Hello

Mark Pinder · 20-08-2005, 22:20

Hello. It seems I have to say hello here which seems very friendly.
I take possesion of a shiny new Fabia VRS on the 2/9. I've never bought a new car before, generally either never having the means, or being ideologically opposed to the idea. I had absolutely no plans to buy a new car at this time, but I was going past a Skoda shop a couple of weeks ago with an hour to spare and thought i'd go and waste someones time with a test drive for the fun of it. I have been driving a fairly old Audi A6 tdi/90 estate which I have been very happy with, but the Skoda took me back to the couple of Mark 2 Golf GTD's I had previously owned, (the first a left hand drive one I bought from the daughter of a a German driving instructor and the last one owned until 18 months ago when someone rather considerately drove into my rear). The Golf GTD was a rarity in this country, (80hp on the intercooled version), with only 1400 ever being imported, but they were far faster and torqueier than the power figures suggested. I recently got into a GTD taxi on a trip to Tbilisi only to realise how much I missed them. The VRS is the first car I have sinced driven which came close to the GTD experience, (and some), so I just had to have one.
http://www.britishpressphoto.org/markpinder/index.html

Skodacious · 20-08-2005, 22:21

Welcome to Briskoda! Hope you enjoy your new car

**tfboy** · 20-08-2005, 23:44

Welcome Mark.

Unfortunately, you're not the first to fall into Skoda's evil plans of buying a fabia vrs.

Everyone who posts on Briskoda saying they testdrove one ended up buying one

Good decision though

lfc958 · 21-08-2005, 11:15

Mark Welcome to the site

See you are a press photographer, Hope you can get all your gear into the Furby ?

ChrisRs · 21-08-2005, 11:23

Welcome Mark. I get mine the day before. We shall have to share our thoughts that weekend !! Hope the day is a good one

Mark Pinder · 30-08-2005, 19:36

Many thanks for the welcome chaps, this is friendly!!
One thing I forgot to mention in my introductory message was that Skoda ownership is not actually new to me. I had a 120L about 10 or 11 years ago. It cost me £130 with 9 months MOT from 'one lady driver' who probably hadn't changed the oil or plugs in 60000 miles and had piston/bore wear that meant the thing used as much oil as petrol!! Replaced it 2 days before the MOT ran out with an Audi 80 sport, (8 valve 1.8 engine as fitted to the mk2 Golf GTI but only half the price) which cost me £430 after the guy selling it gave me.......£130 for the Skoda as 'something to have a play with'. Actually the old Skoda's weren't as bad as the jokes made out. Unreliable, sure. But when the thing did break down, 5 minutes fumbling around in the back with string and electricians tape to replace linkages or tie things up usually did the trick. The dashboards were wonderfully retro, seats very comfy and you could often surprise people in them. Not so much with the speed, but just overtaking was often gloriously good fun as I didn't fit the stereotype of the average Skoda driver at that time, (ie driving innapropriately slowly, but at as speed guaranteed still fast enough to not allow anybody else past whilst at the same time remaining blissfully unaware of anything going on around).
At the severe risk of alienating my new friends already, I think you might find link below amusing, but if you choose never to speak to me again, (especially Steve), i'll undersand ;-)
Only two and a half days to go......I'll post again after the weekend to let you know how it's going, post coitally so to speak.

http://www.phobe.com/furby/

Quote: "Dozens of experiments with trying to unjam and reset and reboot him were unable to restore him to healthy operation. Toh-Loo-Ka was definitely a terminally ill Furby. So we did what any bereaved furby owner would do...we cut him up and took pictures." YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

Johnnyc · 30-08-2005, 21:06

Welcome to Briskoda Mark

***DGW*** · 30-08-2005, 22:59

A belated welcome from me too.

Mark Pinder · 07-09-2005, 22:36

Well, what can I say. I've had the car since Friday and i'm absolutely blown away.

