattro that was based on the coupe bodyshell. from the early 10V 2.1 thru tho the last Torsion diff 20V.

My old 90 quattro was based on the first generation quattro system..

Cheers

Dazz

Dazz, thanks. So the "Ur" (original) bit does apply to the Coup