Hi

I own a black Fabia vRS - bought in February 2005 - on a 55 plate (I should of waited a month for an 06 - I know this now ). So far I've done 15000 miles and had the oil changed twice and had it fully Skoda serviced once.

I have modified the engine with a custom remap to approx 180bhp (which I can easily change back to standard if advised as I have the AMD One Click programmer with the original firmware on it). No other mods apart from the Audi TT brakes and RS8 style wheels (I still have the original wheels though).

The question I'd like to ask is - when is the the best time for me to sell it, bearing in mind mileage and manufacturers warranty etc and should I put it back to standard bhp and with standard wheels?

So far it's given me no problems at all apart from the odd pulling to the left which I've managed to reduce now.

I love the car though and I'm also considering just running it for another 5 or 6 years (when obviously it won't be worth much) as I can't see another car on the market that is as fun, economical and cheap to insure as this version of the Fabia. I was considering the new Fabia vRS in 08 but I'm not sure I actually like the look of the new Fabia....

I don't know what to do.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

giblet

Unless you can find a buyer who is willing to pay extra for the mods, I'd personally take them off and sell them separately ... although I'm not sure how much the AMD is worth to anyone else as I believe it will need coding to their car!

In terms of selling, it's low mileage which will be appealing to a buyer and I think the more warranty it has the better, as this will put the buyer's mind at ease should anything go wrong. One thing to consider is that after Christmas most people are broke so if you advertise now you might not get many bites.

Another thing to consider is that because you can't buy the vRS at the moment, you might find that a dealer will give you a decent price cash price if he has buyers on the lookout and thinks he can shift it. Worth a try

The Grande Punto may be worth a look as a replacement - it has a strong spec, 130bhp engine that can easily be remapped and is only insurance group 6 IIRC.....

Or you could just keep it!

Chris

buy a GP sporting

*ducks the people about to call for his head, and boot him of briskoda! :P

Set it back to standard. I tried to sell a sweet VRS with some nice mods and no-one wanted to know.

BTW the One Click is worth nothing. It's £350+vat to have it transfered to another car and to be honest the generic map on them is carp.

I was considering the new Fabia vRS in 08 but I'm not sure I actually like the look of the new Fabia....

Neither do Skoda for a VRS :rofl:

You may never see it....

Could get a Fiesta ST...

:sofahide:

I did have something sensible to say. I do 20k+ miles a year and my policy at the moment is to buy a 1-2 year old motor every two years or so. This is expensive (and by no means essential) but it's my money! If you are thinking about the keep or sell question one important cosideration could be maintenance costs. I changed my last Fabia when it had done about 59k miles, at which point it was coming up for an annual service, a timing belt change and would have needed two front tyres and new brakes in the near future. I didn't SAVE money by changing the car, but I'm better off than I would have been if I'd had all that work done and changed the car six months later. Of course if I had been prepared to run the car for another couple of years, different story.

Could get a Fiesta ST...

:sofahide:

I did have something sensible to say. I do 20k+ miles a year and my policy at the moment is to buy a 1-2 year old motor every two years or so. This is expensive (and by no means essential) but it's my money! If you are thinking about the keep or sell question one important cosideration could be maintenance costs. I changed my last Fabia when it had done about 59k miles, at which point it was coming up for an annual service, a timing belt change and would have needed two front tyres and new brakes in the near future. I didn't SAVE money by changing the car, but I'm better off than I would have been if I'd had all that work done and changed the car six months later. Of course if I had been prepared to run the car for another couple of years, different story.

mmm, I did similar, mine was comming up for its 80k service... cambelt, big service (not oil change) rear brakes (discs and pads) and brake fluid..... the money I would have spent on the service (every 10k for the vRS) paid for the new car for 3 months! :eek: and I now have 18k service intervals.... so Ideal time to change for me..... but everyones circumstances are different....

Thanks for your comments.

I just did some preliminary research and 55s with 18K milesage are going for around £9500.