The acceleration for passing slower moving traffic on b roads in 4th is absolutely brilliant and really helps towards the kind of practical speed I want for getting from A to B quickly and with minimum fuss and without having to drive at lunatic speeds for the rest of the journey. As a motorway hill climber it is superb, sprinting up them in 5th and more often 6th often leaving bigger cars behind or at least keeping up with them.

The ride is not what i'd become used to in my Audi A6 estate, (especialy on bad roads), but it's not fair to compare the vrs with a big German luxobarge with it's massive wheelbase and touring suspension. Although levels of equipment in the Furby are still far greater than what I had in an 8 year old Audi. Perhaps the Skoda could be described as a luxospeedboat?

I've done a little over a thousand miles since then, which is not a mileage I usually do in this period but it included getting the car from Derbyshire where I bought it back home to Tyneside and a fair few longish trips to the borders and Teesside. I've brimmed the tank twice, (without venting, and the mpg average has been what I expected, (or maybe a touch less), at 42.5mpg and 44.5 respectively. The trip computer was pretty much bang on with working out the mileage with pen and paper.

I have not gone over 3,000 revs for the first 1000 miles and am now going up to 3,500 regularly for the next thousand. However, I have still been accelerating quite hard up to those revs so hopefully the pistons are bedding in nicely. I am seeing very little smoke from the rear and the oil level has dropped maybe 2mm down the dipstick so oil consumption seems minimal.

I've not done much town driving, but was a little disapointed to see the trip 1 computer drop to the high thirties poodling around Newcastle this afternoon running some errands, but I had only driven 10 miles into town from cold, but then took a blast down to Teesside and back home where it went back up to showing around 45mpg.

There is absolutely nothing I dislike about this car to date, although the learning curve has been quite steep, (largely trying to fathom out the radio and get a conceptual grasp of the trip computer), I keep on coming across subtle details of using the car which never fail to impress. The cabin build quality is great, front legroom is superb and the feel of the solidity and finish is such that I don't even notice that i'm not in the Audi. I have never driven a car that leaves me with so little stress at the end of a drive, and the bad back which I only recently started to have appears to have all but disappeared

I'm an enthusiastic driver who enjoys his cars, (although not to the extent of many on these forums), but at the end of the day it is still just a tool to me, but what a fantastic tool. Practical performance is superb and largely beyond what I am generally comfortable using and the economy looks set to be very promising and well beyond anything I have ever seen in a car previously. This is a seriously well sorted car.

The only down side I have had, is that a lot of other drivers do actually seem to know what this is and either tailgate or try to provoke races, but dropping a cog or two and a quick dab on the juice before pulling over or letting them drop back seems to make the point. I have had people occassionally being just generally horrid to me, (ie not making space when coming off slip roads or closing gaps when overtaking), but I think, (and hope), that this is new car jealousy rather than the badge, although I am thinking of removing the rear vrs badge in any case, so if anybody can give definitive info on the removal of this, it would be appreciated.

As a car in standard form, I think this is pretty unbeatable, althogh in saying that, I have not driven anything younger than 8 years old for a long time in comparison.

And finally, at the risk of sounding like Gwyneth Paltrow, I'd just like to say thanks to Paul at Autofinders, very little wait, great communications, great price and no dealer style patronising bull****. I want to buy a car, I know what I want and I can make up my own mind without having inanities spouted at me, cheers mate.

I just hope that I'm not back on these forums soon bemoaning my smugness!

Love it!

20-08-2005, 22:20	#1
Mark Pinder Briskodian Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: North East England Posts: 19 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Hello Hello. It seems I have to say hello here which seems very friendly. I take possesion of a shiny new Fabia VRS on the 2/9. I've never bought a new car before, generally either never having the means, or being ideologically opposed to the idea. I had absolutely no plans to buy a new car at this time, but I was going past a Skoda shop a couple of weeks ago with an hour to spare and thought i'd go and waste someones time with a test drive for the fun of it. I have been driving a fairly old Audi A6 tdi/90 estate which I have been very happy with, but the Skoda took me back to the couple of Mark 2 Golf GTD's I had previously owned, (the first a left hand drive one I bought from the daughter of a a German driving instructor and the last one owned until 18 months ago when someone rather considerately drove into my rear). The Golf GTD was a rarity in this country, (80hp on the intercooled version), with only 1400 ever being imported, but they were far faster and torqueier than the power figures suggested. I recently got into a GTD taxi on a trip to Tbilisi only to realise how much I missed them. The VRS is the first car I have sinced driven which came close to the GTD experience, (and some), so I just had to have one. http://www.britishpressphoto.org/markpinder/index.html Last edited by Mark Pinder; 20-08-2005 at 23:50.

