looking at getting a greenline 1.2tdi for the wife

skoda seem to quote some very good economy figures

Economy

Fuel consumption - Urban 68.9

Fuel consumption - Extra urban 94.2

Fuel consumption - Combined 83.1

Fuel tank - litres 45

what are peoples real world figures for the green line compared to these

and how do people find the stop start system?

we were originally looking at the citigo elegance greentech for economy and purchase cost, but with the VAT free offer at the moment it makes the greenline fabia virtually the same cost for a bigger car but better with economy, performance and standard equipment

Edited 21 May, 201214 yr by bluecar1

I had one from new for a year and 20,000 miles.

Overall I averaged 72mpg, but that seemed to be the best on fuelly at the time, which is probably because I drove it in an economical way.

You have to adapt to how it like to be driven for best economy, such as not changing gear too early to keep the turbo spinning and not going too far over 60mph. You should then get the urban figure of around 68mpg.

If you drive it like a regular car (which it's very capable of doing) I'd expect you to get around 60mpg in mixed driving and some town work. Ignore the published figures, they are optimistic on most cars.

The stop start system seems to make people nervous, but it's great. Once you get used to it it really grows on you, plus it means sitting in quiet rather than listening to the rumble of the 3cyl diesel engine.

Over three tanks the best I averaged was 78mpg, but believe me that was open roads, following lorries and seeing just what it'd do. Very boring. The following tank I put my foot down and averaged about 61mpg. These figures were also once the engine had done 10,000 miles so was more ecomonical, they get better after 5k or 6k.

Hi Bluecar1,

Ive had mine just under a year and done 10,000 miles so far. I was doing 100+ miles a day now i dont drive it until the weekend doing about 120 miles. When driving around town im getting +/- 60mpg, when on the motorway / A roads i get abour 68. Tbh i dont hugely try so this could be better with more conservative driving.

As for the start stop i quite like it (you can turn it off if you dont), its nice to sit in the traffic with no engine noise etc plus other drivers give you some strange looks!

I love my little fabia and couldnt recommend it enough. I think i may have to get rid of mine though as im just not doing the mileage to make it worthwhile :(. Hope you enjoy it!

thanks for the replies, i am always sceptical of milage claims, which is why i asked the question

i assume to get the combined figure it is flat road, wind behind and 56mph being towed by the mother / mother in law on the broomstick :devil:

and the extra urban she need the turbo 2000 broom :rofl:

Edited 21 May, 201214 yr by bluecar1

Love my little Greenline. It took a great deal of getting used to how to drive it best with regards to engine power/gears/economy (my last two cars were diesel before this one). The start stop is great and feels really natural after a very short period of time. I do a lot of driving in London and a weekly commute to and from Lincoln -on the motorway run at 60mph I regularly average 79mpg for the 144 mile trip, the other day I managed 82mpg (personal best). Coming home from work in heavy east London traffic (10 miles) I'm getting low 60s and low 70s for the same journey early in the mornings when it is quieter on the way in.

I'm going by the car's computer for the above figures - this car is dramatically cheaper to run than my previous Volvo 2 litre diesel, plus I don't have to pay the crippling London Congestion Charge.

Some people are achieving some very decent figures with the 1.6 TDI engined Fabias as well -on A road work I suspect that these might give better figures as the engine is a little more flexible.and won't have to work so hard.

On mine the car's computer was way off.

From new it over estimated by about 20 percent matching the published figures.

Once the engine had worn in it was down to about 10 percent over.

My figures above were worked out on actual fuel put in as I always filled and recorded the milage.

been doing a bit of research into how manufacturers do the milage figures and it is all on a rolloing road (so no wind resistance to cope with) and very simple short tests

so not to much relevence to real world, but more a guide that is based on reproducable tests to compare one car to another

what car has an interesting article about it in the printed edition(short enough to have a quick look in the local supermarket ) and an online calculator at http://www.whatcar.com/truempg/ can't see anything other than a 1.4tsi fabia om it at the moment :(

Here is a great tool where you can find the real world figures reported by Greenline drivers (in Litres/100km):

http://www.spritmonitor.de/en/overview/45-Skoda/398-Fabia.html?fueltype=1&vehicletype=1&constyear_s=2009&constyear_e=2013&power_s=50&power_e=60&gearing=1&exactmodel=greenline

A dissapointing average of 4.6L/100km (=62MPGuk). But still better than most other cars.

Interestingly the overall average real MPG of petrol cars has not improved over the last 25yr - and diesels have got worse

But I can't work out how to upload the nice graph I made here...

