Tell me about the above vehicle, good, bad etc etc.
Probably around 2004 model.
Thanx.

 

Great, practical cars although not as big inside as you think.

Watch out for a sagging rear end which will mean the SLS has failed. £1k plus to fix but you can fit standard shocks and springs for a fraction of the cost.

Also bear in mind the 2.0XT is not the same as a WRX, although it is a turbo it's only about 170 BHP.

 

I think it's 177bhp. We nearly bought one but had doubts at the last minute; nippy, goes anywhere, bomb proof but quite thirsty. They make the nice burbly sound.

 

SLS, self levelling suspension I take it, didn't realise they had it.
Not worried about too much room inside, as long as the dog fits in the back, ( no jokes please ).

 

Dog will also fit into a wagon

 

I've had a couple of wagons, and I was going to get another, but just thought the forester was a tad bigger for the dog.

 

I bought a forester a few months back and its proved invaluable. (got a bit of land so we stuck some maxxis m8060 nobblies on it and as well as my runabout we use it like a quad bike!)

Question really is, how much of its foresteryness do you need? if its not going to be used too ruggedly then a similar year legacy has much better road manners. The wife has a 2004 legacy 2.0re and its mighty and theres some right bargains about at the moment.

The rear access with forester or leggy is loads easier than a wagon as theres no boot lip to get stuff over, so getting the dog in and out will be a lot less hastle. Inside volumes not quite as big as a legacy, but much more usable than a wagon due to the higher roof and the no lift over edge.

 

Love the Forester.

Another suggestion is to find a later (2003) Mk1 Octavia 4x4 1.8T Estate and have a cheap remap as the engines are so under-stressed. The dog credentials are great and you can moonlight as a taxi driver.

In all seriousness - I've had two of these as family do it all hacks , both remapped - the last one is still going strong at 160k with 210bhp out of the box

 

That was one of our possibles but I couldn't find any that stuck out. The Outback I found leapt out of the AT ads and bit me on the nose. I just HAD to buy it!

 

There's a 2006 1.9tdi Octavia about a mile from me for sale, I could pop down and have a look, but I'm not sure my hearts in it.

 

Agreed- has to be the 1.8T (Skoda/VW/Audi) petrol engine IMHO to start with. Did I say I track-day'ed my first one ? Farmyard in the morning, race track in the afternoon and all that jazz

 

Two things I plan to never own again.

1) A FWD car.
2) A four cylinder diesel.

Other than that, I'm pretty open minded.

Just bought two new front tyres for my Outback as it came with dreadful new "Minerva" tyres - matched them up with the Yoko Geolander rears - quite expensive but they seem to be decent enough all weather tyres. I think the Forester comes with them too.

 

The octavia is 4x4, wouldn't even consider it unless it was, that's why I'm looking at foresters etc.
I'm used to a deisel, my current daily is a 1.7cdti astra van.

 

Our first diesel was a brand new Astra 1.9CDTi 150 estate - swirl flap failure at 37k miles. Sorted under warranty but the dealer was SO bad, I'll never buy a Vx again.
Our second was a LR 110 Defender; 2.4 4 pot diesel from a Ford Transit; the engine itself was okay(ish) but £460 RFL for a 122bhp car was mad. It broke down on average, once a month and went after a year.
Our third was the VW California (2011, bought new) which is currently in for warranty paint work and we plan to sell it shortly - it's thrown up multiple EGR faults and at one point, was at the dealers for nine weeks while they tried to sort a mysterious EGR issue. It's now sorted but very common.

Older (over five years old) diesels are okay but the newer stuff just isn't fit for purpose. You're not "allowed" to do short trips, they WILL have DPF and EGR valve failure, DMFs die prematurely, swirl flaps get munched. I went for them initially because of the torque and easy driving but it soon gets boring.

The only diesel we've had that was great was the 335d - utterly reliable in almost six years ownership. Six cylinder diesels are much better but even then, the newer ones seem prone to emissions related nonsense too.

Most petrols just don't get all this trouble AND petrol is cheaper. Petrol all the way!!

 

Or LPG, now that's another story altogether.

 

Nah - go FSTi

Unless it's a hooner specific, I would have a Foz over an Impreza any day

Seriously, XT's can be fairly easily tweaked to decent performance

 

Id have a fozzy sti tomorrow if I could afford one (if I didn't have enough subarus as it is) ..... standard fozzy sti with a dccd box would be great.

Even Vicky says so!

Took a step back from this thread when people started recommending VAG group. :-)

 

[QUOTE= Took a step back from this thread when people started recommending VAG group. :-)[/QUOTE]


Different flavours of the 4x4 dog wagon solution.I'm lucky to be able to appreciate both at once. Bit like a really good beer with a nice single malt to finish off

 

Thanks for reposting that vid - haven't watched it in a while and always makes me smile