20-08-2005, 22:21	#2
Skodacious Briskodian Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: East Anglia (Cambridge) Posts: 426 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Welcome to Briskoda! Hope you enjoy your new car __________________ 2004 Skoda Octavia vRS MK1 'The original and best' 2003 Peugeot 206 SW 1.1 LX 'It has a split tailgate!'

20-08-2005, 23:44	#3
tfboy C+ à Paris! Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tilehurst, Berkshire Posts: 6,163 Thanks: 15 Thanked 51 Times in 42 Posts	Welcome Mark. Unfortunately, you're not the first to fall into Skoda's evil plans of buying a fabia vrs. Everyone who posts on Briskoda saying they testdrove one ended up buying one Good decision though __________________ Xavier

21-08-2005, 11:15	#4
lfc958 Hello New Car Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Kent Posts: 4,039 Thanks: 11 Thanked 24 Times in 24 Posts	Mark Welcome to the site See you are a press photographer, Hope you can get all your gear into the Furby ? __________________ Steve Hello 500 Now its here

30-08-2005, 19:36	#6
Mark Pinder Briskodian Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: North East England Posts: 19 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Many thanks for the welcome chaps, this is friendly!! One thing I forgot to mention in my introductory message was that Skoda ownership is not actually new to me. I had a 120L about 10 or 11 years ago. It cost me £130 with 9 months MOT from 'one lady driver' who probably hadn't changed the oil or plugs in 60000 miles and had piston/bore wear that meant the thing used as much oil as petrol!! Replaced it 2 days before the MOT ran out with an Audi 80 sport, (8 valve 1.8 engine as fitted to the mk2 Golf GTI but only half the price) which cost me £430 after the guy selling it gave me.......£130 for the Skoda as 'something to have a play with'. Actually the old Skoda's weren't as bad as the jokes made out. Unreliable, sure. But when the thing did break down, 5 minutes fumbling around in the back with string and electricians tape to replace linkages or tie things up usually did the trick. The dashboards were wonderfully retro, seats very comfy and you could often surprise people in them. Not so much with the speed, but just overtaking was often gloriously good fun as I didn't fit the stereotype of the average Skoda driver at that time, (ie driving innapropriately slowly, but at as speed guaranteed still fast enough to not allow anybody else past whilst at the same time remaining blissfully unaware of anything going on around). At the severe risk of alienating my new friends already, I think you might find link below amusing, but if you choose never to speak to me again, (especially Steve), i'll undersand ;-) Only two and a half days to go......I'll post again after the weekend to let you know how it's going, post coitally so to speak. http://www.phobe.com/furby/ Quote: "Dozens of experiments with trying to unjam and reset and reboot him were unable to restore him to healthy operation. Toh-Loo-Ka was definitely a terminally ill Furby. So we did what any bereaved furby owner would do...we cut him up and took pictures." YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!! Last edited by Mark Pinder; 30-08-2005 at 19:38.

21-08-2005, 11:23	#5
ChrisRs Skonda Fabic Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 4,979 Thanks: 17 Thanked 20 Times in 19 Posts	Welcome Mark. I get mine the day before. We shall have to share our thoughts that weekend !! Hope the day is a good one

30-08-2005, 21:06	#7
Johnnyc Briskodian Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 3,193 Thanks: 0 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts	Welcome to Briskoda Mark __________________ Johnny "Americans have different ways of saying things. They say "elevator", we say "lift" ... they say "President", we say "stupid psychopathic git."

