hi, yes, here i am! the new guy!

hope i dont annoy anyone with what i will no doubt find out are common questions!

I look forward to joining you guys soon, but have a few questions before i go out and purchase (hopefully this week! :) :))

1) I was considering getting an ex-demo fabia vrs. Are there any advantages / disadvantages to this - all i can think of is obviously, less time left on warranty etc and it may well have been driven to the limits in the early parts of its life :( however, its cheaper than new and has low mileage

2) I was going to have it chipped - the dealer says this wont affect the warranty... easy question... is he lying to get a sale?!?

3) How much is 12months tax (

1) Would the warranty really be less? Or would it start from when you bought it...?

2) It will affect your warranty, but your dealer may decide to turn a blind eye. There are quite a few mod-friendly dealers out there

3) No idea... I'm a cheapskate and buy 6 months... (and have a petrol fabia!)

4) In theory, no...

5) See Skoda's Spreadsheet of costs...

6) Dunno!

Best I can do at this time of the morning Welcome to the site BTW!

hi Stimps! thanks for the welcome and the quick reply!

1) Would the warranty really be less? Or would it start from when you bought it...?

i believe i will get the remains of the 3yr warranty that would come from the car from new - as most of the ones i've been looking at are 6 months old' date=' this means it will be 2 1/2 years..

2) It will affect your warranty, but your dealer may decide to turn a blind eye. There are quite a few mod-friendly dealers out there

cool, just need to find one then! is there a listing on here of them? hopefully there's one near by!!! my only worry is if something happens to the Fabia's computer side of things... i assume the chip is actually put in here and any "furtling" by Skoda will reveal its chipped and i'm liable to pay for all repair costs - which could be quite high if it is chipped and the computer is gone! :s (so i'm led to believe)

3) No idea... I'm a cheapskate and buy 6 months... (and have a petrol fabia!)

haha - no probs!

4) In theory, no...

i couldnt see why it would however i've owned a peugeot 206 GTi before and it invalidated the warranty even though a service is a service really and the other garage had done nothing different to what peugeot did!!! damn them! :( (of course, the exhaust decided to fall apart from the back box and because it wasnt last serviced by a peugeot dealer, they wouldnt fix it under warranty!)

5) See Skoda's Spreadsheet of costs...

thanks for that - will have a look tomorrow when i'm on a machine with Excel!

6) Dunno!

fair enuff

Best I can do at this time of the morning Welcome to the site BTW!

cheers! it was good to receive your help!

many thanks!

Welcome to the site and good luck on your purchase

5) See Skoda's Spreadsheet of costs...

I'm confused by this...

For a Fabia vRS - At 40K why do you need 2 10K lubrications, a 20K inspection and a 40K inspection? Doesn't the 40K inspection sort all this out? Or is it just accumulating the figures so by 75K you know how much you have spent servicing your car?

I'm confused by this...

Well, if this helps, on my old Tdi Fabia in three years, 68k miles or so I spent around 1,500 quid on servicing (at the main dealer) including tyres.

phew! had to read that a few times! hope you mean cumulative!!! haha...

think i've just reserved one incidently... subject to seeing it!

the warranty isnt valid unless its serviced at Skoda (although they would say that wouldnt they! haha)

So to service the vrs at the main dealer over 60000 miles works out at less than

i have in the last couple of months purchased an ex dem fabia vrs it was registered 31stnov2003 and i purchased in march 04 i got the balance of the 3 yr warranty and aa cover. The car had 1200 miles on it and was in perfect nick and had the front airbag deactivation switch and stack cd under the seat fitted To buy it brand new it would have cost me

I posted this exchange recently in another thread. It should help clarify the issue of service and warranty:

'I understand that the Skoda UK new vehicle warranty has changed as a result of an OFT inquiry into restrictive servicing practices, although this is not reflected in your website FAQ. Could you please send me a copy of the amended warranty so that I can post details on www.Briskoda.net. Also does that amended warranty apply retrospectively to cars covered under an existing warranty.

