Fabia Greenline

[andyandlinda]

Hi Everyone

Just thought we would say a big hello

Today we have just ordered a new Fabia Greenline Estate in Silver we get it first week of Sept very excitied about it arriving.

[Guest]

Well done!

Try and stay calm between now and when you get it. You will love it I'm sure...pleased for you.

:thumbup:

[woodenspatulas]

great choice!

the 1.4tdi is a nice engine, perky and brilliant on fuel! the estate is so big inside and easy to fill to the brim with stuff

[andyandlinda]

Well we got the new car yesterday 1st sept our sliver Greenline estate.

Very happy with it so far the drive home was 38 miles a mixture of town driving and open road average fuel consumption was 68.2mpg which i thought was excellent for a brand new car.

[matthewbrewster]

That is excellent! but I get that in a normal non-Greenline Hatch. Enjoy your new car, and the feeling of environmental smugness it will surely bring

[george brann]

I notice the price difference of my Fab 2 TDI 80 pdi 1.4 and the green is £2,400 you will never get the money back on fuel saving - I now get 54.4 and sometimes 59 mpg and I dont drive always slow.

The best you are going to get is 10 mpg on the green!

[Allams Skoda]

A Greenline Hatch is £11,495 and a Fabia2 80bhp is £11,290.

So there is only £205 difference in price.

[andyandlinda]

Yes according to the price list the difference in price between the Fabia 2 Estate and the Greenline Estate is £205

[woodenspatulas]

I notice the price difference of my Fab 2 TDI 80 pdi 1.4 and the green is £2,400 you will never get the money back on fuel saving - I now get 54.4 and sometimes 59 mpg and I dont drive always slow.

The best you are going to get is 10 mpg on the green!

dunno where you got your prices from but it doesnt sound like a broker

as has been said 200 ish quid difference, and for that you get side strips, front fogs, lowered suspension and thats before you get on to the other eco bits and bobs

btw thats already a saving of £60 on a simliarly spec'd 2

[jaxx007]

It may save you £60 on those bits you mentioned, but factor in not having a spare wheel and just hoping and praying the sealant will do the job (not very good if we're on our way to one of our camping holidays and have to seal it and then find a garage too), and the fact it doesn't come with an alarm then the regular tdi has it's plus points. It will take a long while to recover 350-400 quid of diesel. Plus with those "low grip" tyres I wouldn't feel safe in the wet with my wife and 2 kids on board. This is why we opted for a tdi 80 fabia 2 estate. Plus we do a lot of driving around town and at 40mph. The ratio of 4th would mean we'd be constantly going into 3rd, hence losing the point of this ratio. I accept the longer 5th gear would be handy for our trips, but the benefits of the standards car are more important to us.

I can agree the greenline will suit some people better, but for us we felt we'd be better off with the standard tdi. It depends whether an alarm or fog lights is more important etc. It's each to there own.

I can safely say we will both be happy with our prospective cars.

[JSJ]

We wanted a greenline, but got more discount on a '2'. At that point it didn't make economic sense to buy one.

Although I'll be interested in the long term economy figures

[andyandlinda]

Yes will let you know we are off in it tomorrow to Nuneaton to visit a friend its around 250 miles so will be intresting to see the mpg on a long run.

[woodenspatulas]

It may save you £60 on those bits you mentioned, but factor in not having a spare wheel and just hoping and praying the sealant will do the job (not very good if we're on our way to one of our camping holidays and have to seal it and then find a garage too), and the fact it doesn't come with an alarm then the regular tdi has it's plus points. It will take a long while to recover 350-400 quid of diesel. Plus with those "low grip" tyres I wouldn't feel safe in the wet with my wife and 2 kids on board. This is why we opted for a tdi 80 fabia 2 estate. Plus we do a lot of driving around town and at 40mph. The ratio of 4th would mean we'd be constantly going into 3rd, hence losing the point of this ratio. I accept the longer 5th gear would be handy for our trips, but the benefits of the standards car are more important to us.

I can agree the greenline will suit some people better, but for us we felt we'd be better off with the standard tdi. It depends whether an alarm or fog lights is more important etc. It's each to there own.

I can safely say we will both be happy with our prospective cars.

low grip, not quite, lower rolling resistance to be correct. ive had our greenline demo out in very very poor conditions and with the lowered suspension i certianly dont have a problem with grip and the slightly skinny tyres seem to cut through standing water where the fatter normal tyres seem to almost float over the water.

how many times have you heard a car alarm go off, only to ignore it? whereas you cant ignor the fog

plus you can easily buy a spare wheel for not much more than 60 quid saving on the car as the spare wheel well is still there and the way the governement is going the lower co2 it puts out might be enough to either stay in the lower tax brackets should they change, or even get cheaper!

granted the 4th and 5th gears might not be as fun to drive as the taller ones in the greenline, but thats the only price to pay for the better mpg.

just overcoming objections

[jaxx007]

You may ignore alarms mate, but I wouldn't ignore my own alarm going off. I would prefer to hear the alarm go off and rush them into taking nothing. My previous car had fog lights and in dense fog, they enabled me to only see about 15 metres clearly so I had to slow down anyway. They do look very nice though.

I didn't say I wanted the standard gearing for "driving fun" but for not wanting to labour the engine in 4th or rev too highly in 3rd when in town.

I didn't knock the greenline. It is a great car for those who can live with the gearing etc. I can understand why some owners would prefer the greenline to the standard tdi, but it doesn't suit everybody. I said all things considered, the standard tdi better suits our needs. OUR needs, not yours. Just like YOUR needs are different to ours.

My claim about the gl's tires was because of a review in a magazine. When I drove it it was dry so I couldn't test the wet weather grip. If I'm wrong and as you say the grip is fine then I can accept I am wrong about that.

