I normally run my old 1989 8V GTI on standard (branded) unleaded and get an average reading of maybe 38-40 on a mixed run on the MFA. However I recently tanked up on the ESSO super stuff as I was going away for the weekend camping and it was only a few pence more expensive per litre.

The car was fully loaded with the seats down and I was keeping up with my mate in his new X1 doing up to 80mph in some parts of motorway. So I didn't even think of looking at the MFA until I was almost at the destination and when I did I was very surprised to see an mpg of 44.1 showing! I'm not sure how it works out mpg or even how accurate it is but I've never seen figures like that even when I'm driving very economically without a load.

When I get my Yeti I'll be avoiding the supermarkets fuel although I didn't mind using it in our old Jazz. The only thing

I'm unsure of is whether or not the 1.2 TSI should be run on standard or super?

From the owner's manual:-

Fuel

Petrol

Grades of petrol

Your vehicle can only be operated with unleaded petrol, which complies with the

standard EN 228. The individual grades of petrol are distinguished by their octane

number (RON). On the inside of the fuel filler flap, you will find the information

regarding the RON required by your engine  page 201, fig. 160.

Prescribed fuel - unleaded petrol 95/91 RON

Use unleaded petrol 95 RON. You can also use unleaded petrol 91 RON, but this leads

to a slight loss in performance.

If, in case of necessity, the vehicle must be refuelled with petrol of a lower octane

number than the one prescribed, you must continue driving at medium engine speeds

and low engine load. Driving at high engine speeds or a high engine load can severely

damage the engine! Refuel as soon as possible with petrol of the prescribed octane

number.

Prescribed fuel - unleaded petrol min. 95 RON

Use unleaded petrol 95 RON.

In case of necessity, you can refuel with petrol 91 RON if petrol 95 RON is not available.

You must continue driving at medium engine speeds and minimum engine load.

Driving at high engine speeds or a high engine load can severely damage the engine!

Refuel as soon as possible with petrol of the prescribed octane number.

Even in case of necessity, you must not use petrol of a lower octane number than 91,

otherwise the engine can be severely damaged!

You can find further information on refuelling  page 201.

Unleaded petrol with higher octane number

You can make unlimited use of unleaded petrol which has a higher octane number

than the one prescribed.

On vehicles with prescribed unleaded petrol 95/91 RON, the use of petrol with a

higher octane number than 95 does not result in a noticeable power increase or a

lower fuel consumption.

On vehicles with prescribed unleaded petrol min. 95 RON, the use of petrol with a

higher octane number than 95 does not result in a power increase or a lower fuel

consumption.

Caution

ï‚· All Å koda vehicles with petrol engines are equipped with a catalytic converter and

must be only driven with unleaded petrol. Filling the tank even only once with leaded

petrol will result in the catalytic converter being destroyed!

ï‚· Only use unleaded petrol which complies with the standard EN 228.

ï‚· If you use petrol with a lower octane number than the one prescribed, the engine

can be severely damaged!

Note

The handling, performance and life of your engine are determined to a significant

extent by the quality of the fuel. Do not use any petrol additives.

From the owner's manual:-

Fuel

Petrol

Grades of petrol

Your vehicle can only be operated with unleaded petrol, which complies with the

standard EN 228. The individual grades of petrol are distinguished by their octane

number (RON). On the inside of the fuel filler flap, you will find the information

regarding the RON required by your engine  page 201, fig. 160.

Prescribed fuel - unleaded petrol 95/91 RON

Use unleaded petrol 95 RON. You can also use unleaded petrol 91 RON, but this leads

to a slight loss in performance.

If, in case of necessity, the vehicle must be refuelled with petrol of a lower octane

number than the one prescribed, you must continue driving at medium engine speeds

and low engine load. Driving at high engine speeds or a high engine load can severely

damage the engine! Refuel as soon as possible with petrol of the prescribed octane

number.

Prescribed fuel - unleaded petrol min. 95 RON

Use unleaded petrol 95 RON.

In case of necessity, you can refuel with petrol 91 RON if petrol 95 RON is not available.

You must continue driving at medium engine speeds and minimum engine load.

