Skodas, these new fangled front engined ones

[garethj]

It makes me laugh when people are nibbling their nails as to whether a car is eco-friendly at the exhaust end but go home and eat a dead cow which has consumed more energy (including dirty tractor exhausts) than Drax on heat. Then they light their open fire. Ha!

I'm embarking on mingebag diesel motoring because it's the equivalent of a £1000 pay rise in a year.  Whilst I'd like this planet to hang around for a while, I don't claim to be saving it with my motoring.

[forddeliveryboy]

I'm embarking on mingebag diesel motoring because it's the equivalent of a £1000 pay rise in a year.  Whilst I'd like this planet to hang around for a while, I don't claim to be saving it with my motoring.

The global warming excuse for tax is just that. But don't forget an internal combustion engine is pretty shit, even if it does sound like a musical instrument. Steam cars from the 1920s will pass the California 2020 emissions rules. We are products of what we know/

 

By the way, if your fuel is solid at ambient temperature then it is, according to HMRC, not liable for duty. Steam cars usually don't need testing, either. But then again, they're not much use on the M62.

 

Never forget that for every £1 you spend, the chances are you need to earn twice that to be able to spend it. The illusion of 10, 20 or 30% tax rate is just that. So save £1,000 a year and immediately you need to earn £2k less.

[inconsistant]

I'm just going to leave these here, then quietly back away from the thread.

 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201306297559542/sort/default/usedcars/fuel-type/diesel/model/200/make/rover/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/postcode/cr69ne/page/2/radius/1500?logcode=p

 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201309028576778/sort/default/usedcars/fuel-type/petrol/engine-size-cars/1-7l_to_1-9l/model/25/make/rover/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/radius/1500/postcode/cr69ne/page/1?logcode=p

 

 

[garethj]

167,000 miles but cheaper for this Octavia

 

I went to see this earlier today.  It had seen a bit of action with the driver's door not really lined up when closed and the cambelt hadn't been changed in 100,000 miles.  That's another £300 straight away.

 

When the engine was running I took off the oil filler cap and it was blowing a gale out of there!

[Hendry]

Yes, 170 are the only ones with the piezo injectors supposedly/apparently/allegedly.

 

Although visit a dealer for a less vague answer....

Fuck that, the nearest half a dozen VW dealers are all Arnie Clarks.

 

Back on topic, a guy at work has a petrol Octavia, obviously not an ex taxi and its quite tidy, well specced too, all round leccy windows, air con etc, don't know what it's like on fuel though, just that tax us a bit pricey. He was saying £140-odd for 6 months, but a petrol is a lot less likely to be in ropey nick owing to it not ferrying several thousands drunk pukey sweaty arsed drunks around for several years.

[Barry Cade]

Try and find an early 1400 Octavia, 40+MPG and cheap tax

[willswitchengage]

I was one to believe the JDPower survey and once bought a 2002 Fabia SDI with about 70K on the clock, don't do the same.

 

Mechanically; the gearbox was shot and it had the classic VAG starter motor gears problem. Being a VAG also, spare parts are very expensive.

 

The interior feels far higher quality than Ford/GM/Japanese, but the plastics used are very fragile and I was constantly snapping bits of trim off, and lots of plastic under "the hood" was held together with cable ties.

 

On the plus side the engines are very smooth and surprisingly powerful, and get excellent fuel economy.

[dollywobbler]

Focus/Mondeo TDDi don't have TDCi's woes of flywheel etc. I certainly don't think buying VAG makes you immune to repair bills.

[garethj]

Focus/Mondeo TDDi don't have TDCi's woes of flywheel etc. I certainly don't think buying VAG makes you immune to repair bills.

Agreed with that, I'll get browsing for the TDDi Fords as well

[garethj]

What an exciting* search.

 

The Passat had been sold, although the bloke wasn't answering his phone for 5 days so that made it quite difficult.

 

The red Skoda was utterly shagged, like it had been owned by a farmer.

 

Pete-M went to see a blue estate for me in St Helens, it was alright but had a boost leak.

 

My offer of the silver estate on ebay was ignored, that's even worse than being rejected.

