First time adding item.

I am looking at getting Octavia VRS new shape. I drive a Fabia VRS Reg 04 just woundering if i get the Petrol would it be a lot more to run Eg Fuel. Just the Petrol is cheaper to buy and as have paid off my Fabia dont want to be paying Finance month after month :'(

The savings you will make on buying the petrol version over the diesel one will soon be swallowed up with dearer insurance, dearer VED and less MPG (not to mention the diesel will have a higher resale value).

Don't dismiss the diesel purely on the cost of purchase! drive them both then decide which you prefer.

i had the same decision to make a while back, and went for the petrol vrs and have been ok so far.... its averaging around 35 mpg with careful driving over the 36 miles a day i do to and from work. There is it seems alot of expensive stuff to go wrong with diesels and with regards to insurance i have come from an mg zt cdti to the vrs and dont pay a great deal more on insurance. I would agree on driving both to see what you like and also bear in mind its recommended to use super unleaded which means fuel prices arent all that much different anyway.

oh and in my opinion resale values dont mean alot if your gonna keep it for a while as your gonna lose out anyway, i used to have a peugeot 306 and was always trying to keep it in good nick so i got the most i could back when i sold it.... that ended up on its roof so i stopped worrying about that

Edited 5 August, 201015 yr by spanner28

It depends on a number of factors, some to do with economy and some to do with prefered driving style and use of the car.

There are a number of online calculators that will access the money/economy/savings side of things (that vary slightly all the time due to changes in feul prices), but essentially unless you drive more than around 14,000 miles each year it almost always works out cheaper to buy a petrol as the slightly higher prices at the pumps and lower mpg will be offset by the cheaper initial purchase price. You should also note that due to improvements most petrol engines (even a vRS petrol engine) has better fuel economy these days so the gap has narrowed, but even so if you are a high milage driver then diesel will be the cheaper long-term option (hence taxis almost always being oil burners!). As has been said though you should also check out insurance issues (compare online quotes now) although a lot of the time that makes no or very little difference on a vRS.

In terms of driving style, if you do a lot of motorway miles then diesel may be the prefered option as there is a lot of mid range torque available between 50-70 for overtaking at cruising speed. That said, I have never had a power issue on motorways from my petrol vRS. If most of your driving is around town then a petrol option may be better suited to stop/start lower speeds as you will have better accelleration. A lot comes down to taste, but I have driven both and much prefer the petrol - its quicker and quieter (eg you don't feel like you are driving a taxi!).

Finally there is a green issue (although as a vRS purchaser this may not be high up the list!). If you do a lot of town driving then despite higher carbon emissions, a petrol engine is a lot cleaner to the environment because unless a diesel engine has been driven for a while it will spit out a lot of nasty particles and pollutants (until the particle converter thing warms up), so normally diesels are not nice in towns in terms of pollution. On the other hand, if you do a lot of longer journeys then diesel will be the greener option.

But ultimately a lot comes down to taste. I'm normally a low milage driver and preferred the better performance of petrol over diesel so for me there was only one choice really, but its most definately a horses for courses question...

Depends how you rate thrills.

The Diesel is almost just another diesel. It takes a slow 8.4 seconds to get to 62 mph but yes it can do 50 mpg. It is peaky to drive, compared to the Petrol too unless you go for DSG so the shifts are done for you. We have a TSI VRS and it is fantasitic except around town for fuel consumption drops to 25-30 mpg, on A roads it will do 40-43 mpg.

I have just ordered a 1.8T DSG L&K Hatch, it does 7.8s 0-62 mph, 43 mpg combined. Worth considering I thought hence I ordered it ie very good performance, economy etc.

Diesel more to buy of course. When it come to residuals diesel are usually a bit better but TSIs are now closer to diesel running costs etc than previous petrol models.

If I lived where diesel was much cheaper than petrol I might go for diesel although I get a company fuel card so makes little difference.

Food for your and other thoughts I hope.

Kr

lol

You have already experienced a sporty Diesel so as already suggested you need to drive the petrol version and if possible the diesel in the Octavia, personally I believe if you go down the hot hatch route then there is only one way to go and that’s petrol purely for the pure drivability of a petrol over a diesel. Also if you’re buying a car with more than 200 horses your cant be to concerned about running costs…… your be buying for the thrill.

As a comparison my VRS 2.0TSI will do around 32mpg going to work and back (lots of roundabouts and short dual carriageways) and general short journeys. Bare in mind I drive a VRS as it’s meant to be driven not pussy footing around.

On a longer journeys involving motorways and long stretches of dual carriageways sitting at around 80ish it will hit 38-39mpg.

Depends on how many miles you will be doing.

