Reason for purchase : Economical commuting car - 30 miles each way, 90% on dual carriageway. Hope to obtain 60 MPG/ 500 miles per tank after run in period

Order date : w/c 21st February 2011

Collection date : w/c 23rd May 2011

Add ons - None - standard spec, took Skoda Finance for 30k servicing offer. Nice little bonus which I wouldn't have got if there was no waiting period.

Fuel Economy

Read various threads about this engine and economy, and have to admit I was a little nervous of what would be achieved 'out of the box'. I should of not worried, out of the dealers, 30 miles later ( 5 miles town, 10 miles country lanes and 15 miles motorway) I managed 55.7 MPG on the computer!! Air Con on, first drive etc, well chuffed. Just drove it normally, taking it up to 80 on the motorway with no hard acceleration, and sticking pretty much to the recommended gear on the display.

So far so good, now for the first commute to work, best I could do in my Octavia was 50 MPG, although dual carriageway flat it ain't. Arrive at car park scroll through to journey MPG on display and hey presto, 61.4MPG !! Get in. My Octy did 500 miles a tank and required four tanks a month. Hopefully this will be the same but with the smaller tank, 40 less litres of diesel a month, quite a saving.

Performance

As others have said, this engine just gives and gives, surprised a couple of VAG cousins as I cruised by! I previously had an Octy 138bhp PD diesel and performance is of course down but not too much particularly in 3/4th gear.

Not pushed the car yet but handles great and more engaging to drive than the Octy. Steering is sharp.

Build quality

All good, really like the radio. Not mastered all the Air Con combos yet, but seems to work well. Seat / driving position no different from the Octy which is all good. You can see money saved on dash plastic but given the Audi A1 is 5k more I can live with it. Only thing I would change is the internal door handles to metal from plastic, a little cheap.

Only one annoying thing noted so far is the dash computer shows current speed in kph!

For those still waiting, whatever version you have gone for, it is worth they wait.

I will update again as everything beds in, but after the first few days, my Fab is er Fab!

Reason for purchase : Economical commuting car - 30 miles each way, 90% on dual carriageway. Hope to obtain 60 MPG/ 500 miles per tank after run in period

Order date : w/c 21st February 2011

Collection date : w/c 23rd May 2011

Add ons - None - standard spec, took Skoda Finance for 30k servicing offer. Nice little bonus which I wouldn't have got if there was no waiting period.

Fuel Economy

Read various threads about this engine and economy, and have to admit I was a little nervous of what would be achieved 'out of the box'. I should of not worried, out of the dealers, 30 miles later ( 5 miles town, 10 miles country lanes and 15 miles motorway) I managed 55.7 MPG on the computer!! Air Con on, first drive etc, well chuffed. Just drove it normally, taking it up to 80 on the motorway with no hard acceleration, and sticking pretty much to the recommended gear on the display.

So far so good, now for the first commute to work, best I could do in my Octavia was 50 MPG, although dual carriageway flat it ain't. Arrive at car park scroll through to journey MPG on display and hey presto, 61.4MPG !! Get in. My Octy did 500 miles a tank and required four tanks a month. Hopefully this will be the same but with the smaller tank, 40 less litres of diesel a month, quite a saving.

Performance

As others have said, this engine just gives and gives, surprised a couple of VAG cousins as I cruised by! I previously had an Octy 138bhp PD diesel and performance is of course down but not too much particularly in 3/4th gear.

Not pushed the car yet but handles great and more engaging to drive than the Octy. Steering is sharp.

Build quality

All good, really like the radio. Not mastered all the Air Con combos yet, but seems to work well. Seat / driving position no different from the Octy which is all good. You can see money saved on dash plastic but given the Audi A1 is 5k more I can live with it. Only thing I would change is the internal door handles to metal from plastic, a little cheap.

Only one annoying thing noted so far is the dash computer shows current speed in kph!

For those still waiting, whatever version you have gone for, it is worth they wait.

I will update again as everything beds in, but after the first few days, my Fab is er Fab!

good review,I have the Elegance in black magic with several extras sat nav and stuff, you can change the kph apparently with a vagcom thing just set it to australia there is a thread here somewhere you need to find someone to do it , pretty easy to do ive done about 1500 miles now and i have been getting low to high 60mpg from day one so pretty economical

Really useful info, thanks for posting.

good review,I have the Elegance in black magic with several extras sat nav and stuff, you can change the kph apparently with a vagcom thing just set it to australia there is a thread here somewhere you need to find someone to do it , pretty easy to do ive done about 1500 miles now and i have been getting low to high 60mpg from day one so pretty economical

Just thought i'd mention the computer shows speed in km/h as there is no km/h gradings on the analogue speedo. It's a legal requirement in the UK to display both measurements hence why the digital one is in km/h.

Edited 26 May, 201115 yr by pipsyp

Just thought i'd mention the computer shows speed in km/h as there is now kmh gradings on the analogue speedo. It's a legal requirement in the UK to display both measurements hence why the digital one is in km/h.

did'nt know thats its a legal requirement as a few members have changed settinf to so australian cars so everything in miles

did'nt know thats its a legal requirement as a few members have changed settinf to so australian cars so everything in miles

Yeah it is though dont suppose anyone will ever enforce it.

Is a bit different with DIS in an Audi, you can set the digital speedo to mph as there are still km/h gradings on their speedo's. I dont really know why VW/Seat and Skoda have gotten rid to be honest!

Edited 26 May, 201115 yr by pipsyp

Yeah it is though dont suppose anyone will ever enforce it.

Is a bit different with DIS in an Audi, you can set the digital speedo to mph as there are still km/h gradings on their speedo's. I dont really know why VW/Seat and Skoda have gotten rid to be honest!

££££££

But if KM/H are shown on the dials why can't we have MPH on the maxi-dot? Silly rule, we live in a MPH zoned country...

Only one annoying thing noted so far is the dash computer shows current speed in kph!

Check with your dealer, I would be very surprised if there wasn't a way to change between metric and imperial by way of the cockpit commands (stalks, buttons, what have you). My current car (not a Skoda) can to this and I've seen the same thing in other brands too. Of course the hard part is finding the right button combination.

Just thought i'd mention the computer shows speed in km/h as there is no km/h gradings on the analogue speedo. It's a legal requirement in the UK to display both measurements hence why the digital one is in km/h.

I call shenanigans on this whole mph/kph legality myth. It might be some EU directive that car manufacturers have entered into, but the only legal requirement of a car in this respect AFAIK, in the UK, is to have a speedometer showing MPH.

Thanks for your replies.

Having looked at my dials more closely, there are no kph markings on the speedometer. Given Pipsy's explanation may explain the reason for the digital kph display.

Would be good to have the option to alternate between the two.

Edited 27 May, 201115 yr by newfab28