Mini Review :- Skoda Felicia (X reg)

I've always wanted a Felicia 'Fun'. But I'd also want a 1.8T conversion.

I'm told it's possible if you have enough money / not enough sense.

Been done. I think Awesome GTI did one, as have several other VAG shops. Easier with the fun starting off with the VAG 1.6 engine, instead of the skoda 1.3.

Unfortunatley it is also the last real skoda, when they designed them without needing VAG approval and having to use all parts from the VAG bin.

Brakes/suspension/wheels were standardised to polo fitment, but the body/pan was restyled favorit.

They still have no value which makes them prime bangernomics cars. If I could find a decent very late L&K spec in black with dark leather I might be convinced to give up turbos for a while and enjoy cheap motoring again.

Can be made so much more competent

Never knew there was such a thing. A pimped Felicia - whatever next.

Special edition from the factory, Laurin & Klement and Skoda were bicycle makers, they joined forces and started making vehicles under the Skoda brand. Special editions of each model carry over the L&K designation, right upto the Octavia and I think the early Superbs.

Electric windows, heated leather seats and leather wheel/gear knob/handbrake, cd player and central locking. And worth no more than.

The Classic models at the end had most of the features, and power steering, but I don't think anything other than the L&K had everything, but only a few of them had PAS.

And an old rapid to show where my heart is.

Oh, I knew about L&K models, nearly had a brand new Superb L&K back in 2003, but the Passat 4motion was actually less expnsive to lease.

Just didn't know about the Felicia.

I nearly bought a Favorit Blackline way back in the mid 90s....

I had a courtesy car once, that was a Skoda Felica, N plate 1.3 LXi - so pre-VAG I think. I was elated to get my Triumph Acclaim back. That's how bad it was. It was the worst car I have ever driven by a mile, and the worst driving experience I've ever had - so I'm including golf carts, lawn mowers, and Transit vans etc in that. It didn't have one single endearing feature. If someone had given me it for free I'd have refused it - and I'm very polite in real life as well.

Odd, I really liked the Felicia I had as a courtesy, yes it felt a bit flabbier than the Favorit that was in getting fixed, but it held the road just as well, even if it rolled arround as much.

Kinda, as I remember; it had some VAG bits but wasn't touted enough.

That may be your experience, which may be considered as odd, because they're not bad machines. It depends on what you want them for. They're not designed for lateral-g comparisons thrown in with 30 - 70 times against another front wheel drive supermini, but are designed for people who don't give a toss about the comparisons other than a nod towards fuel consumption; instead, they value practicality, taking their elderly parents to the Bingo and picking up the shopping.

Their opinion of your Clio would be around the same; daft hard ride, cramped interior, thirsty, stupidly high insurance, horrible dealers.*

*as every Skoda dealership I've ever been to, and that's a lot, has been pretty much great.

That's because, historically they have been fighting an uphill battle. I hope they're as good as they used to be now that there is some respect about them.

When the Superb first came out I went to the dealers to see what all the fuss was about with this big Skoda which cost over 20 grand in some cases, but made it clear that I wouldn't be buying. Within minutes of having a look and chatting to the sales guy, I was on a test drive of around 10 miles in a 2.5 TDI V6 Elegance with all of the toys. He insisted I had a go just to see how good it was.

Same with the Fabia when that came out too, they practically forced me into having a go.

An ex work colleague of my brother ran an Estelle way after everyone else had given up on them. His local dealer eventually gave up on updating pricing for parts and seeing as he was the only one to ever buy spares, they came to a fairly unique agreement. "We'll keep all the parts we have for as long as you have the car - you don't need to buy them all now. And the price for everything will be a quid."

If that isn't an incentive to keep a car on the road.

Anyway, Skoda dealers have generally had a great reputation.

If you drive them like a normal hatch they seem gutless. If you actually use all the revs in all the gears they seem harsh but make incredible progress. The redline is there for a reason, to be visited. And it seems to make bugger all difference to fuel economy when you do.

I'm surprised he got away with that.

When VAG took over, they made dealers officially scrap and return any stock parts, then they limited order in availability.

And then when people brought in the commie cars for work, they were advised it was uneconomical to repair, then offer them silly trade ins against Felicias and Fabias. Then, they had to scrap all the traded in rear engined cars. No resale, no sending mint one owner low mileage examples to the skoda museum, just cube them, and deny any knowledge of their existence on the skoda UK website history section.

This is Scotland though, he is in Paisley to be specific. we make Yorkshiremen look positively liberal with their cash.

An old fashioned dealer would have been the same, and remember some of the old dealers got launched as well.

Yea, that's why I started the post with 'I had...'

I'm not replying to the rest of it. You used to be a really nice guy, and posting style reflected, now you post angry stuff or SteveH bait. I don't care about the SteveH bait, you boys flirting is funny, but there's no need just to pick at everything else posted because they haven't ended the post with "These I my opinions, I know a lot of people don't care about performance and mpg means more to them". I know that, and didn't try and suggest otherwise. The Skoda Felicia 1.3LXi is still the worst car I've ever driven, and I've driven a Mk1 V6 with bad mpg, no boot space, hard to park, dangerous handling, high insurance, high maintenence costs, and the possibility of causing a smile...

Please bring the old Dervy back, the one that loved talking Ford Ka's and about other performance things, the friendy geek who no one disliked and who enjoyed just talking cars in general and who would've talked cars forever given the chance! This angry, snipey Dervy who hates everything isn't as nice :-(

I've only been in one Skoda dealer, when I was considering going back to motability and tested a Fabia vRS. They were incredibly friendly and helpful, even though I made it clear I was looking for motability but probably wouldn't actually be staying on the scheme. They let me and mum take it out on our own, which no instructions, just "If you take the next left that's a nice road". It was a lovely experience - and the vRS spat on the Volvo C30. Still, I got over that "Losing the will to live" phase and bought a yellow 197 :-)

And having said all that, my local Renault dealer is just as friendly, and has never given me a single reason for anything but complete praise! I know some are bad, as with any marque, hell they might all be bad except this one for all I know. But, this is the only one I've used, so it's a 100% dealer satisfaction experience for me.

is.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w143_hIb8U Here's that modified one from that Rihanna video:

My dad has always had Skodas. Scrapped my mum's hand-me-down Favorit last week - the body was in a bit of a state in places, the alloys had gone porous, the brake servo was on the blink, second gear synchro was gone. But it was OK otherwise. The engine was still going strong at

170,000 miles. If I had the time, space and skill, I'd have taken it and tried to renovate it. I've also had a bit of a hankering for an Estelle (my dad used to have one of those too). Oh well, maybe one day!