I commute 15 miles to work on a single carriageway A road, 60mpg with bursts of hard acceleration for overtaking. I can get 37mpg pretty easily, 32 on a a bad day.

If you are going to drive the car hard every day you'll get well under 30mpg. But a hard driven diesel isn't going to get 50mpg.

If you're going to do a lot of urban driving you do seem to get problems with diesels. They need heating up on a good run or you can run into DPF problems..

Insurance isn't bad on a Skoda, there won't be much difference between the two VRS versions.

The FL car uses normal unleaded I think rather than the more expensive Super mine likes.

Diesel is dearer to buy but you'll get a lot of that back when you come to sell.

The petrol has a lot of torque, I was surprised just how well it pulls in high gears and from low revs.

The diesel feels fast too. I drove both before choosing.

There isn't much in it. Which is the very reason that made me chose the petrol.

The FL car uses normal unleaded I think rather than the more expensive Super mine likes.

That a good point, on my old MK2 with the FSI engine, it ran a lot better on super, the fuel flap stated 97RON were as the the TSI states minimum 95RON

Just did an online comparison on insurance and for me it was £30 cheaper for the petrol.

As for original question - ompletely down to the individual.

I went for petrol as knew mleage would be less than 15000, wanted something that warmed up quicker in winter, like the sound, less isues to go wrong with TFSI, less insurance, less on fuel and car was ~£1500 less than equivalent petrol.

DIesel i had before (Fab vrs) was ace, but my mechanical sympathy didnt like all the torque and it needed remapping to make it feel more driveable IMO. The TFSI I have now is great. realistic 70mpd jaunt on motorway around 37/38 mpg. round town about 27 ish. most damage (£££) is done in first few miles so it has got me on my bike more for the 5 mile trip to work!

Both cars are great as the engine is just a part of the package and you will get used to either. Test drive both and go for which ever feels better given the info you've read so far...

Good luck

I have just ordered a 1.8T DSG L&K Hatch, it does 7.8s 0-62 mph, 43 mpg combined. Worth considering I thought hence I ordered it ie very good performance, economy etc.

Nice car - I've had the estate version of the above since March - 4300 miles now. Very careful driving (very little in town) is getting me 36mpg. I've always run diesels before and would be happy to do so again but this car is very superior indeed and brilliant to drive. Silent, smooth and fast.

Also bear in mind the DPF on the diesel if you are just going to be mostly around town and short journeys, may cause issues when it tries to regen

It depends on a number of factors, some to do with economy and some to do with prefered driving style and use of the car.

There are a number of online calculators that will access the money/economy/savings side of things (that vary slightly all the time due to changes in feul prices), but essentially unless you drive more than around 14,000 miles each year it almost always works out cheaper to buy a petrol as the slightly higher prices at the pumps and lower mpg will be offset by the cheaper initial purchase price.

I have to completely disagree with this statement as it is complete rubbish.

A diesel is cheaper to run even if doing sub 10k miles a year (use on of the calculators and see). The difference in purchase price between petrol and diesel is around £800. A diesel VRS is £55 cheaper a year on road tax and around 30% more efficient to run on fuel. If taking average fuel economy of say 45mpg for the diesel and 35mpg for the petrol and 10k a year driving you use 286 (1300 litres) gallons of petrol and 222 (1010 litres) gallons of diesel. Taking prices as £1.14 per litre for petrol and £1.16 for diesel then this comes to £1482 for the petrol for a year and £1170 for the diesel so saving £312 per year. Hence in 3 years of motoring you save £1046. Hence it is cheaper with the diesel and that is without factoriong in higher resale value, cheaper insurance (it is several insurance groups lower so will be cheaper) and I have also been very conservative with the fuel economies (high for the petrol and low for the diesel). I regularly see 50mpg on my VRS CR which would add another £300 or so to the diesel saving.

Also I would dispute the peaky drive. This was certainly the case with the PD VRS but the new CR drives a lot more like a petrol with a much smoother power delivery.

A petrol vRS will lap a race track faster than a diesel but the diesel will do more laps.

That's the choice!

Steve

I have to completely disagree with this statement as it is complete rubbish.

A diesel is cheaper to run even if doing sub 10k miles a year (use on of the calculators and see). The difference in purchase price between petrol and diesel is around £800. A diesel VRS is £55 cheaper a year on road tax and around 30% more efficient to run on fuel. If taking average fuel economy of say 45mpg for the diesel and 35mpg for the petrol and 10k a year driving you use 286 (1300 litres) gallons of petrol and 222 (1010 litres) gallons of diesel. Taking prices as £1.14 per litre for petrol and £1.16 for diesel then this comes to £1482 for the petrol for a year and £1170 for the diesel so saving £312 per year. Hence in 3 years of motoring you save £1046. Hence it is cheaper with the diesel and that is without factoriong in higher resale value, cheaper insurance (it is several insurance groups lower so will be cheaper) and I have also been very conservative with the fuel economies (high for the petrol and low for the diesel). I regularly see 50mpg on my VRS CR which would add another £300 or so to the diesel saving.

