Gerrycan

@Expatman 's figures are interesting. A best at near 50 mpg is good but not great, but relative to that his overall average at over 44 mpg is comparatively outstanding. A lot factors involved in the overall figure, good economical driving technique, most journeys a sufficient distance for the engine to warm up and without excessive speed. The Yeti's Achilles heel of poor aerodynamics reveals itself on the longer faster run although that can be mitigated by the 'normal' close proximity driving (imo) on busy British motorways. I can understand his enthusiasm for the Yeti's overall versatility but I also think he would get even better figures with a more modern engine vehicle (Karoq?) or a Toyota hybrid. Many drivers are not very good at driving economically, or as I call it 'sensibly' and I think this was demonstrated when I hired a 1.2 litre NA Corsa in the UK. The long term consumption for 8000 miles averaged low twenties but I was getting sixties on a tank and I was stunned on a cross London journey in peak to average 50 mpg (the display seemed accurate to refill calculations). Conversely, a recent interstate holiday trip in Aus in our 1.4tsi Octavia returned about 50 mpg. I was a little disappointed by that but the roads on our route were empty, speeds were high because of the distance to cover, there were strong head and cross-winds (both directions 😞 ) and it was cold (our winter). Normally I'd hope for high 50s. I do not keep a record these days but when I filled up the car last night I calculated the average at 6.4L/100 (44 mpg). Wife does most of the driving commuting 13 km to work across town. 95 Octane was A$1.75 a litre which converts to 92 pence which is at the low end of our price cycle and why I filled up.

Petrol or diesel? Manual or DSG auto?

Considering the millions of our 1.2/1.4tsi engines installed for nearly 10 years across all marques you would think we would have heard if there were issues? There would be a substantial cohort who either chose not to or could not afford changing the belt when recommended. I am not going to be particularly concerned if it is not done this year, and my dealer seemed to be equally sanguine about my decision when he broached the subject at 7 years and said I was not the only one deciding to defer.

The date is a mystery but 'seem light years away' would be an understatement as I never was, and am still not, the forward planning type. The important things in life have worked out so far though so I'm not sure I would change much even if I could go back.

Mine expires when I am 70 as well but that does raise an interesting question about the issue date as I had a motor bike license when I was 16 and passed the car driving test on the second attempt when 17 (I think), but I have no recollection what happened for the 'valid from' date to be from when I was 22. My South Australian driving license covers me for the UK as well so I won't be undertaking any UK retests on my occasional visits as @toot has indicated, not that the concept is a bad idea though. Each Australian state has its own rules and systems and our local government is putting through laws for a special driving license for high power cars after the tragic death of a young female pedestrian after an (experienced) Lambo driver lost control at urban low speed due to the safety control devices were turned off. I fail to understand why such high power vehicles, whether ICE or EV, are allowed on public roads anyway. Thinking about it I will have to check whether I need an international driving license for Europe though.

The topic prompted me to find my UK car driving license which was issued in 1976 for the princely sum of five pounds. The stated expiry date is January 2024. Original green print, no picture version and still in the same intact plastic 'wallet'. At the time the expiry date seemed so impossibly far away.....but here we are and now so close. I can assure you that the power of my early cars were unlikely to break any highway speed limits although the narrow crossply tyres fitted could easily lose adhesion under almost any conditions other than bone dry.

Dunno, but our 2003 Toyota Echo is at 205k km and on the original timing chain with no rattles, also on the original auxiliary belt drives although these are looking a little old Nearly bit the bullet a couple of years back to get a manual 1.5tsi Scala at what was a really good drive away price then but could not get a test drive of a manual version (during the Covid troubles). Our Octavia was and still drives like new and meets every demand we make of it but is old enough not to care to much about scratches or risking a bad road or even a drive along a beach. I will start getting local quotes from independents this year I think, but then again I said that last year.

For what it is worth, my personal experiment for non replacement of our 2014 1.4tsi 96k km is continuing uneventfully. Australia can be quite dusty especially the dirt roads in summer, and it has travelled on a few of them.

79.7% of Briskoda posts from members changing their wheel/tyre combinations to larger sizes do it because they like the look. 81.3% of professional car reviewers say that the higher spec larger wheeled versions of a particular model ride worse than the cheaper smaller wheeled version. 87.2% of statistics are made up on the spot.

What was the condition of the old plugs like?

Any idea how much that lot will set you back with the "doctor's" labour included? I notice that the parts for even non electric bikes seem to have gone through the roof since pre-covid days.

Both the better performing Type R and vRS had appropriate engineering of transmission, brakes, suspension and tyres (etc) to better control the application of the available power. I consider the Fabia as better than basic transport, and the fact that you can get near 50% improved performance for a relatively small price is remarkably appealing but I'm not sure it is a good starting point from a safety aspect?

