I'm toying with the idea of changing my Fabia vRS to something bigger. I'm finding that I could do with more cabin and boot space but like the power and economy of the diesel (why I bought the car - not because I do high miles, did about 7k in the last 12 months).

New job means I do more miles now and spend more time in the car hence the need for more space all round would be nice. In the last 4 weeks I did 1200 miles, albeit the office is only 2 miles from home and I reckon I will average around 500 miles a month for work plus my own miles so I will end up around 12-15k a year. Can you see my problem - petrol or diesel?!

The Octavia is a great car on the Golf platfrom and has a bigger boot. Estate is too big so would be the hatch. Not sure what year would be best to go for and what problems there were on them, borh engine types and what is the different on the diesel - is it just PD or CR, what does that mean in mechnical terms?

Other cars I can think of are the Golf pertrol Mk5 1.4 TSI supercharged and turbo charged 140 or 170ps

Audi A3 sport back but will cost too much

Mazda 3 MPS (be thirsty I guess!)

Mondeo 5dr diesel ST

Also toying with figures on what I would get for mine 56 plate, black, 32k, (spec below). Is this where I get depressed?!

Any help/thoughts/suggestions greatly received!

Cheers

Edited 15 May, 200917 yr by ryand

The MPS is H group on emissions tax

All I can say is after having a fabia VRS I bought a Octavia VRS PD TDI. The Fabia is now in the hands of my son and after 4+ years not a single thing has gone wrong with it apart from expected wear and tear. The Octy2 is great (bluefinned TDI) and not a single thing has gone wrong in 15K from new. Unlike one of my friends who has a new mondeo TDI which is back in the garage again ! this time for a fuel leak. I nearly bougt a new mondeo estate - Im so glad I didnt.

Mine is the estate - and is tardis like.

With the miles you doing then a TFSI VRS may be worth considering - you'll get one for a better price and it will deliver 35mpg (dependent on driving style). The engine also has the characteristics of a deisel engine with plenty of low down grunt

The estate has the same external dimensions as the hatch, just a different rear end. Length/Width is exactly the same.

I was in a similar situation to you and have a TFSi Octy now

I'd say go and try both petrol and diesel and see what you think. I'm certainly impressed with the 2.0T powerplant; it's response is excellent and has very good low-down grunt for a petrol.

Certainly do the sums carefully on ownership and running costs. Speaking personally, it made sense to go for the petrol option, based on the higher purchase price of available TDi vRSes and the time taken to re-coup that back in fuel savings.

Let us know how you get on!

Steve

The estate has the same external dimensions as the hatch, just a different rear end. Length/Width is exactly the same.

Well, I've just learnt something! I'd always thought the wagon had a significantly longer overhang than the hatch and just looked up the brochure for the OAL etc so that I could tell you with some authority how wrong you were. But you're right! Appearances can be deceptive - that overhang on the estate looks enormous.

PS: Perhaps the only minor point I can claim is that the wagon is 6mm taller than the hatch, bu that would be a Pyrrhic victory I guess!

Well, I've just learnt something! I'd always thought the wagon had a significantly longer overhang than the hatch and just looked up the brochure for the OAL etc so that I could tell you with some authority how wrong you were. But you're right! Appearances can be deceptive - that overhang on the estate looks enormous.

PS: Perhaps the only minor point I can claim is that the wagon is 6mm taller than the hatch, bu that would be a Pyrrhic victory I guess!

Mannyo isn't "staff" for nothing

Looking at your sig Ryand, you've had some nicely modded warm to hot hatches. I also went from Furby vRS to Octy vRS (TDI PD). Afraid emissions controls mean there will never be another engine quite like the 1.9 8-valve in your Furby. I found I was always concious of the extra size and weight of the Octy...until I had it re-mapped. Now it performs not unlike the Furby. In my opinion you'll need your Eibach/FSD combo on the Octy as well.

Only the very latest cars are CD. The generally-held opinion on here is that the CD is quieter, smoother and slightly more economical. PD fans say you loose that 'here comes the turbo' rush you get with the PD.

Looking at your sig Ryand, you've had some nicely modded warm to hot hatches. I also went from Furby vRS to Octy vRS (TDI PD). Afraid emissions controls mean there will never be another engine quite like the 1.9 8-valve in your Furby. I found I was always concious of the extra size and weight of the Octy...until I had it re-mapped. Now it performs not unlike the Furby. In my opinion you'll need your Eibach/FSD combo on the Octy as well.

Only the very latest cars are CD. The generally-held opinion on here is that the CD is quieter, smoother and slightly more economical. PD fans say you loose that 'here comes the turbo' rush you get with the PD.

Assume you mean CR...

Cheers for your help so far, very helpful! I think with the bank holiday coming up it might be a trip to Meadens to see whats what as they have a mix of hatch and estate petrol and deisel vrs in stock and a couple of leons to look and and compare (worth a look anyway!)

Agree that petrol will be cheaper to buy over the diesel but I just dont want to get to a point where I feel that I am always at the pump! I get a pence per mile from work so thats all good but its always nice to 'make some money' in the process, which isn't really true when you take into account all the other costs of running a car!

Now would be a good time as my furby as ok tread on the tyres but will need new by the autumn which means spending out.

Will see what next weekend brings, but would be nice to get something where I only have to put a bit of money towards it on top of mine but would probably look to sell mine on here/private as two dealers have given me a price, haha!! Only had the koni/eibach on a couple of months too so would rather see the car go as it is with everything on I think.

