eccleshill

It isn't a speed limiter it is a speed warning. You set a max speed (default will be your current speed when you set it) and if that is exceeded you get a warning bong. It stays sett until you cancel or change it.

If only everything was as reliable as a VW... Hmmm... In 45 years driving I have only ever had 3 cars (all 2-5yrs old at the time) that broke down and left me by the roadside : 1981 VW Polo that let me down twice - first with a blocked jet in the carb, second with a failed oil pump 1988 VW Polo that let me down once - failed fuel pump 2000 Renault Megane - pulley sheared off the alternator Those are the only 2 VW's I ever had! From memory I've had Morris, Hillman, 4 Fords, Chrysler, Citroen, 2 VWs, Fiat, Renault, 2 Nissans, Toyota, 3 Skodas plus various Honda and Kawasaki motorcycles. Most or all had minor niggles but none except the 2 VWs and the Renault left me by the roadside. So, if everything was as reliable as my VW's I would have been left by the roadside not 4 times but around 30 times.

Had to laugh at that one! I haven't played a CD in car since my 2006 Octavia with in-boot CD autochanger went in 2010. The replacement had an MDI interface that I plugged an HDD with 100's of my CDs ripped to MP3. It had an inbuilt CD autochanger that was used precisely once - to play a National Trust audio guide CD as we followed the long drive to Calke Abbey. When I specified my Roomster I ordered the Amundsen, not for the sat nav, but because it had an SD card slot. Again all the downloads and ripped CD's fit on 3x32GB SD cards. I never played a CD in 7 years. For the record, however, I do cling to some old technology. I still have 4 35mm film cameras that get occasional use, a load of LPs, 45's and cassettes and even a few 78's

Your cost calculation is way off the mark. I use nowhere near a tankful per week! A tankful per week would take me over 30k miles per year! I do 9k miles per year. At an average of 54.5mpg I use 750 litres of fuel per year. Around 20% or 150 litres of that is Premium. My records show an average price per litre of £1.21 for standard and £1.38 for premium over the last 7 years. That difference of 17p per litre is a cost of £25.50 per year. That cost reduces slightly because I get a small payback through marginally better MPG when using premium fuel. Even without the payback it is less than the cost of 2 bottles of Cataclean. Key thing though: does it do the job? I've had the car from new for 7 years, done 67k miles, never seen the DPF warning light come on in anger and have passed every MOT. In addition, over the first 3 years I didn't risk voiding my warranty by using fuel additives against the manufacturers recommendation. All that said, the best way to keep a diesel engine running sweet is to warm it up then drive like you rented it for 20-30 miles every month or so. I do that as well!

You have completely misunderstood my post. I am most certainly not advocating the 100% use of premium diesel. The 52k on standard and the 15k on premium were NOT consecutive. Occasional fills of premium, 2 or 3 at a time, have been spread across the whole 67k. That rules out engine loosening up as a reason for the slightly improved mpg, that I fully agree does not alone justify the extra cost. An unknown factor is how much the cleaning effect of periodic fills of premium have on the subsequent fills of standard so the effect could be greater. And as I said in my caveat, I also can't rule out driving that little bit more economically when I had a tank of Premium. Your bottles of Cataclean at £23 a pair? Add a bottle every 3 months or so? You are spending much more on your engine cleaner than I do, and I have a a strong indication that I get a partial payback on my expenditure. Also, in my user manual Skoda recommend that you do not use fuel additives... As you say, You pays your money and you takes your choice!

I am an MPG geek! Here are some of my "real world" figures. I give my 1.6Tdi the occasional few fills of premium diesel on the basis that it won't harm anything but my wallet and it may help keep things clean. I have done 67k miles from new. 52k miles on standard diesel at 54.1mpg and 15k miles on premium at 55.5mpg. All data is from brim-to-brim not from the trip computer. Now clearly I don't completely drain the tank between fills so there will always be around 10 litres of t'other type of fuel when I fill up. I usually fill up when the gauge drops below 1/4 so in general my fill-ups are 45-52 litres into a "55" litre tank that I reckon holds 58 litres at a squeeze. Can't say I've noticed any performance difference and DPF regeneration is every 200-350 miles irrespective of fuel. Oh, and my car has NOT had the dreaded emissions "fix". Caveat! Whenever you do fuel comparisons you have to be very careful of unconscious bias causing skew of results. One such could be "I've paid an extra £8 for that fill of premium to see if I get better MPG and/or better performance" and then subconsciously drive that little bit more gently to prove your point and convince yourself that the engine really is running quieter and smoother than it does on that supermarket crap. You know, the same as people taking a rat-run short cut always drive that bit faster to prove their route really is quicker! That is why the pro's do blind testing! It may also contribute to the extra 1.4 mpg I get from premium fuel.