northernlights

Hello,

I'm a soon to be member of the Fabia vRS crowd, come Friday. VERY excited but tonight I have my sensible head on.

Myself & a friend are flying down from the Highlands to Autofinders in Derbyshire, inspecting the car & (hopefully) driving it back up. They are even picking us up from Manchester airport!

All good stuff, but I've never bought a car from a garage before, much less a new one. I'm not that mechanically minded either, past fluid levels & pressures.

So I'd like to know exactly what I'm supposed to be inspecting, for how long & if there's anything special I should be looking out far before I embarrass myself by kicking tyres & confirming the radio works! I can figure out the obvious, levels, pressures, a wheel at each corner & one in the boot. Oh & one to steer with would be nice...

The extras I'm getting are black magic, xenons & heated seats. I know the xenons are set pretty low from the factory, but as Autofinders themselves are not a Skoda Dealership, I'm not expecting them to adjust them, therefore I assume my local dealer will do this for free under warranty? It is a fully warrantied Skoda UK vehicle.

Also, if there are minor niggles, am I right in thinking as long as they are clearly logged at pickup time then these can be rectified under warranty at my local dealer? 450 miles is a long way to come back empty handed Also I don't think I could wait another 2 months!

Also, any recommendations on driving style for a new vRS would be appreciated too, given I want to break it in reasonably gently. (Hence the reason I chose to give it a good motorway run back before it gets to the A roads past Perth & the twisty bits north of Inverness)... Top speeds, revs & things to avoid would be a good start.

Anyway, that's enough for my 1st proper post, I'll leave the incredibly stupid questions until I come back up the road with it. Tar muchly for reading & hopefully replying. Roll on Friday!

Mike

Mr Grumpy

Don't do it in the dark !
Check all paperwork and wording very carefully
Make sure EVERYTHING works
Drive it first before you sign anything
Run it in properly,
Log any complaints at time of pickup,
ENJOY!

__________________
S50 VRS Number Plate for sale..ffs someone must want it....

okeh

By the experince ive had with my new vrs
pop a copied cd into the cd player and see if it is ejected

paxton

check the electric windows..... I wound mine down after taking it bk to the office, and hey presto the n/s window stayed down. How ashamed was i?

then all the comments started "its because you bought a skoda"

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postmanpat

make sure you have the options you payed for. Don't let it get dark before you find out you aint got zennons!

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Postmanpats car Fabia vRS Zennons, ESP, autochanger, 3rd headrest, heated seats, cruise control
SWMBO Octy Mk2 vS maxidot, duel zone wotsit, cruise, parking sensors, 18" alloys

northernlights

Thanks everyone for the comments thus far, keep em coming!

Darkness shouldn't be a problem, we arrive 0900 Friday, unless it's still dark that far South in the Englandshire

You have a point Postman, & set me thinking about the fact all Xenons came with headlight wipers, however after a google image search I'm not so sure, couldn't find one pic with xenons & washers.

I thought this was a legal UK requirement?

Chris_Focus

Hi,

Cars with Xenons (factory fitted) have to have headlight washers but no requirement for wipers!...I think Volvo like to fit mini wipers but cant think of any other manufacturers.

enjoy!

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Chris

Anyone want a 330Ci?

Ex Fabia VRS '04'

Tom_vRS

Xenons will come with washers - identified by a square body coloured cover near the lights on the bumper.

I'd just give the bodywork a good once over, check for scuffs, dents, paint imperfections etc. When you've done it once, do it again, and maybe a third time.

Any faults would be fixed under warranty, but bodywork issues may be more tricky.

Check the alloys haven't been kerbed too.

And remember to fill it with diesel not petrol

The manual recommends varying the engine speed as much as possible while running in, so a motorway run isn't the best idea imho.

Enjoy it, and welcome to Briskoda

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97/R BMW 328i in Boston Green.

tfboy

As well as normal scuff marks, have a good look under the front bumper to make sure it hasn't hit the deck if it came of a transporter

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Xavier

Dave_Fox

Hi Mike

My Fabia came from Autofinders. Its not a dealers/car garage, well wasnt when I picked mine up so if they haven't moved its in a small business park in the middle of nowhere!!!!! Really nice setting though.

Because the cars are pre-reg all the paperwork has already been done at the dealers in Grimsby (I think) so it was pretty much handing over the cheque and getting the keys. We had a chat and went over some of the paperwork aswell.

I had no problems at all

CzechPlease

^^^^^^^^^^VERY important, if you're on the motorway vary revs, and be prepared for some very annoyed other drivers. Speeeeding up, slooooowing down, speeeeeeding up, slooooowing down

Make sure all the doors open. I bought a Scooby, took my friends out for a ride, one couldn't open the rear door to get out! Mildly humorous/annoying.

I'm getting mine in two weeks, already preparing the checklist.

bryand

Here's one:

LIGHTNIN

Thats a pretty cool photo of the headlight washers!

northernlights

All good tips...again thanks lads...why isn't it friday yet? grrrrr! I did notice the rectangular thingies in the photos so that's my mind at rest, cheers!

@ Okeh, I don't know that much about cars but I do know a bit about CD/DVD burning, head over to afterdawn.com for a look see.

