The day of the Skoda joke is definitely over. Last year, Skoda was named the most reliable car brand in Britain, a far cry indeed from those jolly times when such witticisms as doubling a Skoda's value by filling the petrol tank, switching on the heated rear screen to keep your hands warm while pushing your Skoda, and making your Skoda more sporty by wearing trainers brightened many a day.
A Shed with decent pics? Whatever next?
This 2005 Fabia vRS TDI is another SOTW debutant, and very much deserving of your close inspection at £1,000. The 1.9 PD engine is arguably the best of the VW Group TDI lumps, with no bothersome diesel particulate filters to fret about. And this 130hp vRS is a proper little pocket rocket, glorying in its political unacceptability as it smokes up the road.
The ad for our Shed seems honest and comprehensive. The vendor mentions a coolant leak and a new radiator. The second might have fixed the first, you would have thought, bottom-corner rad holes being far from unknown on these engines, but we can't tell from the ad whether he's been out for a long run since the new radiator was fitted.
Taking the positive view, it may well be that this unwanted issue of coolant is no longer a coolant issue, in which case this is potentially a Shed star in the making. It's worth mentioning that VW Group sensors generally are a pain in the butt, with the coolant ones being particularly pesty, often shrieking at you to STOP! CHECK COOLANT when there's plenty of gloop in there.
Plentiful power already, with easy remaps possible
The bigger worries start if you get a blast of pressurised air coming out of the reservoir bottle when you take the cap off, as that can mean impending head gasket problems. Shed once had a Golf 2.0 (petrol) that did this, so like any responsible owner he quickly unloaded it onto webuyyourbanger.com and changed his phone number in one quick, smooth operation.
When a vRS is running well, as this one seems to be doing, you'll have yourself a strong little car that, on the right road, will see off a lot of more expensive tackle. It's small enough to be super-handy in town but man enough to take on the big trips too, all the while delivering mpg figures beginning with a 4 even when you're tramping hard on the throttle. An Ibiza FR is the next nearest thing, but you'll struggle to find an equally decent one of them lying about the place at this price point.
130 real world hp in such a compact package might seem more than enough to dissuade you from bothering with remaps and the like, but chip-ups to 160-170hp/300lb ft are easy and inexpensive and will drop the 0-60 time from 7.7sec to a Golf GTI-bothering 6.2sec. More impressive still will be the Porsche 911-bothering 50-70mph sixth gear time of 7.5sec, all achieved with hardly any damage to the fuel consumption.
Blimey, even the inside looks good too
As it stands, the MoT on this car runs through to next May and is completely free of suspicious advisories. A couple of windscreen blemishes suggest a car that's spent some time on the motorway network, so the highish miles needn't be a cause for concern. Just keep those belts fresh every 60-70K miles and change the oil every 10,000 miles or so.
Fabias had dodgy rear door seals, causing annoying condensation in the rear compartments, but most of those will have been sorted by now. Even if they haven't, it's not a long or expensive job. The fact that this car has had two cambelt changes with a third one due in the next year or so speaks of a decent maintenance regime. The current owner has already replaced a lot of important, known-for-failing components like the anti-roll bar bushes. The so-called 'console' wishbone bush is another common failure. Parts are not expensive though and Brisky ( www.briskoda.net) is an excellent website for tips and info sharing.
The worst thing about this Fabia vRS is its unassuming appearance. Other road users might get annoyed about being left to eat dust by something that looks quite so pipe-and-slippers. As a true PHer though, you will laugh gaily, tromp on the throttle and leave them in a Sin City Motors-style cloud of black diesel smoke, shouting "up yours, Jean Claude!" It's the right thing to do.
Up for sale my Skoda Fabia VRS 2005 in metallic Silver.
I just took it for MOT on Thursday 18th May and it passed fine. I had a new radiator fitted at the same time as well, as the old one had lost efficiency and was partly blocked up.
Also recently it had four new tyres, Uniroyal Rainsport 3 all round
Runs and drives really nicely indeed, engine and gearbox all ok, pulls really well in all gears, clutch is fine no slipping in any gear. I was told it has been remapped but I have no bills or anything to back it up. Compared to my Mini Cooper Works though it does feel very strong. When I got it the anti roll bar D clamps were badly worn and knocking on one side. These were replaced at the end of March and now there are no noises at all coming from the suspension.
Had a replacement steering rack as well a few years ago.
Its on just over 152k, it has part service history and I have the last few MOT certs. There are bills for two cambelt changes in its life, next one is due next year approximately.
Please see photos for condition of body and interior, there are some light scratches and small car park type dings on the body but nothing excessive and for the age of the car pretty normal. Wheels could really do with a refurb if you wanted it to look really nice. Wheels are all good though and don't loose any air.
Interior needs a clean but otherwise is pretty good, some wear on the drivers bolster. All electrics work etc but aircon isn't really that cold so will need a service and re fill probably.
Please note that at present there is one fault with the car and that is, it is loosing coolant from somewhere. Around town its ok but if you go on a long run it will start loosing some coolant. I'm not sure of the cause at present hence why I've priced the car lower than I would normally. If I can sort it out then the price would go up as otherwise its a really good little car. For now though I thought I'd offer it at a lower price due to the fault but taking into account all the new stuff done recently and fresh MOT.
I bought it earlier in the year to do some long journeys where I needed a larger car than my Mini. Now that I have finished doing all the travelling and moving stuff about I have no need for this car hence sale.
I am located just outside of Southampton, easily accessible from J8 on the M27
Please drop me a message if you are interested in viewing.
Any questions just ask, I am not interested in any swaps or part exchanges