You have got that 'posterior about face' . VRS 2.0tsi/2.0tdi uses more fuel than the 1.5tsi so gets the bigger tank, AWD models use even more fuel so need the even bigger tank. That is for full ICE and won't be any different in Ireland.

A few years since I had a diesel Octavia, which was a 1.9pd, but I think I remember it had a similar feature to my existing 1.4tsi Octavia When I unlock the car and open the driver's door I will hear the sound of what I think is the fuel pump priming itself for nearly 2 seconds. Does yours do this? IF not then the action of turning on the ignition twice might be replacing the 'missing' priming pump. If you do hear the pump sound opening the door then I've got nothing else to offer. When reporting a problem it is useful for others if you give as much detail as possible eg, year of car, mileage, when did the problem start occurring, was there any coincident event such as changing the fuel filter or a regular service, do you do your own servicing or use an independant specialist mechanic or dealer, have you raised the problem with a dealer if still in warranty and their response, what's your long drive distance, what's your short drive distance etc etc.

Next Time??

A good version of either 1.6d or 2.0d can give you excellent fuel consumption on a long run, but years of reading owner reports on Briskoda suggests that there can be quite large variations between individual vehicles consumption, even allowing for different driver habits and driving environments. A good test drive with a keen eye on consumption results should enable you to avoid a lemon of either variety.

The new smart watch is great for recording runs my now infrequent runs but I am getting a bit fed up with all the over-congratulatory and encouraging messages I'm getting for the paces I routinely do at work. Actually like most watch based systems it does not record paces when the wrist is stabilised such as when pushing a trolley or work flatbed. Not been able to turn them off yet despite disabling heaps of notification stuff in the setup app. Might just cancel my 6 months free Premium Fitbit membership and see if that makes a difference? I think the Premium (A$113 pa after free membership expires) membership is probably useful if you have to achieve weight goals for your health but I'm lucky not to have that problem so it is not really going to be a loss.

As @GordoGT said it is the NO2 emissions that is the big problem for diesels. NO2 is three hundred times worse than CO2 for global warming effects. However, diesels fitted with AdBlue injection systems, targeting NO2 emissions, can actually have lower NO2 outputs than some direct injection petrol engines. Politicians don't want to hear that though

The Octavia mk3s with the small turbo engines are relatively light for their size and my 1.4tsi wagon definitely feels a cross wind more than my old mk2, with the heavier 1.9pd engine up front, ever did. However, while I agree that the steering is very light about centre I find it is also very sensitive to any steering wheel movements and very accurate so I don't so much as steer as 'think' it (minimal wheel movements) in the direction I want, on straights or on long bends. We recently completed a long trip, principally on pretty average, undivided, single lane in each direction, roads at 100kph(ish) speeds and it was interesting to note that my wife made more and larger continual steering corrections than I do when driving. I think this is the reason she finds long distance driving more taxing than I do. I find that while the car readily feels the effects of cross winds and the slipstream of large trucks from the other direction if I resist the temptation to move the steering to 'counter' the wind effect it still steers accurately because I find the mk3 (and mk2 before it) has little or no slack in the steering. Out of curiosity what pressure do you run your tyres? I ran our previously fitted 17 inch Michelin Primacy tyres at 37psi which I found to be best (purely personal preference) but even then for the last 10k km of their 50k km life the ride had deteriorated noticeably whatever pressure I tried. The Primacy also felt like they were not in contact with the ground at all when new but did improve after a couple of hundred km when the tread lost its 'gloss'. I did not think my experiences with them were as good as some of the glowing test results I read. I was always told that RWD cars require toe-out settings and FWD toe-in settings to maximise tyre life. Might be different in a competition environment but I have no experience in that area.

I've got a 2014 1.4tsi estate, owned from new, on a fairly low 95k km with original suspension parts and 17 inch wheels. OEM tyres were Dunlop Sportsmaxx, pretty good and consistent through their 40k km life. Replaced with Michelin Premacy which lasted near 50k km and for the last 10k km the ride felt as though it was deteriorating, so much so I thought a suspension component might be at issue. A few weeks ago I fitted Continental tyres and the car's formerly excellent ride (imo) was restored. Long story short, is that the tyres can make a substantial difference. I run my tyres at 37psi, which is a bit higher than recommended, for various reasons: safer emergency braking as the higher pressure allows the front tyres to resist load deformation. don't have to worry about raising the pressures if you offer some larger friends a lift. a little better fuel economy I like the car's ride and handling characteristics at that pressure. A very remote possibility for your experiencing such a poor ride is that the transport blocks were not removed on the, when new, pre-delivery inspection. Most incidents of transport blocks in place that have been posted on Briskoda have obviously been with brand new cars, since the ride is reportedly near intolerable, but there has been at least one post concerning a second hand car. To check, you jack up the front as if to change the front tyre so that the suspension droops, if that reveals some brightly coloured blocks on the suspension, then they need to be removed. Check both sides at the front, they would not have been fitted to the rear suspension. As I say, it is extremely unlikely to have been undiscovered for so long, but it costs nothing to check other than a bit of time and effort.