 

Today I went to see this one

 

It's done 150,000 miles but the service history is full, receipts for everything and it drove quite well, really tight.  I can see why they're popular as taxis which is what the seller told me, he sells most of them to the local taxi firm who take them to 300,000 miles then break them for parts.

 

Their back yard must look like the Skoda equivalent of this

 

It needs the rear window to be repaired; it goes down a bit then sticks, I pick it up on Saturday.  Hopefully reliable if slightly tedious motoring for a grand

[inconsistant]

Well Gareth... Reliable? Tedious? Grand? Or all three?

[garethj]

It's adequate.

 

Needs some cranking over when warm, a poorly sensor somewhere. Otherwise it's alright. It doesn't flow through corners with the aplomb of the 924 funnily enough.

 

But if you want to go to the airport or railway station and have eastern religious charms hanging from the mirror, it's ideal.

[Rocket88]

1.9 tdi, by any chance? I'm a rabid Ocatavia fanboi, but only the old 1.9 lump. Later 2 litre jobbies are not as robust. Eleventy million taxi drivers can't be wrong.........

[garethj]

Yes, it's a 1.9 tdi 110.  I thought it was a 90bhp version and a bit down on power, turns out it's supposed to be 110bhp and therefore about 30bhp down.

 

I've poured some diesel cleaner in the tank, see if it helps free things up.  It worked a treat with the 205 diesel.

[nacho man]

If I remember correctly the air flow meter gives troubles on these and makes them feel sluggish and I had a passat with the 110bhp engine And I think I read up about if they ain't been serviced properly and are never thrashed the vvt turbos start sticking.

[garethj]

It's probably one of those situations where the more you read, the worse it gets.  I'll try the "thrashing it and hoping for the best" remedy first.  Kill or cure

[garethj]

Thrashed it with diesel cleaner in for a week and got 55mpg which is amazing really.  The trip computer said 45mpg, I thought they only told lies optimistically - MY CAR DUZ 80MPG LOLZ but really it does about 35.

 

More careful driving this week looks like 60mpg is within reach and 600+ miles to a tank which makes it even more frugal than the old 205 diesel.

 

It's also got "modern car" features like a courtesy light that stays on until you turn the ignition key.  I've driven old cars for so long in the dark that I just automatically leave the door open so the light is on until I've plugged in my mp3 player.

 

Verdict: Boring but adequate, frugal and reliable.  Don't buy a car like this unless you find yourself very short of cash and time yet need to cover hundreds of miles a week.  I'd much rather have bought an LTI Fairway.

[garethj]

A small update, fuel economy is creeping up.  It did 60mpg, then 63mpg on the last tankful, whichever way you look at it, that's impressive.

 

Last weekend the dials stopped working; speedo, revcounter, fuel gauge and temp gauge.  Apparently a common fault and down to a dry joint somewhere on the circuit board.  Lead free solder isn't as tough as the old tin-lead stuff was.  After a few minutes all gauges came back again so I've made an executive decision to ignore it for the moment.

 

One thing I couldn't ignore was the engine undertray came loose.  Some of the nuts were missing on the side cheeks (more plastic undertray stuff) and a few screws missing from the undertray.  One bit of the plastic had cracked too.

 

I drilled some holes either side of the crack and stitched it back together with cable ties, then found some screws and nuts which were nearly the right size to fit everything back together.

 

I wouldn't have had either of these problems with an Allegro and of course all new cars R shit, but at least the total repair cost of zero is to suit Autoshite tastes.

[Rocket88]

These respond mightily to a performance re-map, £300 will see about 160 bhp. Fuel consumption pretty much unaffected

[oldford]

If you remove the dash fuse (fuse 14 from memory), the gauges will stay OK, the downside is that the display data will be lost and the needles will shake on starting.

[garethj]

I remember reading those "running reports" in Classic & Sportscar magazines, there was always something terminal dropping off when people drove them more than two days a month.  Running report for this Skoda is:

 

It just keeps going.

 

Through the winter it went down to 55mpg, now back up to 60+mpg, wonder if the anti-waxing stuff they add in the winter does that?  It's very dull but has churned through over 10,000 miles so I treated it to a cambelt and waterpump change at 160,000.  I wish I could justify something nicer but with my long commute mpg, reliability and no depreciation are what's required.  This does all of them.

