Would a 406 coupe HDi be a more sensible than most of my other whims?

Hehehe yea :-) It was funny, because he was serious, and claimed to be knowledgeable about cars, despite not knowing normally aspirated meant, erm, well I'm not sure how to explain it, ah, "NOT Forced Induction" - chances are anyone knowing that little wouldn't know what forced induction meant either of course. Also of note is the "You never hear of coils failing on my SDi" - can't remember the exact wording, but 100% was "I don't know it doesn't have any coils" - It was a funny time :-)

That was one of the very earliest threads I ever read in UKRM hehe, that hooked me in to read often for the hilarity :-)

Ever used Climatronic? It's just a regular system, with manual aircon, but round the heat deal it has some temperature numbers heh :-) I know it probably actually does stuff - but I found it didn't really work, certainly not like Climate does. Does the job though, you can still freeze yourself with the A/C in summer etc.

Cool :-) Sounds very you!

Silly cars? Aside from the Rapide, which was a bit odd ball, the rest count as sensible and normal - if a bit 'mature' I reckon. She should count herself lucky... ;-)

But seriously - 3 year loan? For a car that, despite the fact it'll probably go to many many K's, has already covered 100k miles, so will have worn bits for sure. But that's not actually as certain as the fact you're

*never* gonna love it for 3 years. I'd be amazed if it lasted 3 months before you were slating it, and wanting to swap the finance onto something else!

Please, please, please please don't rush into anything dude.

Wrong!

That's 'climatic', not 'climatronic'.

Climatronic is the VW name for full, digital, servo-flaps climate.

Climatic is a kind of half-way house - it has temperature control, but the servos to control the flaps aren't computer controlled.

HTH.

D'oh, my bad :-)

That's f*ck all mileage. Get a comfy auto and be done with it.

What he said.

About 3 oil changes a year in the Saab. Motorway doesn't mean fast, it means not breaking down unless you want to be in for a wait, and the added risks.

As I'm getting something nicer, an auto would be cool, but I'm not stupid enough to pay double the tax money a year to Sam the American eagle just for the benefit of only two pedal.

I suppose it is time to grow up a little and get something semi- sensible.

I managed with the last Octavia I lasted nearly 18months. I wanted an auto then, and that was my reason. My route isn't quite so stupid anymore. An auto would be nice, but on a newer motor it wouldn't be a deal breaker.

Even if I went with an older car, it would still have to be a more expensive older car. And that would probably still have the miles on it. And much as I hate to admit it, unless it has had a nut and bolt rebuild, there will always be something that needs doing.

Newer cars seem to wear much better now than they did before.

Again, huh? All you cars have had plenty of doors (except maybe the original 900 turbo) and big boots, they don't get much more sensible than that dude. I'll give you the Lexus, was a sensible car but cost too much to run, and the Rangie would've been but turned out to be a bit of a shed... The first Skoda was a bit oddball, but first cars can be anything, preferably stackable for no huge financial loss heh.

FWIW, I think you're doing the right thing.

There's nothing to stop you buying a second car as a toy later on - your main concern right now is reliably getting to work.

An Octavia should be reliable and not break the bank if / when it goes wrong.

Bingo.

And the Octavia is still current enough, and shares enough parts with other VAG "scene" cars that there still some performance, comfort and handling/braking mods when a little cash comes up, actual knowledgable tuners and a bit of "science" behind it.

It might not be as DIYable as some cars, but they are worth spending the cash on.

Hurrah! ;-)

Seriously?

I'd map it maybe, but otherwise leave it alone and just bank the money you could spunk on other bits so you can put them towards something fun as a second car or maybe even pay the debt owed on this off that bit quicker.

VAG-Com is pennies compared to what you need to be able to investigate and sort out gremlins on the latest Vauxhalls for instance.

I don't know if it changed between the mk1 and mk2 Octavias but I still have the USB data cable that I used to recalibrate the throttle body then it kept giving idle range errors but never actually had an idle problem.

I used it on the missus's fabia to reset the service ECU warning light and do a diagnosis after the light came on. Turns out it was a dying battery that was just holding enough charge to crank over.

He has no parking for a 2nd motor though, like seriously, no hope or prayer :-( Plus, if Carl's gonna mod anything, his style is obviously to me something like an Octavia, something with a badge he's loved from the start and also it's a bit different. Ok it'll cost a few pennies that he won't get back, unless he strips them from the car before sale, but even then he won't get much back. I'm sure he's not talking about crazy mega mods either, just a few tweaks.

But, it's a hobby heh, all hobbys are a waste of money :-) It terrifies me to think what I spent on RC cars before I quit the hobby a couple of years ago... We're probably talking about like, well definately a good few grand, hopefully not 5 figures (I'm certain it's less than that...). I did usually buy smart though, and a lot of stuff got decent money back on Ebay - and I made a profit on some rare stuff I'd bought new heh.

Oh I was just thinking when things wear out, swap standard pads for ceramics, if any bushes fail, poly them instead of standard rubbers, if the shocks go, get a set of KW coilovers. Not adding anything just for the sake of it, just when it needs some work anyway. A remap might be nice though, what does a typical remap do to a 105/110/130?

Erm, when I had the 'Wagon, Katie's car, the Panzer and my 75 all kicking around at the same time, I just bit the bullet and paid to put my 75 into a specialist classic storage facility.

That's what I'd do in Carl's position if I wanted a fun car.

I've seen approaching 150bhp showing on the dyno of an Audi A3 TDI 105 that was played with.

Can't comment on the 110 - that's a non-PD lump, isn't it?

If so, a cheapie tuning box is the way forward with that.

The 130... mine has 173bhp, on a good day. :-)

It's more about the amount and spread of torque though... :-D

I've always tried to make my living from my hobby. The first attempts were no big success because there wasn't a market for but by trying one learns.

There is however a major caveat: once paid for your hobby, it tends to become "work".

+1.

My first racecar was about half of the price of my last RC airplane. I worked on the Piper Cub for 6 months and succeeded in putting it 40 cm into the ground after the second flight.

I decided that for 8 minutes of flight costs were just too skyhigh.

A friend of those years continued however and is now a professional RC- pilot (we never imagined that could be). Now it's all carbon and kevlear for those toy airplanes but when he mentiones the end-user-price of a fuselage I nearly drop dead.

The more things change, the more they stay alike :-)

Tom De Moor