Car advise
 

I like both of these but am unsure what they are like as every day cars. Any other suggestions? I was previously after a Volvo S40 but have decided to scale down my budget to 5k max.
Im not too bothered if diesel or petrol as long as i can average about 35mpg on a 75mph run, and have at least a little bit of go in it.
Obviously 50+ mpg would be nice but diesels always cost more.

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk...leRegLetter=04

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk...leRegLetter=04

Cheers

O and i don't want an estate or a super mini. Focus size is decent but i would like a bigger boot.

both are good cars, one got more room but less mpg than the other.

As a side note, in my Chrysler Voyager, on a motorway, cruising at 75-80, I can easily average 35mpg....

I was siding towards the Octavia as they are a bigger car and bigger cars generally have better components, plus it's faster for when i get bored. I drive a Focus at the moment and it's very uncomfortable for me so i think a bigger car would have better seat position and ride comfort.

only way to find out, is to test drive both models, and it isn't a given that the bigger car has a better driving position.

I would of thought the Fabia would be rather rapid too though.

depends on what you like Southwell TBH
Octavia will be more comfortable and better drive on long journeys i would imagine but also should get 35+ mpg out of it ?

i have the same engine as the Fabia in mine and on my way to work which is 40 miles down the M6 everyday i average around 54mpg and thats stuck in traffic also which uses more ? but its a smaller car the the Octavia ? i perfer the bigger car personally which is why i chose the Passat i have at the moment bigger car and more MPG :thumbsup:

You can remap both car pretty easily to give you a bit increase in power. :woot:

Ive looked at the passats but it somehow seems bigger to me than the octavia? My mrs hated my mondeo as she found it too difficult to park it lol.
I saw a 2004 passat in black, 60k, full leather, auto :yawn:, 2.3 v5 for 4k the other day. The inside was really nice and very comfortable, not sure what kind of mpg you'd get out of a car like that though haha.

They gave me a fabia as a courtesy car a few months ago, I didn’t like the way it handled, it wallowed in a bed and the seats where pore and didn’t support you, the dash is plastic cheap looking and it looks very dated.

Road noise was high as well with the diesel

Engine gave good MPH ,I killed it and it still read over 40mpg – it was much more pokier than the Ibiza sport they gave me a week later.

I’m sure you know Scoda come under the VW group and the white dove dealership- my last service was 180

I think thumbs harris has the Octavia . see what he says

My Dad's had both the Mk1 Octavia vRS from new and followed it up with the Mk2 Octavia vRS - Both were good cars.

The Boot on the Octavia is huge, seriously mahooooosive so great for racing etc. Visibility isn't great out of the rear window due to the angle of it, but then a lot of them will have parking sensors so i'm sure the other half will cope fine with it!

The 1.8T is a great lump, coil packs were about the only common failure a few years ago but they were all replaced under warranty with a revised part so shouldn't be an issue. They go well and will average around 32mpg with average A & B road driving, on a motorway you'll get 35+ depending on speed, at 75mph i'd think around 37-38mpg easily! The brakes are straight from the TT and are suberb.

The Fabia is a great car but they are pretty small mate, i think you'd struggle to get all your gear in one let alone being 6ft+ tall haha.

The Rs is way better then the standard cars as it has big brakes, sports seats and suspension so don't worry about the handling...

Personally i'd go for the Octavia - so comfortable and a decent size car - bargain car for that money to be honest.

Either can be remapped, you'll easily get from 130bhp to around 170/180 on the Fabia, but the clutch can become a weak point with the increased torque too so be wary of that. With the 1.8t you'd get 210bhp comfortably without needing to upgrade the interooler but to be honest i think you'd find it good as standard!

Thanks for that Nick. I guess the next step is finding one close by to test drive. There don't seem any near here at the moment so it may be a trip to see one.

Yeah maybe even speak to Ashmore Green Skoda in Newbury, they usually have a few and won't mind you testing one i'm sure!

This one is close by, and damn cheap too!

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/874453.htm

Thats pretty good actually. Only thing is i really need to trade it in as i think the clutch might be going and i don't want anyone coming back at me, but at the same time i don't want to reduce the price for it. It doesn't slip just makes a squarking noise if you change too vigorously.