Data for VW Golf from Spritmonitor.de

Edited 25 May, 201214 yr by Igloo Vindaloo

I would Definetly recomend a greenline. I've had my estate since January & put 12000 ish on it since then. I have a commute of 70 miles to work on half Aroads & half motorway.

I used an app called road trip to log every time I fill up. Over all I'm averaging 73, however for the first 6k this was nearer 65mpg, since then I have been averaging nearly 80 (79.4mpg). It did take me a while to learn to drive this car to get the best out of it and to switch from cheap Irish diesel (my work takes me close to the border a number of times per month) to BP ultimate.... And keeping my tyres at the maximum preasure in the manual.

I don't really slipstream lorries etc, as although my mpg skyrocketed, I found it fairly dangerous & ended up shattered due to the concentration.

I generally sit about 25-30m back from lorries and find it helps with out a. Annoying the driver in front b. being dangerous & c. I'm not as tired when I get to work.

Is your wife likely to cover a high annual mileage 'cos diesel benefits are questionable unless you are?

Petrol Fabias can do mid to high 40s and may cost less to buy. Fabia Greenlines are really economical if a little rough running so for smoothness a petrol could be better if not covering over 9000 miles per annum.

What are they like when keeping up with normal motorway traffic at 70-75mph?

Cheers

Lee

Is your wife likely to cover a high annual mileage 'cos diesel benefits are questionable unless you are?

Petrol Fabias can do mid to high 40s and may cost less to buy. Fabia Greenlines are really economical if a little rough running so for smoothness a petrol could be better if not covering over 9000 miles per annum.

it now looks like it will be me with the greenline, i do 15-18k a year on fast roads, 25 mile commute each way to work, dual carriageway except for about 1 mile on each end, so should get a good mpg

the age old thing about not doing enough miles to be no benefit is becoming less and less true,

premium for the diesel variants is getting smaller as the electronics on a petrol get more complex for emmision control, while common rail injection systems on diesel in some respects reduce the complexity of a diesel (no more costly and complex rotary injection pumps)

i did a spreadsheet the weekend with mpg, cost per litre , number of miles a year etc, takin into account the fact the green line is tax free due to emmissions and most of the petrols are in band D £100 / year, servicing is not an issue as included in PCP costs,

what i found was that the monthly saving in PCP payments was lost at around 6k miles

that also is without what i consider as a safety aspect of diesel cars as the fuel is much less combustible in event of an accident (the brake fluid is the most flammable fluid),

in the winter the additional wieght over the front wheels is usefull for traction and the fact you can pull off without having to touch the accelerator means i have been able to get up hills etc petrol cars have had issues with

the other factor is reliability as there are no ignition leads etc to get damp, although modern cars have fewer issues with this due to the coils being integrated into the plug caps (like the older octavia VRS)

there are many more things other than purely costs when choosing an engine, have driven diesels for over 15 years

and much to some peoples surprise, diesels can be sporty, like the mk1 fabia VRS, (the car we have at the moment and will be keeping), it does 0-60 in about 9 seconds standard, and the faces on some people as you leave their precious bmw or merc standing at a set of lights with a 9 year old diesel skoda is fantastic

for those interested, when i get the greenline i intend to do a little bit of research into the economy

i hope to do a 20-30 mile run with me driving the greenline and the wife following in the 1.9tdi vrs zero the trip 1 on both and compare the figures at the end

also will have a 500 mile round trip from kent to devon and back no doubt so that will be a good economy run as well, i used to just be able to complete it with my deceased roomster with a little bit of running round in devon, the greenline should do it easy

will let you know the results and how i get on with the greenline

one last thing,

do any of you turn off the stop start system , if so why

What are they like when keeping up with normal motorway traffic at 70-75mph?

Cheers

Lee

I don't generally sit for long at those speeds (mainly as i can rarely get a clear run on the roads i drive on) however I did thrash mine last weekend.... Was running very late.... 67 miles in just under 55 mins.... Averaged 52! On a roads & 20 of miles of dual/motorway.

Why would you turn off the stop start?

Why would you turn off the stop start?

if the engine is not warmed up on a normal non stop/start car i hear that it damages the engine.

so all the restarting of the engne does not damage anything even on cold mornings?

The car has mechanisms built into it, not to stop the engine if it's not going to do it any good when restarting. Mine hasn't stopped on a few cold mornings until warmed up.