PS I understand that the Fabia brochure has a stick-on slip giving brief details of the amended warranty.

Regards

***** ****'

---------------------------------------------------------------------

'Dear Mr ****,

Thank you for your email and support of the Skoda marque.

I am aware of the recent report published by the Office of Fair Trading in relation to new vehicle warranties, however, I can confirm that Skoda's warranty has never been offered on the condition of having the vehicle serviced within our franchised network. Therefore, the terms of our warranty remain unchanged. Full details of the warranty cover may be found within the "New Vehicle Warranty" document supplied with every vehicle's handbook pack (a copy of the latest version dated 04/02 is attached).

Whilst a customer is free to have their vehicle serviced wherever they choose, we would always recommend that servicing is undertaken at an Approved Repairer. Only then can we ensure that the technicians have received appropriate training and are equipped with the latest technical information and diagnostic equipment.

Warranty work must of course be carried out at an approved Skoda retailer, as the retailer must have access to the warranty system in order to submit a claim.

With regards to the sticker being applied to new vehicle brochures, I can confirm that this is not indicative of a change in the warranty conditions rather as a correction of an inaccuracy.

Should you require further clarification on this or any other issue please do not hesitate to contact the Customer Services Department on 0845 7745 745.

Yours sincerely,

****** *****

Customer Services Specialist'

Tax should be

Yep 115 quid for me too a couple of months back on my PD100. If it is 105 quid, I'm after a refund

Chris

cheers guys! should be off later for a test drive work permitting... holding off the chipping till i've had it a few months incase any warranty issues do arise (knowing my luck, they will!!! haha)

thanks for the warranty clarification - basically that means i can have it serviced anywhere doesnt it - does Skoda v. Independant garage servicing make much of a difference to valuation / depreciation now-a-days anyways? i dont think it will...

does Skoda v. Independant garage servicing make much of a difference to valuation / depreciation now-a-days anyways? i dont think it will...

Depends how old/mileage, etc. when you sell it, and where you sell it.

Most dealers will just look in Glass' and use the price that's in there. Private buyers can tell a well looked after car, and if there is a service history of some sort I'd imagine most won't be bother whether it's from Skoda or not...

Rob.

thanks for the warranty clarification - basically that means i can have it serviced anywhere doesnt it ...

As long as the Indpendent garage uses genuine Skoda parts.....there's an article in last weeks Autocar on this.

I'm thinking may be I'll have my RS serviced at Jabba now. :rubchin:

the fabia vrs is

cheers guys! loving this place already!

if your after a good deal try d.m keiths in leeds got mine from there it was a new vrs with 9 miles on the clock? any way it was std apart from the xenons which I got thrown in so i paid

well, i've bought the one i went to see! fantastic ride and felt the deal i got was pretty damn good - had to garages fighting for me to buy it off them so was made well easier by them near enough direct haggling with each other! very satisfied so far and hope to pick it up before the beginning of next week!

thanks for all your feedback and help everyone

(BTW. i went for silver, although it was a toss up between that and the black one but black was

As long as the Indpendent garage uses genuine Skoda parts.....there's an article in last weeks Autocar on this.

I'm thinking may be I'll have my RS serviced at Jabba now. :rubchin:

cool - is this it? :

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News_Article.asp?NA_ID=207817

Many thanks for finding that article and posting the link to it.

just one more question, prior to test drive and after it, when locking / alarming the car, it beeps...

is there any way to make that silent so that it just flashes the indicators - also, can you differentiate between whether you've locked / unlocked (if only using the indicators)

cheers

IIRC its 2 flashes = locked 1 = unlocked... or the other way round. lol

My car doesnt beep when setting the alarm. did you notice if it had the one touch indicators?

all these things apparently can be set by the dealer/VAGcom. altho most dealers have no idea

the alarm beeping when ulocked/locked can be switched off by the dealer, mines is silent, not noticed if the indicator flashes, when it is armed there is a flashing led on the drivers door