Brilliant, thanks for the offer

You're 120 miles away, I'll have a think of best way to get up and may take you up on your offer. Thanks again. Great looking car

 

yep they are nice, one of my friends has a clio 200 from new in croatia over 4yrs now, and while its quick for what it is, it's no match for my sti type r running 330bhp and i doubt it would make a dent in my ppp wagon, which is not too shabby running ppp.

They are a nice place to be, but they are thirsty when pushed regularly, and they eat tyres and brake pads, so not only about fuel consumption, then add to that the servicing costs to maintain warranty and they are not cheaper than the wagon i have now, but i do like them but that said i recon a decent one is close to the 6k mark, so again more than i wanted to spend, none of the practicality of my current wagon but all of the cost.

But by all means try one because they are really good at being what they were designed to be, which is a hot hatch, but not quite in the same league as a modded scoob.

 

scooby wins hands down i have a 400+bhp blob sti(get it back tomorrow)

but the clio really does make you smile and chuckle i need to get the wife's on a track
without her knowing

 

Just to note that the Clio 200 came out in 2009, Clio 197 perhaps.

 

not 100% sure which one but he is in europe not the uk and it was available there before it was in uk, its the bigger one with the gap in the front arches, im not up to speed on clio models, but im pretty sure hes had it 4yrs.

 

Mini Cooper S JCW

Or Colt CZT?

Nah, scrub both of those - the Colt's no good on the motorway, and the early Coopers are supercharged and crap on mpg

 

I'm currently headed in the direction of a honda type r, fancy a bit of vvti or what ever they call it.

I had a lexus is200 for a couple of years and really liked it, was a great all-rounder just not very practical after kid and dog came along, not too good on fuel either, but was a nice place to be and could have a bit of fun in it when i was in the mood, it was also fantastic at tooling across europe at high speed which is a major consideration for me, not so much of the high speed part these days, but needs to be able to sit close to a ton for hours on end in relative comfort at ease, while still returning 30+ mpg.

This just gets more and more complicated.

 

currently running a 2003 Saab 9-3 Aero. Hirsch suspension 240bhp auto/paddle shift. It is quite anonymous and good fun to drive especially when i need to push on. I can get 35-40mpg on a run and 25 or so around town. Handles really well and does go when i boot it.

 

Bought this today

Fabia VRS 06 diesel 61K miles, minter. £4.9K

 

That looks nice and shiny, whats your first impressions, stick some more pics up.

 

Hi paul, i've been looking at them and must admit they do look quite nice, and they are a lot of car for the money.

I have only seen 210bhp models so i presume there is some sort of tweek that gets done to them to deliver 240bhp, also whats with the doors some seem to advertise with 4 [5] not too sure what that means.

Can you give me the low down please.

 

The car's been delivered today, fingers crossed. I'll post more stuff up about it soon, but the little test drive was good. Has full good quality leather interior which is comfortable. Everything felt tight, steering input was sharp, and the low down grunt was there...

 

Hirsch remap
9-3 2003 onwards available as a 4dr - huuuuuuuuuuuge boot or a 5dr estate.

 

It's got the wrong wheels on. They are 16" alloys off a 2001 Audi A3 1.8T Sport.

Steve

 

What, they should be 17's?

 

Bit late probably but ...

You can drive a 172 like a total ******* everywhere and return high 20s . motorway you'll see close to 40 at 70ish. they're absolutely hilarious, plenty comfortable and actually effective at low revs due to actually having some torque.

I havent got rid of mine yet and i Will be sad when i do

 

Got the VRS... not quite the one I was going for which fell through (long story of a dealer ****-up), but this banana yellow one



It's a brilliant car. I'm well pleased despite some early niggles (servo vacuum hose cracked). It's an extremely capable car, I've swapped the springs out for some Eibachs, and fitted a rear arb which sharpens the handling up nicely, and while it's not the last word and scooby equivalent on the handling, it more than holds it's own.

It's very nippy, easy to drive and you can drive it like you stole it and get 40mpg, or with the fairy touch and get 55+

It's having a remap today to 170/290Nm)

 

Sweet, i had a bit of a look at them, but a decent one was costing around 3.5/4.5k anything less and they have a gazillion miles on the clock, so a bit too rich for me, i doubt i'd be saving anything at circa 10k miles per year something like that makes no sense for me.

I dont mind a few less mpg if it's only a 2k car and runs on petrol, with diesel being more expensive @circa 50p a gallon more i'd need to be doing a hell of a lot of miles before i eat up the 2k difference in purchase price, probably take around 5yrs to hit break even.

I'm still not convinced by these modern diesels they scare me, think i'll stick to the scoob for a while longer, at least i know how to fix just about everything on them myself, and considering i haven't driven it for almost 3 months, it's fantastic on fuel.

