I'm looking for something to replace my rusty Fiesta here in Italy as it would cost more to replate it than it's worth, and a mountain winter won't do the rust any good.
I've been doing the rounds and today saw an early Skoda Fabia 1.9TD. I'm not ready to buy just yet but he did start it up - no problems there, and exhaust looked pretty clean. It's got high mileage but was in excellent condition and has obviously been used as a rep's car as the inside - particularly the passenger seats - looked pristine.
The price seemed OK for the local market although the mileage was around 63000 miles. I presume the engine shouldn't be a problem for a long time to come assuming regular oil changes? Any comments on the likely longevity of this model or other things I ought to look out for?
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Sounds a damn sight better than a rusty Fiesta. Others may know better but as far as I know Fabia is a solid dependable car.
Are Italian SH prices sky high like Spanish ones?
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Only just started looking, but they do appear high for s/h. Not sure how 'trattabile' the prices are and how much they're overpriced to allow for 'negotiable'.
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Incidentally, they often don't seem to have radios. Maybe the owners take them with them - like they do their kitchens when they move - which is most odd.
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Last time I was in Italy ISTR seeing everyone taking radios out of the car when parked. Not just the face plate, the whole shebang. Guess it's a crime thing, so it would never occur to them to put it back in the sell the car. How do they manage with integrated ICE?
Kitchens? That's another thing altogether - how do they manage, or are Italian kitchen cabinets essentially freestanding, and just place around the walls?
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LY - no, they very often take the fitted kitchens with them. When I was researching kitchen shops I saw that some featured 'assistance with dismantling for moves' - I paraphrase somewhat..
I ended up in Ikea and put wall cupboards and freestanding workbenches in myself. Still waiting for a plumber/gas man though.... I refuse to be the naive foreign lady and ignored the first quote it was so extortionate.
I'm a banger driver so you'll have to explain ICE - integrated circuit & electronics is my guess, but I'm not sure of the implications that has for radios. I visited in 1990 for the World Cup and even saw pistol packing policemen bring their car radios into the bar for their morning coffees. Meanwhile at one England game they were so worried about the 'ooligans' - but meanwhile 30 cars were broken into outside Cagliari stadium....
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Based on my experience (sample of one) make sure that any VAG TDi has had its cambelt and the tensioner changed at 60,000miles. I understand they brought the interval down to 40,000 miles recently in UK.
I think that they are galvanised or similar, so rust shouldn't be a problem.
HTH
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Thanks for that mare, just the sort of thing I was after. I'm just about to get me big Eng/It dictionary off the shelf to increase my technical Italian!
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Not sure how much you've got to spend, but I believe the Italian Gov has (or maybe had??) an initiative to get older cars off the road. As a result if you traded in against new you get (or got!) an extremely good price for yours. We've got a 15 yr old Uno over there and were offered £3000 or so for it. Sorry can't be more specific but worth looking in to?
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ICE = In Car Entertainment
Love the idea of a £3k Uno - how about buying LHD bangers in UK and taking them out to Italy?!!!!
Sold my Uno for £320...
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Thanks for that PR. There is such a scheme although I believe the new gov are changing the regs. The problem is changing to an Italian plate to do so, and the thought of the ?500 it would cost me and the various bureaucracy just make me lose the will... Plus I've never bought new in my life, and English teaching here doesn't pay _that_ well:-)
I'm bringing my car back to the UK on holiday and it means I won't have to hire. I'll then get rid, as it really doesn't owe me anything and any return will be a bonus.
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If you can find a LHD car to suit you and yr budget here it may cost less than a similar one in Italy. Might be a bit of a search though.
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I've had a browse but it's largely for upper end stuff. Plus I'd still have the re-registering bit to consider. Still, I'll keep an eye open. Ta
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If it's really an early Fabia then it's likely to be a 1.9SDI rather than TDI (no turbo) - make sure you can live with an 18 second 0-60 time in the cut and thrust of Italian traffic
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