Also I would dispute the peaky drive. This was certainly the case with the PD VRS but the new CR drives a lot more like a petrol with a much smoother power delivery.

Hmm, well I've not used one of the comparison tools for quite a while now, and the problem is that they will continually vary as the relative costs of petrol over diesel change due to various factors (inc tax), and there has been a tendency in recent years for the price gap between petrol and diesel at the pumps to narrow in real terms. Add to that the fact that most modern petrol engines have significantly better fuel economy than they did years ago (while the diesel mpg fugures have not improved so quickly), and you can see that in many ways the economic aspect of the issue is different to what it once was. Certainly now it may well be the case that 10k miles per year is the rough dividing line on whether diesel will save you money on a new car purchase - but it was only a couple of years ago that the dividing line was commonly held to be 13/14k miles per year (although driving style and journey type also come into it), but I'm happy to stand corrected. Of course, while diesel performance may well be better now in terms of smoother power delivery, it still sounds like a taxi

I agree about the taxi bit, I have a Mk 1 octy vRS which is going as I have ordered a new vRS, wk build 35, so should see it mid september.

My neighbour has an audi diesel, and leaves before me everyday to go to work, and I have to say, it sounds horribley like a taxi

Hence, I ordered a new petrol one......

I also only do about 10'000 a year, so saw it as being pretty level as regards costs

Steve

Edited 5 August, 201015 yr by sdwilliams72

My neighbour has an audi diesel, and leaves before me everyday to go to work, and I have to say, it sounds horribly like a taxi

So he uses the horn a lot in residential areas? :p

The only time the CR VRS even sounds like a diesel is while it's idling. I've noticed a lot of petrol engined cars have started to sound more like diesels on startup too though. The CR engine is probably the smoothest pulling engine I've driven too.

I like my diesel for its ability to drive pretty hard when I feel like it while being a lazy cruiser if I don't. If you're getting a 200 bhp petrol VRS it'll have more than enough torque to cruise without having to work the gears anyway, so not an issue. It's really when comparing naturally aspirated petrols with diesels that this has any validity anyway. The DPF problems have me worried about whether I should buy diesel for my next car alright though...

Is servicing relatively more expensive for the diesel VRS over the petrol?

I would not worry too much about the DPF. I had one on my PD VRS and now have one on my CR VRS and have had no issues with either. My normal driving is 10 miles to work and back on a mixture of roads so hardly a long journey. I have only had the DPF go into regen once in over 4 years of drinving with a DPF and that one time was due to a problem in the exhaust sensor.

So he uses the horn a lot in residential areas? :p

The only time the CR VRS even sounds like a diesel is while it's idling. I've noticed a lot of petrol engined cars have started to sound more like diesels on startup too though. The CR engine is probably the smoothest pulling engine I've driven too.

I like my diesel for its ability to drive pretty hard when I feel like it while being a lazy cruiser if I don't. If you're getting a 200 bhp petrol VRS it'll have more than enough torque to cruise without having to work the gears anyway, so not an issue. It's really when comparing naturally aspirated petrols with diesels that this has any validity anyway. The DPF problems have me worried about whether I should buy diesel for my next car alright though...

Have you ever stood next to an E60 M5 when it starts up!? 507bhp and It sounds like a 520d on start up!

PETROL ALL THE WAY MY FRIEND, Its a lot more fun to drive, and you dont hit the brick wall at 4000 rpm like you do in the diesel, the dsg is a beter bet in the diesel rather than the manual but you want to try the dsg in the petrol its wicked i am getting around 28mpg around town and late thirties on a run and bear in mind mine is pushing over 260 bhp. with all the mods declared to my insures i am paying £320.00 a year fully comp and protected and got entitlement to drive anyones car third party, also ive been told cos i am a technition by trade i get stung on insurance as well. as for diesels yes they are better on fuel and do have a good torque figure but we see a lot returning for faults with dpf problems, dual mass faults, injector faults, etc, all that souds ok if your under warranty but when it runs out get ready for some serious bills. and as for petrol vrs we dont see many for big faults only small niggly faults which you also get on the diesel. service wise it depends on what kind of service you have but in general there isnt hardly any difference in price between the diesel and petrol. my thoughts are i had the choice of petrol or diesel for the same money (brand new as i got staff discount) and i went petrol read into that what you wish but its not rocket science as to why a skoda tech decided to go petrol

the last nine cars i have owned have been petrol, i opted for a diesel octavia and will never go back to a petrol, its torquey, quiet and gives me a great saving. In fact, i would go as far to say that it is quieter than some of the petrols i have owned. Oh, and theres no black clouds of smoke like the old types of diesles. My advice would be go for a TDI over a petrol.