Driving at high engine speeds or a high engine load can severely damage the engine!

Refuel as soon as possible with petrol of the prescribed octane number.

Even in case of necessity, you must not use petrol of a lower octane number than 91,

otherwise the engine can be severely damaged!

You can find further information on refuelling  page 201.

Unleaded petrol with higher octane number

You can make unlimited use of unleaded petrol which has a higher octane number

than the one prescribed.

On vehicles with prescribed unleaded petrol 95/91 RON, the use of petrol with a

higher octane number than 95 does not result in a noticeable power increase or a

lower fuel consumption.

On vehicles with prescribed unleaded petrol min. 95 RON, the use of petrol with a

higher octane number than 95 does not result in a power increase or a lower fuel

consumption.

Caution

 All Škoda vehicles with petrol engines are equipped with a catalytic converter and

must be only driven with unleaded petrol. Filling the tank even only once with leaded

petrol will result in the catalytic converter being destroyed!

 Only use unleaded petrol which complies with the standard EN 228.

 If you use petrol with a lower octane number than the one prescribed, the engine

can be severely damaged!

Note

The handling, performance and life of your engine are determined to a significant

extent by the quality of the fuel. Do not use any petrol additives.

Cheers, 95 RON it is. I'll be giving my manual a good read when I get it.

I've posted this before, but here goes again.

Fuel manufacturers share distribution centres, which is why although the signage may say Esso, you will see other sellers in them. When a tanker goes to load they basically input a code into the system and this specifies what goes in, and what additives are included. Typically the supermarkets do not include some additives, such as diesel anti-foaming agent or some injector cleaners. All get various dyes and chemical traces so that the retailer can be traced, plus whether duty has been paid.

My father was a Bulk Plant manager for Esso, and he would never buy their fuel, because if he did he had to keep the proof of sale. HM Customs would visit plants and randomly dip cars to make sure pilfering was going on.

Personally I buy BP or Texaco as they are my local retailers and never supermarket fuels if I can help it. Certainly on the Freelander I found I got 10% worse consumption using supermarket fuel, plus it smoked more.

I didn't realise pilfering used to be compulsory .

I normally run my old 1989 8V GTI on standard (branded) unleaded and get an average reading of maybe 38-40 on a mixed run on the MFA. However I recently tanked up on the ESSO super stuff as I was going away for the weekend camping and it was only a few pence more expensive per litre.

The car was fully loaded with the seats down and I was keeping up with my mate in his new X1 doing up to 80mph in some parts of motorway. So I didn't even think of looking at the MFA until I was almost at the destination and when I did I was very surprised to see an mpg of 44.1 showing! I'm not sure how it works out mpg or even how accurate it is but I've never seen figures like that even when I'm driving very economically without a load.

When I get my Yeti I'll be avoiding the supermarkets fuel although I didn't mind using it in our old Jazz. The only thing

I'm unsure of is whether or not the 1.2 TSI should be run on standard or super?

It really is one of those things that you don't know what to believe, this is a question answered by What Car

From What Car?

Q: Is it true that the fuel sold at supermarket petrol stations is not of the same quality as that as you would buy from a dedicated petrol station?

Alex Wells

A: According to the Petrol Retailers Association, there is no difference between the standard petrol you buy from supermarkets or franchised petrol stations. In most cases the petrol and diesel is even produced at the same refinery and delivered in the same trucks.

The exception to this is specialist fuels, such as Shell’s Optimax and BP’s Ultimate. In their case, the fuel is enhanced with additives, which produce that brand’s particular properties.

So according to the P.R.A. there's no difference unless you're going for the dear stuff.

I suppose the argument/difference of opinion will never be resolved but I've used supermarket petrol for years with no problem, perhaps I should try the other and see what improvement I get or not :yes:

Andy

Agreed, all fuel is produced to a BS somethingorother. That is the basic stuff that then has the additives included as it is delivered to the tankers.

Cheers, 95 RON it is. I'll be giving my manual a good read when I get it.

This was added to the Owner's Manual Supplement 11/2010.

