Hello people Im trying to get a few ideas on which Skoda is best to go for. Im a massive fan of Skoda having previously owned a Favorit an then a Felicia. Im currently driving a Fiat Multipla for all my sins and I want to get rid for a Fabia or Octy. It has to be a deisel and I was thinking how does the Fabia rate alongside the Octavia. I quite like the Fabia Estate but is the SDI the one to go for or the 1.9tdi? Your insight will be very much appreciated.

get the tdi imo can get same mpg as an sdi put go faster

get the tdi imo can get same mpg as an sdi put go faster

Is the SDI really as biblically slow as they say then?

Not "biblically" slow, but the 100bhp sure feels a lot pokier than 67, or whatever the SDI has. The fabia is not a light car either.

Not "biblically" slow, but the 100bhp sure feels a lot pokier than 67, or whatever the SDI has. The fabia is not a light car either.

Its got to be a lot lighter than an Octavia though?

Hmm, I would imagine as SDI weighs in at around 1200kg.

There's only about 60kg between an Octy vRS and a Fabia vRS IIRC.

75kg between the two vRS according to Parkers (and admittedly its a diesel lump vs a petrol lump) but a bigger difference over the rest of the range.

Fabia SDI is 1250kg. Octy SDI is 1415kg.

Fabia TDI is 1270kg. Octy TDI is 1430kg.

Figures are Parkers so I don't know how accurate and I just picked a spec level at random.

Hi mate.

Me and Mrs Grr have one of each.

SDI is an uber reliable mile muncher. My other half loves hers.

You don't get any surprises with an SDI. And in recent snowy weather

I have to say that given the choice I'd rather drive that than mine.

MEGA fuel economy, Soaks up the bumps well and just goes and goes.

You won't be winning many traffic light grand prix though. I wouldn't call it slow

I'd call it steady, it cruises happily at 90mph on private roads (ahem...)

but you have to keep your momentum up as it has little grunt.

However, my VRS is a blast! Loads of fun, reasonable economy and loads of grunt.

Turbos are great, but when they go wrong they are usually an arm and a leg job to put right.

But when they're running right and looked after, will be almost as reliable as the SDI.

Have a look at the wiki page for the SDI engine and you may find out a few factoids you weren't aware of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suction_diesel_injection

Edited 27 February, 201016 yr by grr666

Have a look at the wiki page for the SDI engine and you may find out a few factoids you weren't aware of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suction_diesel_injection

Quite an interesting read that, wasn't aware the S stood for Suction

And I always thought they'd make good marine engines, but didn't know it had already been done.

Edited 27 February, 201016 yr by Leodhasach

Get a tdi and drive it sensibly and you'll still get good mpg and performance when needed. The 0-60 on the sdi is about 18seconds!!!

We have a 1.4TDI and a SDI. We like them both for different reasons. The TDI acceleration, especially at higher speeds, is great whereas the SDI is, err well poor. No problem most times just a different technique. At 70 the SDI is very quiet indeed.

Given gentle driving they give similar economy but if driven hard the TDI drops quickly whereas the SDI remains respectable. One important difference this winter has been the heating. The TDIs take forever to warm up but the SDI has heat almost immediately. When it comes to letting one go, I don't know what we'll do, but probably keep the SDI as it has a strange quality which grows on you. HTH.

Is the SDI really as biblically slow as they say then?

Having an early X reg SDi from new (bottom, I can't afford a real man's car, spec)... I can say that it isn't biblically slow.. just slow.

If you get a low spec model (without air con) the lower weight at the front does make it quite fun to drive. I rev the ass off mine. and upto around 40 mph it's very responsive.. after that you need to go down a hill to accelerate. The best way to explain motorway driving is that it'll sustain a speed but you really struggle to accelerate when over 70 without a downward incline

Saying that, I helped my father take a load of stuff to the tip a few months ago, a sofa and a couple of arm chairs in a trailer and he followed me to the tip in his older Citroen 1.4 petrol and he couldn't keep up.

However... I also own a Fabia vRS which I use the most (the wife uses the SDi) and for motorway driving the vRS is just better.

A friend of mine owns a top end Fabia PD100 and that is a nice responsive car, get one of those.

Phil.

Having an early X reg SDi from new (bottom, I can't afford a real man's car, spec)... I can say that it isn't biblically slow.. just slow.

If you get a low spec model (without air con) the lower weight at the front does make it quite fun to drive. I rev the ass off mine. and upto around 40 mph it's very responsive.. after that you need to go down a hill to accelerate. The best way to explain motorway driving is that it'll sustain a speed but you really struggle to accelerate when over 70 without a downward incline

Saying that, I helped my father take a load of stuff to the tip a few months ago, a sofa and a couple of arm chairs in a trailer and he followed me to the tip in his older Citroen 1.4 petrol and he couldn't keep up.

However... I also own a Fabia vRS which I use the most (the wife uses the SDi) and for motorway driving the vRS is just better.

A friend of mine owns a top end Fabia PD100 and that is a nice responsive car, get one of those.

Phil.

Hi Phil, im basically in the same boat as you are mate. I really dont have Mega Bucks at all. The Car I have at the moment is a Fiat Multipla 1.9JTD. It goes like the wind but the Faster it is the more MPG I lose and its quite substantial. The problem is also the Tank size on it, being a massive 70 litre Tank. Obviously as you can imagine it needs a Mortgage to fill it, i also do a lot of Mileage. I love Skoda and though the SDI was a good choice, Im not bothered about what its got or what it hasnt got, MPG is the most important thing to me!!

Simple choice then... SDI sounds like the engine for you mate...

My other halfs has done 90k so far. She does a 100mile round trip M25 commute..

This little car just eats it up. Hers is a 54 reg so above average milage I'd say.

Its still a quality ride IMO and there are no noticable squeaks or rattles.

We'll be keeping it til it dies.... could be a while

Simple choice then... SDI sounds like the engine for you mate...

My other halfs has done 90k so far. She does a 100mile round trip M25 commute..

This little car just eats it up. Hers is a 54 reg so above average milage I'd say.

Its still a quality ride IMO and there are no noticable squeaks or rattles.

We'll be keeping it til it dies.... could be a while

Hello again Mate, it certainly does sound like the SDI is the one I should be going for, Im really not worried about power, the JTD has put paid to that!!

Hi Phil, im basically in the same boat as you are mate. I really dont have Mega Bucks at all. The Car I have at the moment is a Fiat Multipla 1.9JTD. It goes like the wind but the Faster it is the more MPG I lose and its quite substantial. The problem is also the Tank size on it, being a massive 70 litre Tank. Obviously as you can imagine it needs a Mortgage to fill it, i also do a lot of Mileage. I love Skoda and though the SDI was a good choice, Im not bothered about what its got or what it hasnt got, MPG is the most important thing to me!!

All other things being equal, having a smaller tank won't mean you spend less on fuel, just you fill up more often. OK, it may make a tiny difference what with the weight when it's full but you get my drift.................

If you want to get good MPG then drive gently, ensure your tyres are correctly inflated, take excess junk out of the boot, keep the windows up on the motorway.......... blah blah blah. I'm sure you've heard it all before.

I've had a quick look on autotrader and the cheapest Skoda Greenline Fabia is approaching £9k. Still quite new I guess. The cheapest VW bluemotion polo OTOH is £5,750. It's got the sdi engine you've been looking at as I understand it Bluemotion cars have tyres with lower rolling resistance, longer gear ratios, aerodynamic tweaks to the body work all with a view to improving MPG. I don't know if this is in budget but may be worth a look?