jthyssen

On a hot summer day it may be as high as 10% or more extra fuel, but I would expect it to use much less in the winter where the compressor will run less often. If you turn it off you should remember to turn in on occasionally to avoid build-up of bacteria and mould and to exercise the A/C unit (lubrication etc.) I leave it in auto all year.

I tow a 1100kg (official max weight) caravan with the 1.4 TSI 140hk DSG (albeit in an Octavia). It tows just fine, although it got a bit warm last year going uphill Kassel in Germany at 100km/h in 35C ambient temperature...

Petrol

Negotiate with your new employer to use your own car for the next 31months...

Has anyone seen mpg numbers for the facelift?

The power delivery is different in a diesel versus petrol, but the numbers are fairly similar. The difference might be that the TDI can overtake without changing gears, whereas you have to drop a gear or two in the TSI, but with the DSG you really don't notice. I am used to driving the 1.4 TSI, so when I test drove a 2.0 TDI a while ago it seemed extremely slow and slugish for me. Probably because I am not used to driving diesels. In my personal opinon the engine noise from a R4 diesel is just awful (agricultural), so I prefer a diesel to be as quiet as possible. I had a 3.0 TDI V6 in the past and while the noise was agricultural while idling it actually had a nice roar when accelerating. Obviously nothing beats a V8 or B6 petrol for sound The car economics are somewhat different in Denmark. As a company car the 1.4 TSI DSG is approximately 20£ cheaper per month than the 2.0 TDI DSG 150 (depending on the specific company car scheme), so for me was a no-brainer.

Not sure I understand. The 1.4 TSI is has better acceleration AND topspeed than the 2.0 TDI 150. In Denmark the taxation is different - here the TSI is cheaper up to 40000ish km. Edit: the 1.4 TSI is only 0.1sec slower to 100 than the vRS diesel, but obv has lower top speed.

Has anyone seen if the fuel consumption numbers are different for the facelift? (the current 1.8 TSI DSG is sooooo close to my employer's mpg cutoff for company cars....)

If you don't mind me asking: why did you leave the 3 series?

I recently test drove the V60 R-design and agree that it is a very nice car and the comfort is very good. However, there is too little legroom on the rear seat for my family. I imagine V40 is even worse, and V90 is above my pay grade

Since June 2014: 50k+ miles (82k km), no problems at all so far (except 10+ chips in the windscreen, 1 in the hood, someone's door scraped my door)

Yes, accelerating moderately (accelerator pedal approx half down) is better than accelerating sloooowly. I was taught this on a "green fleet" course by FDM (the Danish equivalent of AA) last year. Unfortunately a lot of people have misunderstood this and takes forever to reach the speed limit

I use 4 liter freezer bags. I just keep a roll in the trunk and replace the bag in the waste bin when needed. I think it is a nice feature to keep my car reasonably clean

I did a test drive of the S3 this past weekend and as far as I recall the key was quite similar to the O3. There is a few videos available on YouTube for changing the battery in the O3 key: https://youtu.be/9JprTlilChM

I have the 1.4 TSI engine - albeit in an Octavia - and it uses 1L of oil every 15000km. Judging from threads in the Octavia section this is completely normal. I assume the same will be true for the Superb. I keep 1L oil in the trunk and fill up when I get the warning (yes, I know, I should check the oil level every week... but I don't )