Passat 1.9TDi 50+ mpg :thumbsup: or Skoda version

You can retro fit cruise control to the column @ a dealers. They have to enable ecu to make it work. Got mine done for £129. Same column on Skoda's also ;)

I tell a lie it was £126.50

Fabia everytime, these cars are awsome!! loads of fun, tuneable, reliable and you get a lot for your money.
I am an Ex VW tech of 7 years then went to Skoda as Senior tech, i pretty much know these inside out.
The engine is straight out of a Golf GT TDi, in my opinion the best deisel engine ever made!! The same technology that took Audi to victory a few years back at Le Mans!! absolutaly bullet proof (as long as regular servicing is adheared to). It is actually a de-tuned version of the 150 bhp Mk4 Golf Aniversary engine (just a smaller intercooler and different Mapping) you wont see less than 38 - 40 mpg, even if you thrash it!!

The Fabia is 'multiplexed' basically the electrics are digital, unlike the Octavia wich only uses some multiplexing the fabia is around 90% digital, the Octavia still uses 12v switching relays the Fabia has computerised 5v digital pulses wich means they can be much more precise and controled.

The Fabia's handling i think is quite good, well balanced and quite stiff, just look how far Skoda WRC got when they ditched the Octavia and put the Fabia on the stages!! I think the Octavia, allthough still a great car is a bit wollowy in comparison, if i was off for a thrash down the lanes of the twothe Fabia wins hands down...the only down side is that the deisel only revs to just over 5k i think, wich makes it a bit of a different driving experiance, the 6 cogs and torque that could pull the QE 2 into dry dock makes up for it tho!!

If your not too fussed about having a small car then go for the Fabia,
the Octavia is old technology in comparison, you will see what i mean when you drive them!!
Its defo a modern classic....

Paul....:thumbsup:

I you found the C-max a very comfortable car. I,ve got four torn discs in my back and neck but can honestly say its the most comfortable car I have ever driven in fact its mysecond C-max. This time I opted for the 2.0lt ghia TDCI. Massive improvement on my old 1.8 petrol zetec 30-34 mpg. Being the diesel I get 40-45 mpg in every day driving over 200 per week town and general run about. When I go to see my son in Cardiff university mostly A roads and then the M4 and a crawl through Cardiff for a 300 mile round trip I still get 50-53 mpg and thats not taking it easy. Its got much better acceleration than the zetec it does 60 in 9 seconds, and had loads of torque for very easy overtaking at any speed. The boot is huge. Its well worth a test drive at least its a much nicer car than the focus. IF you opt for the 1.6 or1.8 TDCI you would get better mpg but less performance

Thats really good actually, it's at least one criteria i dont have to look for in a car.

Cheers.

Very comprehensive, thanks very much. The mrs wants the Fabia so i will have to see how big the boot is, etc. Head room isn't an issue, ive sat in one before and it's been fine. Do you know if you can get offical armrests for them or is it an aftermarket jobbie?

If i decided to get it mapped will i need to change the intercooler or is the standard one enough? Ive read people getting almost 200bhp as std. It's not like i continuously trash my cars, but when i get bored it's nice just to have some power there. :p

Cheers for you help.

Isn't the C-mac a mini mpv? Im not sure im ready for that. :woot:

They call the C-max a mini mpv 5 seater
10.4cm higher than the fabia
33.3cm longer
17.9cm wider

O right, so not that big. Ill have a look into them, cheers.

As far as i know you cant get OEM arm rests for them, however i left Skoda a while back so things may have changed get on http://briskoda.net and ask the question, its a wealth of knowledge.

As for power to get 200bhp from it i think you would defo need to uprate things engine wise, you can get a plug and play box that will take it to 150bhp straight away, just unplug the loom from the side of the head, plug the box 'in-line' plug it back in an away you go with an extra 20 gee gee's:woot::woot:.
to be honest i think you will be amazed by how much power this little car has, you probly wont need any more, it really does rip your hands off the wheel when you bury your foot....

let me know how you get on...always happy to help

Paul...:thumbsup:

Have you looked at the Fabia estate? Look a bit odd, but unbelievable space for the size of car. I think the top model comes with cruise.