Makes sense to me. What has changed is that the price of new and decent second hand vehicles has risen faster than for many years so when you already have a car you enjoy driving it is difficult to justify the cost of changing to a car that is, at best, only marginally better.

The Samsung Smart Watch given to me a couple of years back has died from mysteriously incurred injuries. The glass covered heart rate monitor on the back has broken and I have no idea how it happened especially considering it was the high end model with the better constructed case and it was only taken off for charging. My only real complaint was the unit was a bit too big for my small wrist so the heart rate function was intermittent unless done up uncomfortably tight. A brief but intensive internet search brought me up to date with current tech and prices and I settled on a Fitbit Versa 3 as a very cheap replacement. Pros: cheap price (A$196), GPS, heartrate, clear AMOLED display, lots of other Smart Watch functions, lightweight and a good fit on wrist, good battery life, made in Taiwan. Cons: My fourth brand so my exercise stats are spread across four different internet sites. Inconvenient but not a big issue really as I rarely look back at them. Only one run with it so far but getting heart rate stats for a full run is really interesting and vastly different from the Smart Watch. Previously my Smart Watch average would report somewhere between 135-155 but the Versa 3 reported 162 bpm average which I thought I had left behind some 20 years back. It might be due to running after a hard day at work, which I don't normally do, but yeah, had to try the watch out. Not sure how I can verify the accuracy really unless I borrow someone else's (more expensive) unit and wear both at the same time. Winter is here now in Aus and this particular 'adapted-to-the-heat' Pom needs the extra 'technical' incentive the new toy offers to get out there and just run.

If the Toyota hybrid estate that you are buying was available in Australia then I would have bought it by now...but it is not 😞 . Toyota hybrids are in high demand and the wait times for the SUVs they insist on foisting on us are out to two years for many models. A couple of years a go my wife and I rented a Corolla hybrid sedan on a holiday in the Northern Territory, it only had the 1.8L engine but easily cruised at the 130kph speed limits that exist on some roads there. Amazed at the economy at those speeds on flat roads where the hybrid system was not supposed to contribute much. Only criticisms I had were that the road noise from the tyres on their coarse tarmac roads ( worse than our Octavia) and I thought the active cruise control placed the vehicle too close to the vehicle in front, even on maximum distance setting. The CVT was a brilliant thing and offered an enormous range of gears. On a slight decline at 130kph the revs dropped to about 1500 to minimise consumption while maintaining thrust for the set speed. The aircondtioning system was extremely good in the tropical climate as well and being powered by the battery would run for a reasonable time even with the engine off. I'd be interested in reading your opinions of the car when you have had some experience with it and time to post a review in the review section

I find it difficult to believe it is possible in the UK driving environment. An active regen generates very high temperatures (400+ degrees) to burn off the collected carbon. Might be possible at Autobahn speeds or towing a heavy trailer/caravan up a long steep hill but otherwise modern vehicles use a fraction of their available power to maintain motorway speed limits so exhaust temperatures would never get hot enough. My personal opinion is that long runs enable low soot generation so what is thought of as a passive regen is just enabling extended periods between real regens. I will be quite happy to be proved wrong

When I bought a brand but basic spec new mk2 Octavia in 2007 I assumed the four speaker system meant front and rear fittings, especially since there was a grill in the rear but my then music-mad teenage son soon pointed out the error of my ways from the rear seats. An I-pod and headphones for him fixed the issue for him and solved the never ending argument over music selection and volume I was more annoyed with myself for not realising the four speakers were the mid-range and tweeters were front mounted rather than any real disappointment over loss of quality or volume. 90% of the time there was only a driver in the car and while a good sound system is not important for either my wife or I it was just adequate for our purposes. We now have a mk3 and it does have front and rear speakers but the very basic entertainment 'Swing' units fitted in both old and new cars do not produce quality sound from the cheap speakers fitted. I don't think that adding rear speakers is going to be worth the effort for the minimal improvement in sound quality you are likely to get. While I don't expect much from the mk3 Swing unit the quality of bluetooth phone calls is far superior to what I have experienced in far more expensive vehicles, go figure. As you only have front speakers fitted I'm assuming that you have the latest basic entertainment unit installed so maybe others can advise whether upgrading the front speakers is worth the relatively small expense for any noticeable improvement. Noise cancelling earbuds work a treat as well but you have to remain particularly visually alert like a deaf driver would have to.