30-08-2005, 22:59	#8
*DGW* BRISKODA Staff Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Cambridgeshire Posts: 17,112 Thanks: 48 Thanked 165 Times in 122 Posts	A belated welcome from me too. __________________ Denis 2002 Octavia 1.8T 4X4 turbo Estate - rebreathed on by Jabba ... 31.93mpg 2007 Fabia vRS - CC, ESP and full leather trim by Seat Surgeons ...48.09 mpg...

07-09-2005, 22:36	#9
Mark Pinder Briskodian Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: North East England Posts: 19 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Well, what can I say. I've had the car since Friday and i'm absolutely blown away. The acceleration for passing slower moving traffic on b roads in 4th is absolutely brilliant and really helps towards the kind of practical speed I want for getting from A to B quickly and with minimum fuss and without having to drive at lunatic speeds for the rest of the journey. As a motorway hill climber it is superb, sprinting up them in 5th and more often 6th often leaving bigger cars behind or at least keeping up with them. The ride is not what i'd become used to in my Audi A6 estate, (especialy on bad roads), but it's not fair to compare the vrs with a big German luxobarge with it's massive wheelbase and touring suspension. Although levels of equipment in the Furby are still far greater than what I had in an 8 year old Audi. Perhaps the Skoda could be described as a luxospeedboat? I've done a little over a thousand miles since then, which is not a mileage I usually do in this period but it included getting the car from Derbyshire where I bought it back home to Tyneside and a fair few longish trips to the borders and Teesside. I've brimmed the tank twice, (without venting, and the mpg average has been what I expected, (or maybe a touch less), at 42.5mpg and 44.5 respectively. The trip computer was pretty much bang on with working out the mileage with pen and paper. I have not gone over 3,000 revs for the first 1000 miles and am now going up to 3,500 regularly for the next thousand. However, I have still been accelerating quite hard up to those revs so hopefully the pistons are bedding in nicely. I am seeing very little smoke from the rear and the oil level has dropped maybe 2mm down the dipstick so oil consumption seems minimal. I've not done much town driving, but was a little disapointed to see the trip 1 computer drop to the high thirties poodling around Newcastle this afternoon running some errands, but I had only driven 10 miles into town from cold, but then took a blast down to Teesside and back home where it went back up to showing around 45mpg. There is absolutely nothing I dislike about this car to date, although the learning curve has been quite steep, (largely trying to fathom out the radio and get a conceptual grasp of the trip computer), I keep on coming across subtle details of using the car which never fail to impress. The cabin build quality is great, front legroom is superb and the feel of the solidity and finish is such that I don't even notice that i'm not in the Audi. I have never driven a car that leaves me with so little stress at the end of a drive, and the bad back which I only recently started to have appears to have all but disappeared I'm an enthusiastic driver who enjoys his cars, (although not to the extent of many on these forums), but at the end of the day it is still just a tool to me, but what a fantastic tool. Practical performance is superb and largely beyond what I am generally comfortable using and the economy looks set to be very promising and well beyond anything I have ever seen in a car previously. This is a seriously well sorted car. The only down side I have had, is that a lot of other drivers do actually seem to know what this is and either tailgate or try to provoke races, but dropping a cog or two and a quick dab on the juice before pulling over or letting them drop back seems to make the point. I have had people occassionally being just generally horrid to me, (ie not making space when coming off slip roads or closing gaps when overtaking), but I think, (and hope), that this is new car jealousy rather than the badge, although I am thinking of removing the rear vrs badge in any case, so if anybody can give definitive info on the removal of this, it would be appreciated. As a car in standard form, I think this is pretty unbeatable, althogh in saying that, I have not driven anything younger than 8 years old for a long time in comparison. And finally, at the risk of sounding like Gwyneth Paltrow, I'd just like to say thanks to Paul at Autofinders, very little wait, great communications, great price and no dealer style patronising bull***. I want to buy a car, I know what I want and I can make up my own mind without having inanities spouted at me, cheers mate. I just hope that I'm not back on these forums soon bemoaning my smugness! Love it! Last edited by Mark Pinder; 07-09-2005 at 22:58.*

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