Once upon a time, I had quite a few diesels, my last one was a Fabia Vrs. Then they started putting dpf's on diesels - not a good idea if you live on the Isle of Wight as many diesel owners who now know what limp home mode is will testify. Then I retired and I've now got an Octy 1.8Tsi petrol. Bloody Great! In 40 years of driving cars, this is one of the best petrol engines I've come across.

I have to completely disagree with this statement as it is complete rubbish.

A diesel is cheaper to run even if doing sub 10k miles a year (use on of the calculators and see). The difference in purchase price between petrol and diesel is around £800. A diesel VRS is £55 cheaper a year on road tax and around 30% more efficient to run on fuel. If taking average fuel economy of say 45mpg for the diesel and 35mpg for the petrol and 10k a year driving you use 286 (1300 litres) gallons of petrol and 222 (1010 litres) gallons of diesel. Taking prices as £1.14 per litre for petrol and £1.16 for diesel then this comes to £1482 for the petrol for a year and £1170 for the diesel so saving £312 per year. Hence in 3 years of motoring you save £1046. Hence it is cheaper with the diesel and that is without factoriong in higher resale value, cheaper insurance (it is several insurance groups lower so will be cheaper) and I have also been very conservative with the fuel economies (high for the petrol and low for the diesel). I regularly see 50mpg on my VRS CR which would add another £300 or so to the diesel saving.

Also I would dispute the peaky drive. This was certainly the case with the PD VRS but the new CR drives a lot more like a petrol with a much smoother power delivery.

got to completly agree with you pal,the diesel is alot better car in my eyes,you will never get anywere near 50mpg out of the petrol vrs infact unless you drive like your grandad does i bet you will not even see 40mpg,ive a 10 plate vrs cr diesel and its always giving me late 40's to early 50's in mpg,mines re-mapped and will do a petrol on in performance and when i got to sell it it will do £3k-£5k more than a petrol model,cheaper road tax so why buy a petrol as you will never be away from the pumps pal

got to completly agree with you pal,the diesel is alot better car in my eyes,you will never get anywere near 50mpg out of the petrol vrs infact unless you drive like your grandad does i bet you will not even see 40mpg,ive a 10 plate vrs cr diesel and its always giving me late 40's to early 50's in mpg,mines re-mapped and will do a petrol on in performance and when i got to sell it it will do £3k-£5k more than a petrol model,cheaper road tax so why buy a petrol as you will never be away from the pumps pal

Spoken Like true diesel owners....... personally having had two petrol VRS's (1.8T and the 2.0T) then upgrading to the FL I though maybe it's time to look at the TDI so the sales guy arrange a test drive, went out in it and then ordered the 2.0TSI (apologized to the sale guys as the demo had been brought in from another garage). Problem is I like to drive a sports model like a sports model is meant to be driven and you just don’t get the same feel and response with the diesel as you do petrol period.

Think you need to go straight into a diesel VRS having never owned the petrol version because you’re always looking for that extra oomph imo.

I could never understand the GF getting a Diesel A3 convertible? The two words should never be in the same sentence and I feel the same with a sports hatch/saloon. It’s very narrow minded I know and is purely my own opinion before people take offense.

Once a Diesel owner always a diesel owner once a petrol owner always a petrol owner till the penny bites….

Edited 6 August, 201015 yr by Hyperviper34

got to completly agree with you pal,the diesel is alot better car in my eyes,you will never get anywere near 50mpg out of the petrol vrs infact unless you drive like your grandad does i bet you will not even see 40mpg,ive a 10 plate vrs cr diesel and its always giving me late 40's to early 50's in mpg,mines re-mapped and will do a petrol on in performance and when i got to sell it it will do £3k-£5k more than a petrol model,cheaper road tax so why buy a petrol as you will never be away from the pumps pal

I have to disagree with that mate, my remapped TSI will do 43-44 mpg all day long at cruising speed 75-80 mph, and if you use your car as much as I do thats a quick as I'm willing to go down todays motorways :'(

In all honesty when I went to order the car I may have swung for the diesel, but would have had to wait 3-4 months to get one to my spec, and they had a petrol one just waiting.

In reality living with the petrol, especially with the remap its a flying machine, and far more economical than my last car so thats good enough for me