Igloo Vindaloo

Well, maybe not at original cost price, but according to the Spiegel International:

Found out today that my 2012 Greenline II is also affected. Although I'm generally quite happy with the car itself, the fuel consumption has been consistently disappointing - worse in fact than the last 3 similar diesel-engined cars I have owned and driven in a similar way. It is unlikely Skoda will compensate us for: Extra fuel costs over life of vehicle Performance/fuel consumption lost by the the fix Decreased resale value as a result of this scandal The premium I paid for a "Greenline" vehicle as a direct result of being lied to Not to mention the extra deaths/years of lost productivity caused by all these vehicles pumping out extra tonnes of NOx So I would like Skoda to buy our cars back from us at the original cost price. What are the chances of that happening? Still a good opening stance for a class action.

I haven't seen figures, but I bet most people would not change a wheel themselves - either because they didn't know how or were scared to or just didn't want to get dirty. (not me) They would call someone else to do it. If they are coming, they might as well bring a spare wheel and tyre with them. But even I would not want to change an offside wheel on a motorway hard shoulder at night in the rain. Fortunately these things hardly ever happen to most people in Europe now - so is it worth carrying around all that extra weight? The manufacturers have decided that for most people, the answer is no. But you have a choice - buy a spare if you like.

Don't worry - when I bought my Citroen C3 (1.4 HDi), it had done 55,000 miles in just over a year. It seems like it spent most of its early life on the motorway, going up and down from Southampton to Newcastle. Those are easy miles for a car - especially a diesel. Turned out to be the most economic car I ever owned - 25% better than my Fabia 'Greenline', which officially has a 25% lower fuel consumption! I also suspect it had been remapped, as it went better than the 16v version of the same car I test drove...

Some figures from Spritmonitor.de for Fabias since 2009-: Diesels: PS MPG 75 60 95 56 105 52 Petrols PS MPG 60 41 69 42 86 43 105 41 TSI 45

In winter, my 1.2TDI engine would never reach operating if I only did 3 mile trips. Short, urban journeys are not ideal for a petrol engine car either. This is where electric vehicles are most useful. Get a milk float!

It's interesting to compare mpg doing variants of the same journey. But there are so many factors to consider. I found the most important are cruising speed, temperature and head winds.

These sort of things are very difficult to test - without identical cars doing identical journeys at identical times. Sometimes I think that is why they claim the benefits come from extended use - because they know it cannot be tested!

Nice stats, eccleshill! I calculate the standard error (margin of error) of your mean MPG values for premium and standard diesel as 1.2 and 0.8 MPG, respectively (assuming your standard deviation per tank is the same as mine: 6MPG). Conclusion of my analysis: No significant difference in MPG between premium and standard diesel. In fact, there is no statistically significant difference between any of the fuels.

But would you not expect to see all 4 of those changes with warmer weather too?

Anticipation is the key skill in any driving - but particularly in driving efficiently - and especially in a Greenline! I suspect the gear change indicators are triggered at the same revs/load in a Greenline as is other diesel models with more torque. Does anyone know for sure?

Which type of headlamps can be adjusted to bend left/right when dipped to accommodate chaning from driving on the right/left? And how easy ($) is it to change the standard lamps on the Greenline to such a version?

Love it! Exactly the colour I would have chosen.

Not many of these around. There are 5 diesel VRS 2010-2012 drivers in Spritmonitor. They average 6.25 L/100km = 45 MPG(uk) http://www.spritmonitor.de/en/overview/45-Skoda/399-Octavia.html?fueltype=1&constyear_s=2010&constyear_e=2012&exactmodel=vrs&powerunit=2 Not too bad compared to the average of 5.76 L/100km = 49 MPG(uk) for all other diesel Octavias of the same age: http://www.spritmonitor.de/en/overview/45-Skoda/399-Octavia.html?fueltype=1&constyear_s=2010&constyear_e=2012&power_e=150&page=13&powerunit=2

My Greenline came with Dunlop Sport SP01 185/60 R15 tyres, which were part of the selling feature and stamped as 'Low Rolling Resistance'. Turns out they are now given an Efficiency Rating E (http://www.reifen.com/shop/dunlop-72.do) - or even F (http://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?details=Ordern&cart_id=34120008.110.9616&Cookie=froogle&typ=R-115273&ranzahl=4&Breite=185&Quer=60&Felge=15&Speed=H&dsco=110&sowigan=So&station_search=1&Monart=#mpSearch). You'd be hard pushed to find a tyre with a poorer rating. Is that a case for Trade Descriptions?

Mine kept getting worse in the first few thousand km. And only got better when the weather warmed up and summer tyres, diesel, etc came on. Too many variables...

New Greenline! Nice! I was advised not to use cruise control at first, but vary the engine speed while breaking in the engine. I used a lot of engine braking then - and still do now. Which is quite different to the way I learnt to drive. New brakes and tyres also need to be treated with care. Have fun! (But not too much!)

The other big benefit of the Greenline for your conditions could be the regenerative engine braking, which re-charges the battery. For fast-slow motorway driving this will make a bigger difference than the Start-Stop function. Also, the Start-Stop does work when the outside temperature is cold (<-5C, I think). And the fuel consumption is VERY STRONGLY effected by outside temperature. It is MUCH more efficient in summer (and lab conditions) than normal Yorkshire conditions for many reasons, not just winter tyres, winter diesel, no stop-start, but I think most important is the longer engine warm-up times. Keeping it in a garage or, better, underground car park will improve warm-up times in winter. Take a look at my stats on Fuelly: http://www.fuelly.com/driver/timhewison/fabia/fuelchart

Supplied jack? I should be so lucky. In fact, I now have two cars without spare wheels or jacks. So I had to go out and buy a jack just to swap over the winter wheels...

I'd be very interested to know too, as I took the advice of the sales rep and ordered them for my GL2 estate, but have never used them and am not likely to now SHMBO has decided she doesn't like camping. They only add drag and weight and dirt.... So please share your experience with us.

How close was he following you? At that speed aerodynamics becomes critical as it air resitance will dominate the fuel consumption. http://www.withouthotair.com/cA/page_259.shtml Although the A5 may be bigger (drag area), it probably has a lower drag coefficient, so it will win at high speed.

I find my Greenline II estate to be very good on the motorway, except: If fully loaded don't try to pull out to overtake slow trucks on steep hills in 5th - you really have to work the gears like a petrol. The fuel consumption climbs startling at high speed. On a warm summer day on a flat road with just me, I got the following: 95MPG @ 56mph, 88MPG @ 62mph, 83MPG @ 68mph, 67MPG @ 75mph. [*](Each measured from the computer over 20km over driving with cruise control with no more than 20m change in height, 25C, average speed from GPS (or trip computer average, not speedo or set point, which is 5km/h higher). As mentioned, the Fabia has the aerodynamics of a streamlined brick. I would love to do a similar experiment with the same engine etc in the Seat Ibiza Ecomotive...

I found it surprisingly difficult to find the weights of rims and tyres while sourcing my winter wheels. Hence the thread...

There were a few stones in the deep treads of the winter tyres. And then there's the margin of error on the scales.

Another year and 25000km later, the wheels weigh in as follows: Antares Alloy 6x15 with new Dunlop SP01 185/60R15 tyres - all 15.2kg - 200g less after 17000km Enzo B Alloy 6x15 with Continental WinterContact TS800 185/60R15 86T - all 15.8kg (bit wet) - 50-350g more(!) after 14000km cumulative