I bought the car for £10,450 from Autofinders: Skoda Fabia

I'm amazed how well these cars are holding their value...

As for the Fiat Punto Sporting - they must have changed a lot for you to recommend them... (I owned three back in the days and they were like sitting in a tin can). However - the prices for new are actually incredibly good value - New FIAT Grande Sporting Prices - Compare FIAT Grande Sporting Price Discounts the cheapest new being £9,849!

I'm seriously going to have a look at one.

Cheers

giblet

Thanks for your comments.

I just did some preliminary research and 55s with 18K milesage are going for around £9500.

I bought the car for £10,450 from Autofinders: Skoda Fabia

I'm amazed how well these cars are holding their value...

As for the Fiat Punto Sporting - they must have changed a lot for you to recommend them... (I owned three back in the days and they were like sitting in a tin can). However - the prices for new are actually incredibly good value - New FIAT Grande Sporting Prices - Compare FIAT Grande Sporting Price Discounts the cheapest new being £9,849!

I'm seriously going to have a look at one.

Cheers

giblet

Having test driven the GP last week, IMO the Sporting with the 1.4 multi-jet petrol is just so under powered as to make it a complete non-starter for someone changing from a Fabia vRS. Also, the interior has a swathe of light blueish plastic across the dash that looks like a piece of 70's Fablon - awful.

On the plus side; the car looks great (test car was RED) and perhaps with the diesel engine it would suffice - hope the Fablon isn't common to both petrol and diesel; suspect it will be though.

Having test driven the GP last week, IMO the Sporting with the 1.4 multi-jet petrol is just so under powered as to make it a complete non-starter for someone changing from a Fabia vRS. Also, the interior has a swathe of light blueish plastic across the dash that looks like a piece of 70's Fablon - awful.

On the plus side; the car looks great (test car was RED) and perhaps with the diesel engine it would suffice - hope the Fablon isn't common to both petrol and diesel; suspect it will be though.

My diesel version keeps up with remapped fabias ok

the 1.4 petrol is only 120 bhp though........ if you drove the 1.4 non-turbo, you're talking 75 bhp!

Just been down to Fiat and booked a test drive next week. I agree - that Fablon type plastic is dodgy, and it is in the diesel version... nasty.

Still - I've configured a 1.9 version with leather seats, subwoofer and tinted windows in ambient white - delivered £10,650.

I think thats excellent value for money.

Still - I'll decide properly after I've test driven one.

Cheers

giblet

giblet, you like and enjoy the VRS, it has proven itself reliable and dependable in use, its cheap to insure and holding its value exceptionally well. Sounds like you are onto a winner on most fronts, so why change?

Looking forward, if you decide to continue running it beyond the Skoda warranty, with the help of the knowledgeable people on this site, you can cut future running costs by finding a decent independent garage / mechanic to keep the car on the road for you.

IMHO, why change a known good car for a leap in the dark with a newer / different car?

Just my 2p worth.

Why would anyone want a FIAT ?

They depreciate faster than anything else on the market,including French motors.As for spares prices and availabilty........

Mathepac, I was thinking just the same... I'll see how the Punto drives, but really I think you could be right.

The Fabia vRS is really excellent and I do love the look on drivers faces when I dissappear in a puff of soot ;0

Why would anyone want a FIAT ?

They depreciate faster than anything else on the market,including French motors.As for spares prices and availabilty........

I have had both and out of the VRS and the Punto JTD I still own the Punto.

I have found it to be cheap, reliable, quick and what parts I have needed have been far cheaper than the parts I needed for the VRS. They is no issue with availability especially as you can buy a lot of them on line if you need to and the dealers seem to be a little more "knowledgeable" about the cars technically than any Vag dealer I have delt with.