I have a VRS Octavia and IMO it's the best car i've owned.. Plenty of room nice interior and a great car to drive. The boot's are massive even bigger then the Vectra C i also have
On a long run it will happily do 35mpg at around 75mpg I tend to average 32mpg inc town and motorways..plus it give on average 2mpg more use tesco 99 or optimax

Theres no chance the mrs will want an estate. I prefere the octy myself, it's not overly big, more for your money etc. She doesn't really care about room as she doesn't need a big boot, but i do, so i think i might put my foot down. I think she needs to see them both, then ill push her into what i want. :lol:

Just tell her the fabia is the preferred car for women over 60 that,ll do the trick, no woman wants to be seen as a rocking granny

Then duck? :woot:

Right well ive found a car i like, just needs the mrs' sign off on Thursday. Its a Mazda 6 2.0D Sport 2006 55k, £6850, which seems cheap for a main dealer. :thumbsup:

http://www.nextcar.com.au/i.mazda.6....ront.05aug.jpg

In the words of Louis Walsh

"I like it" :thumbsup:

Being the owner of a Leon Cupra, I'd go for the Octavia VRs MK1. Great car and engine.

Also great when remapped. Have a look at www.jkm.org.uk as they do some good servicing and have a nice rolling road :)

I'm aiming for a one of the following next
VW R32
Audi S4
E46 M3

Yuss, tiz a nice looking motor and plenty of kit for the money, even better if it's the 136PS one (there are 2 flavours of 2.0D but I forget what the lower power one is, think its about 118PS). Big boot too, and looks better than an Octy any day. Not quite sure why they dump so much money but they seem to shed value faster than anything this side of a Vectra. Odd that. The only thing all the mags agree on is that they can be a bit noisey. That's odd too 'cos I've driven one and it seemed really good which just goes to prove car journo's spend too much time poncing about in free posh wheels and not enough time trying to persuade a shagged out £1k dog-end motor to start on a damp Monday morning :p.

It's the 143BHP one. :thumbsup:

The price is about 1-1.5k under priced as it was a trade in. It's absolutely immaculate, looks like the thing was use with all the covers on the seats and the dash/console is mint too.

I wanted an octy but i'd be looking at higher tax, fuel, insurance, etc.

Right now the trade is on it's arse and it's a total buyers market - even though you'll get several salesmen telling you otherwise (umm, mainly Skoda, VW, Audi and BMW) - so go for it if it's what you want. Prices are definately going to start hardening later this year when the quantity of decent stock starts to dry up as companies start extending leases rather than chopping fleets in, it always happens when we go into a recession (oops forgot, we're not supposed to say the R word, feels like the feckin Harry Potter / Voldemort thing).

Yeah, my car is about £2600 trade in, max. Im going to offer £3k on top of the trade in, if they arn't close then ill walk away.

Heck you can do that with an Audi TT.

It all depends on what you want, you just have to search for it and you will find. I wanted a car I could make some money, if not beark even when I sold it. Heck I found a rare (one of 60 in europe) Lexus Soarers GT Limited 4 ltre v8 for £3k and was imaculate inside and out with all the options, and was told it was most probably the best one around. When I sold it I made a £7K profit. :drool:

Well they have offered 2550 for my car, theirs is 6850, so there is a balance of £4300.
I got a years warrenty instead of 6 months (their cockup) and 6 months tax. I didn't want to pay more than 3k of the balance, but their never going to find £1300. So i said if you can't get close to £3400 then i wont be buying, just waiting on the call now. I was prepared to pay £4k but they offered more for the focus than i expected, so my max is £3500 now :thumbsup:

End of the month too Ian, im sure they will want the extra sale, Good luck :thumbsup:

Deal done, pickup next week :thumbsup:

I had to go up a bit, but my Focus is due, tax, mot, service, etc this month so i wanted to get rid before i had to get them done. I figured paying a bit more will be the same thing, overall am very happy. :D Now, who can remap it? :lol:

:thumbsup: