RobM

The rule is put in place to protect pedestrians, so they don't get caught on the wheel if they brush past a moving car, so it's not just the tyre but the overall wheel that needs to be protected by an arch. So on that basis, if you can rub against the side of your car and hit the wheel, it's out too far. And judging by those photos, I think the Police may be right here. Time for some extended arches...

Very nice, got a very similar unit fitted in the Mrs' car.

Nice and simple is always the best way! Pleased with it?

Obvious question.... but have you checked the connections behind the stereo yet?

I have a 3200LS Colour fitted in the Mrs' Lupo. The screen is mounted on the row of buttons under the stereo and pop-out draw area.... next to the hazard and heated screen buttons. I removed one of the blank buttons from the front, which allowed me to feed the cable through and up to the stereo. I then mounted the screen over the top of the gap left, so you don't see it at all For info, in case you decide to follow suit, you can remove the plastic area that the buttons clip into very easily, it's just two screws underneath. The entire tray comes off, which just about leaves enough room for excess wires or, if you're lucky, the control box.

Your best bet might be finding a car with them that's being broken. There are often plenty of Golfs, Boras, A3's etc on eBay being broken. If you get in touch with the breaker / seller and make an offer for all the bits you need you should save a fortune over VW prices.

Very good headunits Bluetooth works very well on them, too

Same applies to phones, laptops and anything else with a headphone socket that plays music! A front mounted aux input is always handy to have

The Alpine will offer the best sound quality and will bring the MP3's to life a bit more, but that aside there really isn't much in it. JVC make some of the better low end headunits, but not so much better that I'd say go for that over any other. So basically.... go for the one you like the look of most! When you say your car is currently wired for the JVC, does that mean you've hard-wired the unit in? Or did you use the ISO adaptor and just plug it all together? If the latter, no problemo, just unplug and plug the new kit in. If the former, it depends on which part you have hard wired - the JVC part of the ISO part. In any case though, just pick the head unit you like the most of has the one killer feature you can't live without

I had a really nice set made for my Celica, by www.skewer.co.uk The standard dials were black with orange nasty lettering, so I had these made and re-soldered the LED's behind the dash to glow blue. Cost around £60 from memory.

It all depends what you're aiming for. Sony offer plenty of noise for the money, but with the exception of their XES kit from years gone by, you wouldn't ever find a Sony headunit on the ICE scene. Too many gimmicks, too much emphasis on flashing lights, over-EQ'd sounds and far too processed. Plug them into standard or even semi-decent kit and you can get a 'good' sound, but good is as far as current (last 5 years +) Sony kit will go. If you're using a hard drive, would it be safe to assume you're using compressed music (i.e. MP3's, WMA etc)? Comparing SQ using compressed music is like comparing fine wine from a polystyrene cup! But as said though, it depends on what your looking for and the standard you're aiming for. Sony know their place... XPlod and replacing stock kit. They also know they aren't going to be going up against Nakamichi, Becker, McIntosh etc. It's a shame, as Sony have the potential, experience and backing to make kit that outshines the Nakamichi's of this world.

JVC make some very, very good headunits. Their low-end kit is some of the best value for money kit around and along with the likes of Clarion really knocks lumps out of Sony/Kenwood and other tosh like that. Their top of the range kit is also very good, but sometimes a little unreliable. The rest of the range is also very good, but nothing really to set it apart from other brands.

Where is the sound coming from? I hear this by the doors, where the door meets B pillar. Just assumed it was the chassis moving a little.

Could be a few things, but the most likely culprits would be a bad earth or RCA (phono) cables run next to power or next to something behind that dash interfering with it. If the RCA's used aren't very well shielded (cheap ones tend not to be) and have been run next to the relay and wiring for the indicators, for instance, it could be picking up on that. It should be fairly easily fixed though. Just be careful as a badly installed ICE system can be more hassle than it's worth.

The other thing to consider is what else £12.5k buys. That money would get you a very nice Leon Cupra R which comfortably beats the Polo in every area, doesn't cost that much to run (I used to average between 26-34MPG depending on driving), insurance is better than you'd expect and it's a great car to drive

Good deal or not, it's a lot of money to spend out if you're not 100% certain about it. If there is no reason to change the Lupo and you still enjoy it, stick with it

Sums it up very well really The only thing to bear in mind is if you want to add an amp to the system (for a sub, or speakers) you'll need an additional pre-out lead that costs £10-15. But that aside, they are very good headunits.

Experiment, but ultimately, yes Get the sub and amp in and working, but disconnect the 6x9's while you're doing it. Get it working, setup and tested without the 6x9's and see how it sounds. Also, just for a laugh, watch what happens to your 6x9's when your sub is going full tilt and the speakers aren't plugged in. I'd betcha you'll see the cones moving around a lot still! Once the sub is working plug the 6x9's back in and have a listen to a few different tracks. You may decide you love it and want to keep them, you may also decide that the bass sounded better without them. ICE is very much a personal choice, but just be aware that even if you like the sound, your speakers will still be taking a battering

Avoid having 6x9's and a sub sharing the same air-space. I.e. don't put them on the shelf! Reason being, the sub moves a lot of air, the speakers are trying to move in that same air, and one cancels the other out. Also, the pressure created by the sub (especially a decent setup in a tiny boot) will damage your shelf speakers over time as it will be pushing the cones with the air movement, often against the direction the 6x9's themselves are trying to move. I once (back in my ICE days) had somebody come to me with a similar setup as you propose, wondering why his nice expensive sub was sounding so poor since fitting his new shelf speakers. Simply unplugging the wires from the 6x9's made a massive difference to the bass. In a car as small as the Lupo, a good set of front speakers and a sub will be more than enough to sound superb!

When you say you used bolts as a spacer, do you mean you used these to push the speakers away from the door? If so, has that now left a gap between the speaker and the door so it's not sitting flush? If so, I would highly recommend making a simple MDF baffle so everything is flush. This will make them sound even better! When speakers are mounted onto a solid, flush surface you have a better air enclosure around them. This improves bass and mid-bass response greatly and really helps bring the speaker to life! If you can't be bothered with making the baffles, check out AutoAcoustics website as, in the past at least, they sold pre-made baffles in a range of sizes. Cheap, simple and really helps make the system sound better

The wing mirrors on my SDI 'S' don't work very well at all. They are manual mirrors and when you use the knob on the inside to adjust them, nothing much happens. I've been told it's because the wire inside the mirrors have stretched and there is little that can be done about it, but thought (hoped...) somebody here might be able to shed some light on the problem? Is there anything that can be done? Can the adjustment wiring be replaced? Cheers

This is a seriously good idea! Rear speakers serve only two purposes in life.... ambiance (i.e., rear fill) and for the pleasure of passengers in the back. They should always have less power than the fronts so the balance of the sound is coming from in front of you. It's natural to hear sound from in front of you, so concentrate your time and money on getting that right and worry about the rear's later Just my tuppance worth

Thanks for the welcome As it turns out.... I'm now on the hunt for some new wheels? Not even collected the thing and I'm buying stuff for it already! Quite fancy the Seat Arosa Sport wheels so if anybody happens to have a set lying around, give me a shout

Cheers all No pics just yet, will get some taken at the weekend. It's boggo-standard in Red though, so nothing out of the ordinary.

Good afternoon all Just joined today after signing on the dotted line - so to speak - on a Lupo It's not actually for me, it's for the better half as she loves the little things, but since it's me that's paying and me that's going to be looking after it (read: buying shiny things for it!) I thought it would be rude not to sign up and support this club. Been reading around a bit and it seems a very knowledgeable place to be! The car I've bought is a 99 'V' Lupo S 1.7 SDI. No rocket ship, I know, but it's a lovely little car that should prove cheap to run, and that's the priority at the moment. We don't have a need for anything particularly fast, as it will just be for general pottering around to and from work and in the city. Anyhow... that's enough from me! Cheers! Rob