Shed Of The Week: Skoda Octavia vRS

A rare treat for Shed this week as the first fast Skoda nips in on budget

Scientists say that the three most inspirational locations for major insights are the bed, the bath and the bus. The insights that Shed occasionally and reluctantly receives in the family bed and bath are too distressing to relate here, but he did get a printable insight on the bus the other day. Namely, that at a certain point in its life, every car will become a Shed.

'Lightning' scrubs up alright by the look of it

Admittedly, the maturing period for some cars might take a while, but in the mainstream car park, the wait can be nicely short. A year ago, sub-£1K Clio 172s were either rare and/or knackered: now, you can easily pick up a perfectly decent specimen for three figures, with the belts done and everything.

With all this in mind, today is a day for celebration, because it marks the up to now very rare Shed appearance of another car that was quite rightly highly regarded when new, and that is now being slowly drawn into our greedy grasp: the Skoda Octavia vRS.

Shed recalls many trips in these estimable motors. Two stand out. One was on a shoot in the Lake District. The Lake District is well named as you often get lakes on the roads as well as where they're supposed to be. Predictably, it persisted it down for three days solid. The poor snapper entasked to get some decent pics of the vRS was crying into his beer every night, but as far as Shed was concerned the beer was good and the Skoda was an impressive and reassuring partner in appalling conditions. That shoot was one of those occasions when you were glad to have front-wheel drive to pull you out of bother.

No amount of driven wheels would have saved the poor scribbler-to-be who found himself behind the wheel of a vRS, having been tossed the keys by Shed on a magazine convoy in Surrey. He was a work experience kid who'd never driven anything quite that fast. He was handling everything OK until he completely failed to notice a T-junction. Literally went straight on at unabated speed, the bated speed up to that point having been on the medium side of high.

Recent cambelt, new tyres, long MOT - good to go!

The Octavia ended up on its roof in a copse of trees, from whence it had to be pulled by specialist extraction plant. The workie was suitably crestfallen but completely unhurt. The Skoda, once back on its wheels, looked like it could have been driven back to base. Almost. Strong cars.

Strong performance too. 180hp might not seem a lot nowadays, but it's more than enough to put the wind up most skirts. When the Mk2 was released in 2004, Skoda didn't feel the need to boost vRS output by more than 20hp. A roomy cabin, massive boot and (unseen T-junctions apart) progressive and predictable handling that made it at least a match for the Golf on which it was based was a good start. Add a grunty engine too and you've got a handy candidate for the thinking family man's more than fast enough five door fast hatch until I can get that TVR I've always promised myself type of thing.

The vendor of this one has sensibly had the popular sump mod done, and with a small garage load of major mech and consumable parts renewed in the last 12 months, this vRS looks nicely set up to give plenty more quick service to the next owner. Just four custodians in 13 years indicates a goodly amount of owner satisfaction having already been provided by this fella (as the vendor keeps referring to 'him'). Hailstone marks of course fall firmly into the 'meh' category for the Shedman, who can in the pub claim that they were the result of a daring dash across some sort of no man's land, the Gaza strip or some such.

Miles high but it's been looked after

The only question remaining is, why is it being sold? Well, it could be for any number of personal reasons that have nothing to do with anybody, but could it actually be for impending mechanical doom reasons?

Unlikely, tbh. Obviously you'll be open to some of the VW Group foibles of the time, which you all know as well as anybody - plastic water pump impellers, catastrophic engine meltdowns when the timing belts snap at 70K, pop-off rear washer pipes - so let's not get into that now. Model specifically, the 1.8 20v had the odd air mass sensor problem, and there was a bit of a kerfuffle with faulty coils on '01-'02 cars. But this is all in the past.

Now, a 13 year-old Octavia vRS is even more of a bargain at less than £1K that it was when it was new at less than £16K. And it was a bargain then. Steam in.

Here's the ad.

Up for sale is my 52 reg Skoda Octavia VRS 1.8 20VT affectionately known as 'Lightning'. MOT'd till November 2015 but will not come with tax as per new rules.
In the last 12 months he's had...
Timing belt, water pump and service.
New coil packs.
New handbrake cables.
Pads & discs all round.
Calipers repainted.
New Clutch & flywheel.
4 new Goodyear tyres.
Full set of 25mm lowering springs due to one of the original front springs snapping, these were fitted with new top mount bushes and bearings.
The sump has been removed, cleaned out and a new genuine oil pick up pipe fitted as precaution (to prevent 'blocked oil pipe syndrome'!!
He's done 153k miles with some history and most (I think!) of the old MOTS but drives like he's done 53k, everything nice and tight with no knocks or rattles.
I've been using him for work and general commuting and he's not missed a beat, it's trouble free motoring for someone, if you're looking for a cheap family hatch with a bit of poke then look no further.
Only downside (as with any used car) the central locking doesn't work on the drivers rear door and there's hail stone marks on the roof and bonnet, apart from that he cleans up well and the body is straight.
If someone drives him, they'll buy him, I'm confident of that, so he's priced to sell at £1000.
Either text or call me on 07974 657586