Newbie alert!

I'm trying to buy my first Skoda and am considering this Felicia GLXi 1.6 on eBay. As I'm not sure what to look out for I read the excellent Felicia buying guide on this site and noticed the range of Felicia engines listed. The only one in the list to mention 'MPi' in its name was the 1.3 but this car appears, from the pictures, to have one with MPi on (its difficult to see whether the engine number in the picture is 1.3 or 1.6). I am therefore worried that there is a mismatch between the car's description and the pictures.

Can anyone confirm whether the 1.6 is a VW engine that does have MPi written on it?

Secondly the auction ends before I will have a chance to get to see it. I know its foolhardy buying in this way but if any of you kind souls have a minute to look at the ad and feed back any glaring problems that you notice, I would be incredibly grateful.

Ive had a look and it is deffo a 1.6, i dont think it will have heated mirrors, but they are electric, check the struts for signs of corrosion around the botton cups. Overall it looks ok but it is not as it says , a polo in a different shell, it is basicaly a rounded off favorit with a 1.6 and a few bits out of the vw parts bin

yeah it's deffo a 1.6 and it has power steering too

as a guide, i paid £255 for mine on an R plate

That looks like mine - sort of

The engine cover on my Felly has 1.6MPI and made in Germany

Jacks and wheel braces should be easily sourceable.

Usual checks like fluids are standard

Check the front shock absorbers, warm the car up and it shouldnt overheat.

Also you can check the MOT history online.

Belt changes should be done every 60k miles.

I'd def say examine and test drive it.

Mines been reliable. Apart from overheating last year, needing a new clutch and shocks this year.

Easy and good to drive. Cheapish to buy and run (I can get up to 42mpg) and tax is £185.

i payed £920 for an S-reg 1.6 GLXi in pink with 38000 in it.

i also bid blind as the car was 200 miles away.

i ended up with a very good solid car. the trick is to only bid if it has lots of info on the sale. that way if its miss advertised in any way, you can walk away (sounds harsh, but you only walk if they have genuinely mis sold you the car)

good luck.

Thanks for all the advice, folks. Sadly I pulled away from the auction at the last minute (which closed at £407 but hadn't made the reserve) as it helped me realise that I really want a Favorit instead. My quest continues...

Theres a few good Favorits around.

Yeah unless I end up significantly richer I'd like a low mileage Favorit to replace my current favorit, and they seem to come up surprisingly often, wonder if there'll be any left when I'm after one. As they're pretty similar to the felicia they share many of the same problems.

I've spotted a few Favorits on the road.

And the Favorits/Felicias well kept ones will eat the miles for years to come.

I like the modern Skodas but dont like the computer controlling everything.

Damn, I made the mistake of inspecting and test driving a Favorit. Wow they're good, that's such a lovely engine (the ..iE). I think I could be hooked...

Right, I just couldn't resist. Thread continues here as its still very much an introduction to Skoda for me:

http://briskoda.net/forums/introduce-yourself-first-time-visitors-say-hello-here/i-can-see-happening/110345/2/#post1283097