New (to me) 2005 vrs mk1

[Eire-Andy]

Hi there,

Have been a member around here lurking for a while now, I had a 1.6 octavia but it died a death recently, catastrophic failure of the water pump I'm told.

Anyway I'm now the proud owner of a vrs, it's a dream to drive, I do have a few questions if possible.

Firstly, I make a 10 minute journey every day to work, I have noticed that when I turn the car on from cold, it idles at 1200-1400 revs for the first 90 seconds or so, is that normal? I'd imagine it is just thought I'd ask. I've been waiting for it to settle to 800 before driving off, is that needed?

Secondly I've only really been getting 10l/100km on this journey, is that about right? Maybe I could lighten my foot slightly but I'm not a heavy foot driver in general.

Thanks for reading my post :-)

[kirk]

Hi there,

Have been a member around here lurking for a while now, I had a 1.6 octavia but it died a death recently, catastrophic failure of the water pump I'm told.

Anyway I'm now the proud owner of a vrs, it's a dream to drive, I do have a few questions if possible.

Firstly, I make a 10 minute journey every day to work, I have noticed that when I turn the car on from cold, it idles at 1200-1400 revs for the first 90 seconds or so, is that normal? I'd imagine it is just thought I'd ask. I've been waiting for it to settle to 800 before driving off, is that needed?

Secondly I've only really been getting 10l/100km on this journey, is that about right? Maybe I could lighten my foot slightly but I'm not a heavy foot driver in general.

Thanks for reading my post :-)

Sounds perfectly normal, idle is higher when the engine is cold.

On such a short trip, I would be amazed to get under 9l/100km. I reckon 10l/100km is pretty decent. All (most) Otto-engines consume more fuel when cold.

[Eire-Andy]

Thats kind of what I figured, but thank you kindly for confirming that.

last question i promise, i know the vrs comes in 180bhp and 150bhp, the later being the 4x4 estate model. is that correct? I have a saloon model and just wanted to confirm i wasnt lied to

[Funkoid]

Nope it should be 180bhp - i didn't realise they did a saloon, the hatchbacks may as well be though with the size of the boot

[chicken_eyebrow]

The 4x4 turbo Octavia is 150bhp. Both the vRS models (estate and hatchback) are 180bhp.

I always wait for the revs to settle to around 850 before I pull away otherwise it tends to judder for a few minutes The reason why the revs stay high for 90 seconds is the secondary air pump is working to warm up the cat.

And yeah, you won't get good MPG from a 10 minute journey. Try a 3 hour motorway slog and you'll be amazed at how economical it can be!

Also the MPG computer needs a lot of readings to get an average of your MPG, so driving it for ten minutes it will have a lot of low MPG readings and not many high ones (it takes a reading every 5 seconds IIRC) and the average will be disproportionately low.

[Silver Bullet]

Glad your pleased with your car, I think they are brilliant value for money

As has been said short runs are not very fuel efficient.

However on a 25mile run, say a motorway / dual carriageway with speeds of 50-60-70+ mph you can expect to get 38+mpg.

I think having a very low drag co-efficient (Cw) of 0.29 helps, together with a brilliant engine.

Filling up with better grade of petrol helps loads (ie Shell V-power or equiv' octane), the engine does seem to run better with it.

NB: found this review....... UKCAR Skoda Octavia RS Turbo Review

Happy motoring

Peter

[150HP&counting]

just to add there was also a model named after the orinal designers or something (i cant remember the specifics)similar called Laurin & Klement, which has the AUM 150bhp engine fitted

i recently had a 74 mile drive (M1,M18,M180,A180)to coast and averaged just short of 38mpg which i was pleased with, as all at indicated 75 -77.. gps said 72- 73

[KenONeill]

Hiya.

Your "trip fuel economy" covers whatever period your engine's running for, so if you're idling it for 90s (no criticism; letting the secondary air pump on a vRS go off before moving away is a good idea) then driving for 10 minutes that will put a hit on the economy figures.

Laurin & Klement were the original coach-building company (and early car maker) that Skoda Auto grew out of.