Hi all

Just bought a Felicia 1.3 5 door hatch (it says estate on the insurance). Been driving Morris Minors for 20 years. Now too creaky (me, not the MM) to lay under them every week.

Reasons for the change:-

1. Cheap motoring.

2. The Felicia has heating that works!

3. 5 gears - 70 mph and I can still hear the radio.

4. Cheap motoring.

5. I'm dry.

6. Skoda has brakes.

7. Cheap motoring.

I'm very new to 'modern' cars. Power steering, CATs, lambdas and the like are a bit scary at the moment as, previously, every part of the Minor was maintained by myself. Now, it seems, a third party with a bill may become involved in the future!

On that subject, anybody have advice on what to look out for in servicing and maintenace for the Felicia? Particularly as the MOT just passed gave emission results as:-

CO ... 0.08%

HC ... 28 ppm

Lambda ... 1.0

Within limits, but I've no idea if these are low or high or OK. Any advice, or is there a thread on these subjects?

Hi and welcome, piledriver!

We are a few members here that once learnt the "points and carb" lessons and, just like you, are a bit scared or puzzled when it comes to fuel injection, ECU, sensors and so on. With a Felicia you can at least find the engine when you open the bonnet, that's something!

In Sweden your emission results would be withint the limits with sufficient margins (although I don't know if the measure is made under different conditions so might not be possible to compare). But if no one answers here, post the question in the Felicia section. Questions in this section might sometimes get unattended.

You had a Morris Minor!!!

I saw a nice well kept one ages ago with an attractive female driver.

My uncle and cousin had one.

About the Felicia (is your the pre facelift or one afterwards with a nice grill on the front and square headlights.

1st thing is get the estate changed to hatch on the covernote. When i got mine the insurance company listed it as an SLXi but they changed it to GLXi for free.

The Felicia is a modern car but looking after one is realy easy and not that scary at all as it doesn't have to many electrical gubbins.

All the fluids are there easy to check and top up.

Skoda dealers sell parts at reasonable prices (my local dealer does) and you can find some parts on Ebay for bargain prices if you know what to look for.

And if you know a good mechanic then repair/maintenance costs aren't too high

Getting my car serviced cost me £40 in total for oil and parts. Admittedly some dealer prices comes to that much but I know the guy and he does look after my car well.

Thanks people

1.0 is correct for Lambda. That's the job of the Lambda sensor, to keep the air-fuel mixture correct and avoid unburnt fuel getting into the cat and destroying it. It's when it can't manage 1.0 you need to worry

The rest sounds pretty good too.

Welcome from another Moggy owner. I'm afraid that I gave up trying to do anything other than basic maintenance on my Octavia as everythings a bit more electrical / computer based ... and has lousy access compared to the MM

You will enjoy some of the creature comforts of a more modern car - i.e.

- having wipers that are actually fast enough to get heavy rain off the windscreen;

- not having to hand pump the windscreen washers;

- a heater that actually has power;

- not permanently worrying about the dynamo, battery charging etc;

- not worrying about rust in sills, crossmembers, wings and boot lids;

- brakes that really bite.

the negatives will be:

- no quarter lights for ventilation etc - still think they were great

- being part of the rat-run of modern car owners

- no starting handle for when the battery is flat.

Anyway, the best thing to do is get the modern car for sensible day-to-day motoring and also keep a moggy for a bit of fun