No doubt the first of many questions that I will ask

I have a friendly Skoda salesman who pops into work for his lunch most days. I recently informed him I was going to pick up a MK1 Octy VRS and he gave me some advice. he has advised that the 1.8 20v unit really needs super unleaded (anything 98 octane). now generally you couls say any car would run better on the richer fuel but wondered if anyone knew exactly what these motors were designed to run on either 95 ROn or 98 RON

Also he warned me that, dirty, supermarket petrol has been the cause of many failures with fuel injection systems, emissions and lamba sensors and strongly reccomends using only Shell, BP, Esso etc. Does anyone have any experience with these issues?

Another kitten dies!

Your manual, and the fuel flap will tell you 97 minimum to run at the normal power/economy

Fuel filters are intended to catch any crap before it reaches the injectors

You can use 95 RON but it will feel really sluggish and your petrol economy will suffer.

For best results use Super

The Sainsburys near me has a bad reputation for crappy 95 RON, it has caused problems with a friends Renault Clio and another guys Peugeot. I've been getting my Super from Tescos for the last 3 months though and have had no problems.

Also he warned me that, dirty, supermarket petrol has been the cause of many failures with fuel injection systems, emissions and lamba sensors and strongly reccomends using only Shell, BP, Esso etc. Does anyone have any experience with these issues?

He work for one of these companies too?

The fuel is all the same. It all comes from the same tanks albiet with a few different additives. Supermarket fuel is going to be no dirtier than shell. Infact it's proabably morally cleaner.

there are so so many threads on here asking the same question, did you try search function?

Infact it's proabably morally cleaner.

Tree hugging hippy :P