 

It's also got a pretty big boot which is massive when you fold the back seats down.  Even the aircon still blows cold.

 

But I'm a bloke in my early 40s driving a 15 year old grey Skoda, it's not a good definition of my life.  A few months ago there was a Michael Bublé song on the radio and I found myself tapping the steering wheel along to the music

[hairnet]

needs must sportscar can wait

 

chip it until then (they fly)

[garethj]

I do a lot of miles to work, it's about 75 miles a day.  That's certainly my excuse for not realising how quickly tyres go from "yeah, that'll be alright" to "ooooh, I'll just go down to Quick Fit for a reaming"

 

I had a look at the tyres and one front was on the legal limit, the other front wasn't far off.  One rear was the same, and the other rear has a slow puncture and to be honest wouldn't have enough tread after another month.  4 new tyres then.

 

You know that kids game, "I went to the market today and I got a bag of apples."  "I went to the market today and I got a bag of apples and a loaf of bread." "I went to the market today and I got a bag of apples, a loaf of bread and a litre of special brew"  Tyre places play a similar game.

 

"I went to the tyre place today and I got 4 tyres."

"I went to the tyre place today and I got 4 tyres and a set of rear discs & pads."

"I went to the tyre place today and I got 4 tyres, a set of rear discs & pads and a wheel alignment"

 

And so on, and so forth.  They had a deal on Firestone tyres which I thought were better than the usual Chinese ones I get, and they certainly seem to grip better.

 

But it hasn't broken down, the aircon is pleasant in this hot weather (yes, both days) and it doesn't need any of my time or effort to keep going.  It's now done 165,000 miles and whilst every one of them has been dreary, it's pretty good as transport.

[twosmoke300]

For the love of god

 

 

DONT GO TO KWIKFIT

[garethj]

It wasn't them, I would never be that desperate!

 

But lots of places follow their business model

[mat_the_cat]

DONT GO TO KWIKFIT

 

They were the first place who tried to scam me in my motoring life. As a naive and skint 18 year old, I thought it would be a good idea to take it along for their "free brake check" when my Stellar started pulling to one side under braking. Their diagnosis was that new discs, pads and master cylinder were required, and trusting them I paid a 10% deposit for the bits to be ordered in, around £300 plus fitting.

 

It was only when mentioning it to more experienced colleagues at work that I realised it was probably just a sticking caliper, and this was a job I could do myself. Pads and discs were OK but I thought I'd change them anyway. Including a seal kit, that came to around £60 and solved the problem straight away. This was a bit of a turning point for me, as from then on I decided to at least try and fix things myself rather than just doing basic servicing.

 

The amusing part was after I tried to (unsuccessfully) get my deposit back, and telling them they were a bunch of scam artists, I sped off from my parking space and straight into a low bollard and chain fence I didn't spot. Fearing the worse I got out to find no mark on the bumper (at least nothing new I could identify) but the bollard was now sticking out of the ground at an angle of 45 degrees, complete with lump of concrete on the end which had been pulled out of the tarmac! I made my exit pretty sharpish after that, and never returned.

[Lacquer Peel]

I bought a Fabia SDI as a stopgap and it's an adequate transportation device, runs great on veg.

Gareth, are you interested in any bits for your Octavia? I think I'm going to break mine for parts, after a fudged and abortive attempt by me to replace the head gasket.

[garethj]

Some excitement!  The oil service warning came up on the display so it got an oil change, filter change and air filter too.

 

The cigarette lighter stopped working last month and I did the logical thing of finding the fuse, which was fine.  Then taking out the lighter socket and cleaning it up, then checking the power to it - zero volts.  I was just planning on a new wire from fusebox to lighter when I did some internet searching and apparently if the rear window child locks are on, it cuts power to the lighter.

 

Turns out I'd pressed the rear window child lock by accident.  I pressed it again and the lighter worked fine.  That's my kind of repair - 5 minutes and free.

 

As for the rest of the car, it's now passed 170,000 miles and doing fine.  The wiper linkage has a bit of a squeak if I was being picky.  I got a full height fridge freezer in the back last week, the boot is just massive when you fold the seats down.

 

I'd love to move it on and get something else, but as it's probably valued around £600 it's almost not worth selling.