I've heard on here that the std Fabia ICE can be suspect, that's as maybe but it's also worth noting that the main (but not the only) reason for ANY assumed working CD player spitting out discs is because the CD is physically faulty (scratches, smudges, greasy fingerprints); or the player just doesn't understand them due to the way they were written.
But I will heed your advice & burn a rough & ready CD, along with a good one, see what happens...

Top tips:

• Use a GOOD CD-R brand
  ie Don't go to tescos or maplins for your blank needs.
  Verbatim are very good & have never created a coaster for me yet.
  
  To illustrate; I left a maplins generic blank on a not very sunny windowsill for 20mins last summer, noticed a lil smudge thing on the top, tried to wipe it off & it was the actual dye peeling & flaking off! The cheap CDs don't have a protective layer over the dye layer.
  
  I've left Verbatims out all day on car dashes etc & they have been fine, (but it's still not advisable). God knows what a flakey dye would do to the inside of your head unit.
  
  
• Burn it as sloooooooow as you can possibly get.
  Slower the better.
  
  
• Use a dedicated CD only writer if possible.
  The general consensus of opinion is that DVD burners make very crappy CD burns in comparison to the dedicated CD rewriters, from the £20 near-disposable no-name jobbers on ebuyer all the way up to the expensive branded ones.
  
  
• Don't set any weird & wonderful options in Nero etc.
  Use the audio CD template & stick to it.
  
  
• NEVER use a CD-RW disc under any circumstances
  They are just not designed for in car/audio use, even if the ICE handbook says they can read them.
  
  
• Don't use any CD-TEXT options.
  Unless your ICE supports it, & even then consider burning without it. (CD text is what makes the head unit display the track name/artist, if supported on the ICE, & has been known to be problematic, especially with CDs that are close to the max capacity of the CD, moreso if the original didn't have CD-text to begin with).
  
  
• DO NOT enable 'overburning'.
  Not only will your ICE probably not be able to read/seek the CD effectively, thus causing skips & jumps; but some older household & portable units won't be able to read them either.
  
  
• Take care of your burnt CDs
  Burnable CDs are a lot more fragile than their pre-recorded brethren & need to be treated as such if you don't wanna be burning them again in a months time. Keep em clean too... Breathing on them & wiping with a cotton t-shirt is perfectly acceptable, dunno about synthetics though.
  Main thing to remember is clean it from the inside edge to the outside edge in sections. NEVER clean it using the 'wax on wax off' technique!
  
  
• Ensure your original isn't protected
  Protected CDs mostly just won't copy, but some seem to insert dropouts (short silent pauses) into the cloned CD.

I've seen several of my friends head units spit the dummy because they ignored the above, yet with the same DVD writer on a 2nd try with a quality CD-R & slowest possible burn, work perfectly.

On the other hand I might just be teachin grannies to suck eggs here & stating the blindingly obvious in which case I'll shut up! Shiny disc make rainbow!

Hope this helps! If you agree with the above feel free to nick it to stick it in any FAQs you may have... If you don't agree I have a suggestion where to stick it! j/k

@Dave, I have nothing but praise for Autofinders thus far, except their order tracking doesn't get updated after you've sent the forms back. Obviously they called anyway. I just hope there's a petrol station nearby, from what I hear with the new 'uns you get just enough to get off the forecourt!

@Tom & CzechPlease: Oh bugger, any other recommendations?
Ah well, it still saves me £200 over transporter costs, £450 @ £1 a mile it was, or let some complete stranger drive it here @ 75p a mile...like I was gonna let that happen lol feck that! MY preciousssss! Me! Me! Me! Mine! Mine! Mine!

@Bryand: Sweet, thanks for that, now I understand! *slaps forehead*

Mike

Chris GB

Hi

In addition to all of the above, you should also be looking for speed cameras. The vRS is a car that feels like it is doing 50 when it is doing 85. I think its the tall gearing that does it.

Chris

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Red Fabia vRS. Gone but not forgotten.

Chilli Red / white Mini Cooper Diesel with dual controls.

Silver 53 MR2. Mods: PPE 4>1 manifold | PPE Mangnaflow high flow cat | Blueflame catback exhaust | Pikey inlet mod | 3.0 Racing Chassis stiffening brace kit | BC Racing fully adjustable coilovers | TF loud. Details here My MR2 Page

northernlights

Hehe, aye I see what yer saying, we're taking my 2nd best bargain of 2006, (best is the furby herself) my Garmin i3 with speed camera POIs, however that's a belt & braces kinda thing I really don't wanna be going much over 70 anyways, my co-driver however is another matter entirely.

I was thinking of rewiring the heated drivers seat to administer a shock if he goes over 75, you think I could get that done at the dealers?

Dave_Fox

Dont worry there was a petrol station about 2 minutes drive away

northernlights

Just got back home safe & sound from our trip to the Shire, got up at 4 30am to catch a flight from Inverness!

Just wanna say OMG! I know it's been a short relationship so far, but I love her to bits already.

I'll not ask stupid questions as I'm too tired today.

I'll not post pics as she needs a wash & I'm sure you've seen stock vRSs before.

One thing I would say is that she had new shoes, Bridgestone Turanzas to be precise. An unexpected bonus according to my co-driver.

Anyway, I'm off to go dream some diesel fumed dreams, it's been a long day & I have a car to wash tomorrow!