If another one fitted my needs, I would consider one no problem.

having owned both a vRS and an old punto JTD, i can say the GP will be a winner, my old JTD was the mk2 (80bhp) which i had remapped along with some other bits to 140bhp, with it weighing something in the region of 1050kg (or under a tonne in my stripped out slag) it doesnt half fly, it would see of my vRS in a straight line but it handled like a tin of sardines lol, i give a 10/10 for Fiats diesel engines

go for the GP if you like the test drive

Has anyone had any experience of the Corsa 1.7 CTDi 125 SRI? on paper it looks quite a competitive piece of kit.

having owned both a vRS and an old punto JTD, i can say the GP will be a winner, my old JTD was the mk2 (80bhp) which i had remapped along with some other bits to 140bhp, with it weighing something in the region of 1050kg (or under a tonne in my stripped out slag) it doesnt half fly, it would see of my vRS in a straight line but it handled like a tin of sardines lol, i give a 10/10 for Fiats diesel engines

go for the GP if you like the test drive

Bet that ate the clutch! No upgrade for the JTD clutch either :(

I found the handling improved loads when I fitted new control arms on the front (Mine has done nearly 80k) £40 each delivered and they included the bushes, ball joints and arms.

Why would anyone want a FIAT ?

They depreciate faster than anything else on the market,including French motors.As for spares prices and availabilty........

hhhmmmm I ran my fabia for two years 80k and it wasn't worth what I owed on the finance at the end, ( i owed £6,500 and it was £5k trade in!) so I went for "voluntary termination" of my finance, and the car went to auction....

after two years in the fiat, I will owe about £4k after two years, and it should be worth £5-£6 k by then.... so better than the vRS was....

continuing with the money issue, 18,000 miles service intervals, and group 6 insurance, and cambelt changes at 90k, make it even better value.....

spares no problem, I''ve had drop links, and a door handle replaced under warrenty so far, I may need a wheel bearing in the near future, but after 28k, its no worse than the skoda was.... my vRS needed a gearbox, mounting frame, and driveshafts after 40k..... lets see if the fiat does any better!! :P

especially considering I paid £11k for mine.... and the current fabia 2 1.9 105bhp is about £12k..... hhhmmmmm

Has anyone had any experience of the Corsa 1.7 CTDi 125 SRI? on paper it looks quite a competitive piece of kit.

looks good on paper... never driven one though.... shares some parts with the GP (I have a vauxhall power steering pump!) like the platform, vauxhall use fiats 1.3 jtd too (the one thats £35 a year to tax!)

have a test drive and let us know!

I may well have bought another vRS if they had one now, but they dont, and the "expected" price may put it in the terratory of much more expensive hot hatches... the new ones seem expensive.....

Bet that ate the clutch! No upgrade for the JTD clutch either :(

I found the handling improved loads when I fitted new control arms on the front (Mine has done nearly 80k) £40 each delivered and they included the bushes, ball joints and arms.

sounds like a bargain to me

yeah thats the only problem, i found a "supposedly" uprated clutch on an italian website, the name escapes me it was a while back, but on close inspection it seemed rather suspect.

theres always the idea of shoving the ducato clutch in there, dont know if its ever been done though. but thats the only bad thing about the JTD, after a few weeks i started to get slippage :(

looks good on paper... never driven one though.... shares some parts with the GP (I have a vauxhall power steering pump!)

Apparently there is a recall out on the Corsa D for "safety reasons due to a potential steering problems". No idea on details or if it affects you though.......

Chris

Apparently there is a recall out on the Corsa D for "safety reasons due to a potential steering problems". No idea on details or if it affects you though.......

Chris

I think its just the basics that are shared, like the "print" for a wishbone ect, all the handling developments (suspension, steering ect) are done "in house", there hasn't been a recall on the GP yet..... (although there were three software updates for the blue & me system! bloody microsoft! at least they'd sorted it by the time I bought mine)

I remember there being a recall on the corsa because it used to randomly set on fire on peoples driveways!! :eek: something to do with water leaking into the electrical system IIRC.......