The start stop system is more intelligent than you might think and will not activate if there is any faults within the system or the engine is not warmed up etc. You might want to turn it off when the weather is really hot as the aircon will stop working when the car switches off -it'll restart when the engine does. If you have the aircon up high and set to demist the windscreen then the start stop system will not activate anyway

And with regards to getting up hills in the snow -the standard low rolling resistance tyres are hopeless as they have hardly any siping -I shall be getting some snow socks or better still some winter wheels. I got stuck on a very steep hill on a narrow track in South Wales last winter in probably 1" of snow -fortunately some very good natured folk came to my rescue with grit and a good shove

I don't generally sit for long at those speeds (mainly as i can rarely get a clear run on the roads i drive on) however I did thrash mine last weekend.... Was running very late.... 67 miles in just under 55 mins.... Averaged 52! On a roads & 20 of miles of dual/motorway.

That's pretty much what I thought and less than my 2.0TDi Passat which will happily acheive 55mpg with cruise set around 70mph.

Both our petrol Fabia's and our previous 1.9TDi have excellent economy upto 60mph but add another 10-15mph and the economy really suffers.

When I look at my current car and then think of downsizing next time for the improved economy I don't think I'm going to acheive any improvement.

My commute is a 60mile round trip and mostly motorway and I've tried sticking to 56mph with the lorries but to be honest life's too short and my times too valueable.

Cheers

Lee

been doing a bit of research into how manufacturers do the milage figures and it is all on a rolloing road (so no wind resistance to cope with) and very simple short tests

so not to much relevence to real world, but more a guide that is based on reproducable tests to compare one car to another

what car has an interesting article about it in the printed edition(short enough to have a quick look in the local supermarket ) and an online calculator at http://www.whatcar.com/truempg/ can't see anything other than a 1.4tsi fabia om it at the moment :(

The rolling roads are set to simulate the cars weight and aerodynamics. It still doesn't fit anyones actual usage of the car, but it's as good as standard tests get.

looking more into the stop start system and the list of requirements for the stop start system to operate is long

so it looks like the system pre-empts most of the situations you would not want the system to stop the system

just got to alter my driving style a little so i put the handbrake on and don't leave it in gear with the clutch down (bad habits i know :( )

i do find the one about a factory fitted towbar a bit of a puzzlle as it is not a factory fit option ???

Conditions for the automatic engine shut down (stop phase)

› The gearshift lever is in Neutral.

› The clutch pedal is not depressed.

› The driver has fastened the seat belt.

› The driver's door is closed.

› The bonnet is closed.

› The vehicle is at a standstill.

› The factory-fitted towing device is not electrically connected to a trailer.

› The engine is at operating temperature.

› The charge state of the vehicle battery is sufficient.

› The stationary vehicle is not on a steep slope or a steep downhill section.

› The engine speed is less than 1200 1/min.

› The temperature of the vehicle battery is not too low or too high.

› There is sufficient pressure in the braking system.

› The difference between the outdoor- and the set temperature in the interior is not too great.

› The vehicle speed since the last time the engine was switched off was greater than 3 km/h.

› No cleaning of the diesel particle filter takes place » page 27.

› The front wheels are not turned excessively (the steering angle is less than 3/4 of a steering wheel revolution).

Conditions for an automatic restart (start phase)

› The clutch is depressed.

› The max./min. temperature is set.

› The Defrost function for the windshield is switched on.

› A high blower stage has been selected.

› The START STOP button is pressed.

Conditions for an automatic restart without driver intervention

› The vehicle moves at a speed of more than 3 km/h.

› The difference between the outdoor- and the set temperature in the interior is too great.

› The charge state of the vehicle battery is not sufficient.

› There is insufficient pressure in the braking system.

If the driver's seat belt is removed for more than 30 seconds or the driver's door is opened during stop mode, the engine must be started manually with the key. The following messages in the instrument cluster display must be observed.

Edited 28 May, 201214 yr by bluecar1

My engine does stop when it's not up to temperature though.

that was from the may 2012 handbook for a fabia, may be thay have tweaked the system, but it seems well thought out

will definitely have the car stop on me in the mornings in the traffic, will be strange and take some getting used to no doubt

i do find the one about a factory fitted towbar a bit of a puzzlle as it is not a factory fit option ???

It means the genuine factory VAG wiring loom for trailer electrics is fitted, wired into the canbus system and coded into the car with VCDS.

When a trailer is connected with the genuine loom the cars systems know a trailer is connected and so it will disable stop/start, turn off rear parking sensors, prevent the fog light on the rear of the car from functioning and enable the bulb out monitoring for the trailer. On some cars this also allows the car to adjust the ESP parrameters, throttle response, engine map and cooling fan settings.

Most after market tow bars just use a bypass relay so the car does not know the trailer is fitted, bulb failure is done by use of a buzzer when the trailers indicators are working.

Cheers

Lee