Any more thoughts welcome, will keep you posted!

Meant to add that in15 months of ownsership I have only covered 11k miles but as mentioned above my mileage is now going up.

As mentioned Estate is the same size as the hatch just a bit taller in boot hight.

I think the boot lip may be lower on the estate.

I bought the estate because I had a hatch for 8 years not much differance really.

Hatch is less money.

Update

I drove a 58 plate hatchback 2.0 PD vrs today. £14.5k and had loads of extras on it and only 8k miles, 1 owner (Skoda UK).

I did really like it to drive as it felt much better driving a bigger car but it did not had the punch I expected from the PD like I get in my Fabia and being a bigger car and more power I wont see the same MPG as my Fabia either, albeit it should still be good.

I need to drive a petrol too now and will try to do it asap. The dealer said I wont see more than 40mpg in the petrol and round town is will be nearer 30mpg. Diesel run I did today I reset the maxidot so and drove a mix of country and dual carriageway roads and got 35mpg (with a little of giving some beans).

With the extra cost of a diesel and at the pump (although its only about 3pm between petrol and diesel at the moment) its making it harder to decide on what is likely to be a 14-15k miles per year covered by me.

I drove from Bournemouth to Wembley stadium and back in the Fabia this week and used under half a tank, averaged 55mpg, and that included parts of journey giving it some beans.

Real tricky one this? Is it worth me trying a CR too?

Any more info on drivers of Octy II on here - mpg figs for both engines?

Thanks

Based on my experiences since purchase, the TFSi will give 27-31 urban, dependant on length/type of run. Longer trips, a 3h mway trip, largely on cruise at 80 returned 35. A moderate run on dual carriagways, around 60-70 would return 38ish.

It's difficult to say for you really, as it can differ so much depending on driver/driver style/traffic/routes and the only surefire way is for you to go and try!

HTH,

Steve

Based on my experiences since purchase, the TFSi will give 27-31 urban, dependant on length/type of run. Longer trips, a 3h mway trip, largely on cruise at 80 returned 35. A moderate run on dual carriagways, around 60-70 would return 38ish.

It's difficult to say for you really, as it can differ so much depending on driver/driver style/traffic/routes and the only surefire way is for you to go and try!

HTH,

Steve

Thanks Steve

So hypothetically speaking if you were to drive the car 20mph faster than were are allowed on a motorway figures would be quite low in comparison to a PD or CR?

Tough question! Maybe a difference of 10-15?! Not exactly sure what the mph per 1,000 is in 6th on TFSi, but at 90 on a longer mway run it might still be around 33? Not done a long enough run at that speed to tell you, only brief explorations

What would you expect from the vRS TDi at this speed? Mid 40s?

Steve

Tough question! Maybe a difference of 10-15?! Not exactly sure what the mph per 1,000 is in 6th on TFSi, but at 90 on a longer mway run it might still be around 33? Not done a long enough run at that speed to tell you, only brief explorations

What would you expect from the vRS TDi at this speed? Mid 40s?

Steve

50-55 on the Fabia vRS!!

Drove a Mk6 golf 1.4 tsi today and that felt nice to compare with petrol - wont buy one, just for comparing reasons! Need to imagine it with 80ps more - will get back to the local Skoda to test a petrol vRS I think.

Mind you the PD I drove yesterday with the spec it has. 58 plate hatch in red, 9k miles, 1 owner, jumbo, cruise (or was this standard?), front and rear park sensors, rear electric windows, climate. £14,775. Good value??

Edited 31 May, 200917 yr by ryand

I was looking at the same sort of mileage when I was looking to buy.

On paper the costs were pretty much the same so I took the extra 30hp and £1500 cheaper price.

I hadn't considered that the Octy needs Super Unleaded. So I guess the derv will be a bit cheaper over 3 years with your mileage but not a lot cheaper.

I can quite easily get 35mpg on a longer run with the car and 40mpg is possible but not fun. There always seems to be about 10mpg difference between petrol and diesel cars of this size. My mates Mazda6 derv gets 42mpg no matter how he drives it.

Do you have to use Super in the 2.0TFSI then?!

Certainly doesn't need super - there are maps for both 95 and 98 RON fuels.

With fuel prices as high as they currenty are, my Octy vRS has regular over super on most occasions.

Do you have to use Super in the 2.0TFSI then?!

It's recommended. I think most people (not all) think they get better mpg and a more pleasant drive using it. Personally when I've had to use 95RON the car has felt like it has a couple of heavy passengers on board and the mpg has been down about 10%.

Just out of interest - has anyone done some rough calculations on the current fuel prices? For example, since petrol is cheaper than diesel, does the lower petrol price make up for the lower MPG of the petrol engines?

I'm willing to guess that the overall running cost of petrol vs diesel (in terms of fuel alone) is pretty much closer these days - although diesel probably is still slightly cheaper to run (but not by as much as it used to be).

For fuel comparison figures, my vRS TDi is 18k miles old now, had no problems at all and is regularly returning 46-48mpg on decent length motorway trips. Did York to Warrington yesterday afternoon - 90ish miles at a seady 90-ish mph, and it came back at 49mpg overall. Pretty good. Upwards of 50mpg is easily possible with a slightly lighter right foot...

Round town I get mid 30s to low 40s mpg depending on exactly how bad the traffic is. Roughly the same for "spirited" b-road blasting.

Reckon on 10 less from the petrol in all arenas. Horses for courses, but just thought you'd like to see the figures!