Prescribed fuel - unleaded petrol 98/(95) RON

Use unleaded petrol 98 RON. You can also use unleaded RON 95. However some loss

of power is to be expected when doing so.

If unleaded RON 98 or RON 95 is not available, you can refuel with unleaded RON 91

in an emergency. After refuelling, continue driving at medium engine speeds and

minimum engine load. Driving at high engine speeds or heavy engine loads can lead

to serious engine damage! Refuel with petrol with the specified octane number as

often as possible.

Fuel with a lower octane number than RON 91 must not be used even in an emergency.

Otherwise you can cause serious engine damage!

Eeck. I have a Shell fuel station half a mile from my house where I always fill up. And it is now closed until the 24th of June for a refurbishment! Phew so not forever thankfully!

And since I got my car it has had a 99,9% diet of Shell only (thanks to the helpful advice on this very forum). Two tanks of the pricey stuff (both by accident) and only one tank of Tesco since we were far from home travelling and had nowhere else to go! I hope that does not ruin my engine!

Build well and build quickly chaps! I want my Shell back!

It may be a pain in the a*** for a few weeks but it will be worth it afterwards.

One of the two Shell stations I routinely use (Stirling Corner and Apex Corner on the A1) has recently been shut, refurbished and re-opened and it is wonderful.

The two primary areas of improvement are 1) the 'shop' is twice the size of before, much lighter etc. and 2) the pumps have been changed from 3 nozzles per station to 4 nozzles. This means that all fuel types are available from all pump stations as opposed to before when, for example, V-Power Diesel was only available on 4 of 12 stations.

Be patient and then enjoy.

I too use only Shell unless in an emergency. Stopped using v power diesel as it is so expensive now.

Tesco diesel locally to me is 140.9p per litre but I buy Shell V-Power at (last time) 148.9p.

50 litres @ 8p difference is £4.00 per tankful. Not a great amount and IMHO worth the extra.

You could alternatively, although I use it as well, use Millers DieselPower Ecomax http://www.millersoils.net/M3_cgi/millers2.cgi?product_id=203&exact_match=on&type=automotive&cart_id= to spice up your 'regular' fuel; currently available with 25% discount from Opie Oils if you check their post in the Group Buy forum.

2) the pumps have been changed from 3 nozzles per station to 4 nozzles. This means that all fuel types are available from all pump stations as opposed to before when,

Be patient and then enjoy.

Brilliant!!! This station ALWAYS has queues to get in and I once made the mistake to go to the end to only find the expensive stuff there! So all types at all pumps will be great. And driving past yesterday yes all the pumps are gone.

Over on the Fabia II section all the vRS owners (and owners to be) have a debate about using 98 ron or 95 ron stuff.

I for one will be using the V-Power 98 ron fuel as this is what is on the fuel cap and as the tank is quite small it will only cost £1.50 a tank more than the 95 ron stuff. Engine should/will run better, will go better and be more economical, why use anything else if it states 98?

Its the same with your caps saying 95 and (91) although i'm not sure any petrol stations use 91 anymore lol

Tesco diesel locally to me is 140.9p per litre but I buy Shell V-Power at (last time) 148.9p.

50 litres @ 8p difference is £4.00 per tankful. Not a great amount and IMHO worth the extra.

You could alternatively, although I use it as well, use Millers DieselPower Ecomax http://www.millersoils.net/M3_cgi/millers2.cgi?product_id=203&exact_match=on&type=automotive&cart_id= to spice up your 'regular' fuel; currently available with 25% discount from Opie Oils if you check their post in the Group Buy forum.

The following was cut and pasted from the 2010 Manual. Seems pretty clear, Skoda do not want you to use any additives with their petrol or Diesel engines.

Petrol

"The handling, performance and life of your engine are determined to a significant

extent by the quality of the fuel. Do not use any petrol additives".

Diesel

Diesel fuel

"Your vehicle can only be operated with diesel fuel, which complies with the standard

EN 590 (standard DIN 51628 in Germany, standard ÖNORM C 1590 in Austria).

Fuel additives

You must not use fuel additives, so-called “flow improvers†(petrol and similar products)

in diesel fuel".