 

*gush alert on* I've been out for a few blasts in the Fabia now, and have to say again it is a brilliant car. OK the looks aren't quite there, but it's not ugly. The interior is plasticy and the seats are just OK. It does feel well put together though. Everyone who has been out in it seems immediately impressed with its eagerness to please. It's like a puppy the more you play with it the more excited it gets

The PD130 is just superb though and the map keeps the almost 400Nm torque pulling and pulling right up to redline (4K lol). The handling is just fine. Not sure what front tyre wear will be like, we'll have to see.

Fuel consumption's quite noticeable at the pump. It's only 40 odd litres to fill and you know you're going to get 4-500+ miles instead of 220 and £75 of V-Power in the Scooby. My wagon's worth the same as the Fabia (which will be up for sale soon), so that's an instant substantial saving. Fabia resale values are staying strong too. The handling, compared to the wagon (which has quite a few mods) is more organic, and I have to say although slightly rock and roll, more fun

.

 

huuuum, sounding good, double the miles at half the price, might have to reassess my thinking on that,and do a few calculations.

So with a rough calculation doing circa 400 per tank thats ish a £2500 a year saving over 10,000 miles, so effectively it pays for itself in less than 2 years.

And even if something major happens it's unlikely to cost 2.5k, choices, choices.

 

Look inside the filler neck on the right hand side and you will see a small **** (for want of a better word), if you push that with the end of the nozzle when you are filling up it vents the expansion tank and you will get towards 55 litres in

 

When looked at like that the Fabia does make good financial sense.

As for mpg I know it's a thing diesel owners seem to brag about... but I went out yesterday to Malvern for a pootle about. Went on the motorway and came back along the roads (~80 miles round trip). MPG read 53.2 when I got home which I quite liked. The other day I went out for a 100 mile hoon and it returned 38, but that was driving with a full lead foot. The Scooby would have returned about 25 and 18 on those two journey's.

Here's a briskoda thread on Fabia owners mpg figures. One owner reckons 775 miles out a tank but most seem to average 48-53mpg

Skoda Fabia vRS


.

 

Aahh, I've heard the expansion tank mentioned, but not heard how to use it, thanks

 

I see 47-50 mpg generally but speeds with 9 in them are used on the daily m-way commute.

 

I see you've got the fairy touch

 

I think i have made my choice for the moment at least, i shall be looking for a diesel MG ZR they can be had for about 1/1.5k do ish 50mpg and with a remap get around 150 bhp and heaps of torque, don't have the VAG issues and are pretty bullet proof, they also look quite nice too.

 

Ditchmyster, what are "the VAG issues" you are referring to?
What's the reliability of the RS like?

 

Injectors, diesel particulate filters, something called a dmf and egr valves, all very expensive fixes and quite common failures, although i have not done the full research on them myself, mostly because decent low ish miles audi's and vw's cost more than i want to spend and service costs are high.

From what iv'e heard most only complain of little niggles on the vrs but again for me at £4k+ for a decent one it's still more than i want to spend, hence the MG similar performance, good handling, look nicer than the vrs and a third of the price, parts are easy to get and very cheap, the engine is old but well proven, though a tad agricultural but still returns 50mpg, but is good for me because i can do all the servicing, and did i mention the looks, the fabia just does nothing for me, and i need to like the way my cars look, otherwise i'll just hate it everytime i walk out the house to get in it, if it's ugly i'll be in a bad mood.

 

Does the ZR not have a dual mass flywheel (DMF) then? Interesting choice there, bit of a left winger but sounds pretty good. 'Tuner's favourite' as they say. I would be worried about going with a Rover due to (my perceived impression anyway) of reliability.

A car dealer mate told me the other day to drive the Fabia like I do the Scooby. Said alot of problems are down to folk driving diesels with the Fairy Touch, milking out mpg

As for looks, the MG wins, but let's face it you don't buy a Fabia because you like how it how it looks. Personally the Furby doesn't do much for me on the looks, but I don't think it's ugly. Great machine though.

Have you actually bought yours?

 

The petrols seem to have the head gasket issues, but saying that i have a 70,000 ish 1.4 25 for the mrs and it's been great thus far, costs next to nothing to service add to that 40mpg, for a cheap runabout very difficult to beat, i tried putting her in nice cars and gave up, she either crashes them or turns them into a skip with wheels.

The rover diesel is considered to be pretty bullet proof as long as you change the cambelt regularly nothing much goes wrong, the odd fuel pump problem and age / wear related stuff as is normal with any car.

The mk2 ZR (up to 06) has a modern/stylish look, all mod cons, abs, vented front disc's, rear discs, a/c ,e/windows,e/mirrors,c/ locking ect.

And the best bit, decat pipe £40 or gutt the cat £0.00 , fit a £20 boost gauge, turn boost up to 19psi and you hit the 130/140 bhp mark, if you want a bit more then fit a back box, air filter and remap for £150 and your above 150bhp and 300Nm, which is not too shabby in a car that weighs nowt.

I have seen them as cheap as £900 on an 04 with 90,000 miles, so cheap as chips as they say, really good ones go for £1200/1700 me likey.

And as for the rover thing, whats the rear screen heater on a skoda for, if you get my drift..