The extra cost of the alarm and spare wheel I would need to get, plus the gearing, plus the plain, boring looking alloys, plus the lower discount offered by my local dealer makes the standard car better for me. The difference would have been £780. even with a few quid saved on th gl's tax from next year, I would still need to cover 70-80000 miles to pay back the difference. That's not taking into account the few quid extra interest I'd pay but I think it would be a small amount anyway. We even specified fog lights for cosmetic reasons too.

To conclude, everyone is different and we all have different opinions. What's best for us may not be best for you and vice versa, but I wouldn't try to hint that you've made the wrong choice cos It's your choice for you to make. Not for somebody else to make for you. The greenline was better for you, but the standard tdi was better for us. I hope that's cleared the air and any confusion.

We both have brilliant cars mate, just with subtle differences. Let's both enjoy being fabia owners. I'm happy and I'm sure you are too. Take care mate.

[Skoda_Family]

As a prospective Fabia Estate 1.4TDi owner (still 9 weeks to go ) I have to agree with others comments on this thread that the Greenline doesn't make financial sense for a lot of people.

I evaluated it against a 2 spec and thought it wasn't good value.

It's horses for courses but the potential fuel savings don't seem enough for the loss of spec and discount you can get.

Roll on November when I get my Furby!

[Allams Skoda]

Not sure why the level of discount offered should differ much between the 2 cars as they are priced much the same. We get pretty much the same margin on all cars.

I like the Greenline especially when it was going to be congestion zone free but now it isn't I think the extra economy would be wasted on me unless I was going to keep it for a fairly long time.

[andyandlinda]

Drove down to Nuneaton and back over the last weekend the weather was awful pouring rain and the grip was fine not once did it feel unsafe.

We sat at between 60 and 70mph total distance was 560 miles and average fuel was 80.3mpg which i think was brilliant and much better then my last car which was a Freelander it used to average 36mpg if i was lucky.

Very very happy with the car.

Think it looks great in Silver as well.

[JSJ]

Excellent, nice to hear about a car that lives up to its hype.

[HZ123]

1.4 TDI Fabia 3 . I am doing just under 60 mpg and I think that that return of 80 is really brilliant. Good luck and there is every chance that with increasing miles it may get even better. I wonder if you ever had recourse to put other types of rims / tyres what your return would be then i.e.would it be round about the 60 mark.

[sharkrider]

cant say I've driven the greenline, but I'd like to comment on "eco" tyres...

I recently had to drive the econetic focus, and that had eco tyres, had to do an emergancy stop in the rain (not bad driving, I'm an ADI and it was a ness. part of a test) and the stopping distance was truley appalling... my GPS would have stopped in less than half the distance, it really would (goodyear F1's on the front) , (and I also do emergancy stops in that most days too) and mine still manages 50+mpg.... I don't believe eco tyres are viable, anything that increases stopping distances, is directly putting peoples lives at risk...

the greenline is a nice car, and a good idea, but first thing I'd do is change the tyres.....

[Little Jo]

The problems you speak of may not be due to the tyres fitted to the Focus being low rolling resistence tyres, but to other factors. Some tyres work better in the wet than others, read any tyre test and the results will speak for themselves. Many tyres sold now are low rolling resistence, they have been around for ages eg. Michelin Energy. The amount of water, the frictional coefficient of the road surface (a new surface is worse than a more worn one), and also the width of the tyre can affect stopping distances. Narrower tyres will outperform wide ones. You can get some idea of the relative performances of different brands here:

Wet handling | Total Tyre Guide | Products | Auto Express

That's without taking differences in car braking systems into account.

[greenlinejim]

I have had my greenline estate since May, now getting on for 5,000 miles. With this very wet summer I have had plenty of chance to test the wet breaking ability. The skinny tyres really do seem to cut through the water and the there is no problem at all. I would say the stopping distance on country lanes breaking from say 30 mph is better than my last car (Subaru Impreza WRX with 17 inch tyres).

Regarding economy overall computer readout is just over 70mpg, But this is not accurate, I have just done the brim tank method, which revealed the real figure as 60 mpg. This is driving fairly carefully on lanes, A roads and motorways, very little urban and with aircon on for about 50% of time. I am hoping this will improve as the engine wears. Not a bad figure for a car that has so much space, but it cheeses me off they cannot calibrate the computer correct. What are others finding in terms of computer v real mpg

I think it is still open to debate whether it was worth going for the greenline, even with my highish mileage, I imagine a Fabia 2 would be doing about 55mpg under similar conditions, so the fuel saving would take about 50,000 miles to counteract the extra cost (£500 to me which was £200 plus mettallic paint as you have to have this on a greenline unless you want white). It will really depend on the resale in a few years down the line.

[HZ123]

I understand that there maybe a real difference of about 10-15% to the deterement of we drivers/owners. I would imagine that this is about right as on another thread someone stated that the speedo mph was also out by about 3-4 mph.

Your observation reflects those figures often quoted by road test articles the cars never getting the makers claimed mpg. My 3 1.4 TDI on 3700 miles a year old seems to register 59.+ since I had the car (4 months). I must admit I have tried a number of styles / speeds / motorway @ 60mph and there has been no change. My point (at last) I too would question just how accurate the computer is?

[stevearcher]

Mine is about 10% out. Which I find annoying because in the back of my mind, it means the fantastic economy the car tells me I'm getting isn't quite so fantastic.

However, the optimistic trip computer does come in handy if I want to boast how economical my car is...

Must say that the 80mpg mentioned above was very impressive (even if it was really 72!).

[DPS83]

Does anybody know whether it's possible to calibrate the trip computer via vag-com?