Hi,

What are current views on the best MKII diesel engine to taxi inner city 50K miles a year?

All good advice welcome,

fonaspin

I would say the best all rounder for taxi-ing is the 140CR. Good balance of speed and economy. If you can spend a bit more, go for the 170. You'll never be late with that, and good economy aswell :p

Depends what is more important to you, a nice smooth powerful engine? then the 140 / 170CR but these will only return 45mpg on a run - so much less in a city all day, or is mpg more important? if so it had to be the 1.6CR / PD1.9 (depending on the age) found in the greenline which will return much more but at the cost of power.

Inner city plus 50k mile per year it has to be 140CR with DSG surely?

Only slight question mark would be how the DPF will react to all inner city driving, but must be capable of coping with that?

And a blocked up dpf every few weeks, take a tip, the repair cost of a diesel engine now kills any saving over a petrol engine, if you are doing mega miles pa then take the chance, if you are mainly on the motorway take the chance, but if you are a 25k pa urbanite, look to get a petrol car next time.

Another couple of options.....

Save money and buy a good MK1 1.9 PD 130 AWX, no DPF to worry about.

or..

Go for the MK2 140/170 and have the DPF deleted by a good tuner.

Best of luck,

Rob

Best taxi engine? Clearly a 4.0 V8...

Best taxi engine? Clearly a 4.0 V8...

then the 140 / 170CR but these will only return 45mpg on a run

Really? My last Superb II would return 58-60MPG on a motorway run at a steady 75MPH,and i would be disappointed when i couldn't see 40MPG on it after a days driving around town(it was a taxi).It was the older 1.9 engine,are the 2.0L really that much worse.

I ask because i have just ordered a 140 elegance with DSG for a new taxi, and if the figures you are quoting are correct,i'm a little bit worried.

Cheers,

Ivor.

I can personally recommend the Superb MkII fitted with the bulletproof non-DPF 1.9Tdi PD 105 engine.

My remapped Superb hatchback racked up 94,924 miles over 33 months from new, during which time, it recorded an average 57mpg (actual, rather than MFD). This was based on predominantly motorway/A-road driving, rather than stop/start inner city usage.

Ivor, those are the figures I am getting, the car rarely sees heavy traffic or a town centre as most of the mileage is done at silly o'clock when there is little traffic about.

Look at my fuelly average (below) for the last 14K miles, I also tend to drive economically as I am going to work to earn the money.... not to spend it getting there

Really? My last Superb II would return 58-60MPG on a motorway run at a steady 75MPH,and i would be disappointed when i couldn't see 40MPG on it after a days driving around town(it was a taxi).It was the older 1.9 engine,are the 2.0L really that much worse.

I ask because i have just ordered a 140 elegance with DSG for a new taxi, and if the figures you are quoting are correct,i'm a little bit worried.

Cheers,

Ivor.

You will probably see 35 urban if it's a CR engine, PD 2.0 and you are almost certainly going to top out at around 30mpg, your old one is 35 horses lighter and it makes a big difference, plus shes manual as well being a 1.9, a DSG does use extra juice despite what others may tell you, better than a normal auto though, my 130 Sup 1 auto used to be about 10% less than my DSG Passat is, in traffic urban I'm now getting 32-35, where before VW did the injectors it was 29-31 under those conditions, give it a good run every so often also or you will coke the turbo and get overboost.

A manual 1.9 PD, 105 or 130. A bit agricultural, but proven, strong, economical.

I run a 170CR DSG Superb II Hatch and also drive in ideal conditions (early start - good A roads) and although I see 58 mpg on the maxidot quite often after a run to work my real world (brim to brim) average including weekend town driving etc., over 50K miles is 46.67 mpg. I really doubt whether I could improve on this very much.

Even though I have very little town driving I have had a new DPF sensor (replaced under warranty) and a DPF re-charge (about £38).

I expect it to be down on MPG from my last one,so if i can see 35MPG around town,i will be happy with that.

Currently running a superb 2 se 140 dsg. No probs so far with dpf. Just clocked 20k in 10 months local urban driving. Car idle speed will increase on tickover when dpf needs to burn off. Bit smelly but there you go. Returning 35mpg easy. Got 2.0l engine so it will last, pulling heavy car. Smaller engines may give better fuel economy, but need my engine to cover 250k minimum.

So I mapped my 1.9tdi 115 and averages went from 30-33mpg....the greeline looks much better showing high 50's ?

Cheers on the replies,

fonaspin

Maxidot readings are to be ingnored, as it over-reads up to 10%

Raving on about a cars maxi-dot showing 55+mpg when all your car could be is doing is 49.5mpg is pointless, unless you've actualy verified your maxi-dot readings or perhaps even adjusted it to be accurate?

Depends what is more important to you, a nice smooth powerful engine? then the 140 / 170CR but these will only return 45mpg on a run - so much less in a city all day, or is mpg more important? if so it had to be the 1.6CR / PD1.9 (depending on the age) found in the greenline which will return much more but at the cost of power.

Indicated 58mpg Manchester to Southampton @ 70-80mph (downhill, I know )

Edit: I hear what you're saying Tankdave, but even at 10% over, it's still a lot more than 45mpg.

Edited 8 March, 201214 yr by deek72

I have a Superb 170 est SE and use it as a taxi with lots of around town driving and based on a tank not maxi dot I get 45mpg and I have a heavy foot

If you take out the DPF (Robbo Cop) you will have to put it back for any mot as it wil part of the mot procedure/emissions check.

Edited 17 March, 201214 yr by Danny 57

If you take out the DPF (Robbo Cop) you will have to put it back for any mot as it wil part of the mot procedure/emissions check.

You can get the official MOT manuals from http://www.dft.gov.uk/vosa/publications/manualsandguides/vehicletestingmanualsandguides.htm as a free download. There's no current requirement to check for a DPF, and it looks like any future requirement will be a simple visual inspection - so you can meet it by having an empty DPF can fitted to replace your DPF.

Note, however, that modern cars must pass the smoke check on the fast pass criteria - this means no visible smoke once the engine has settled at test revs, not enough smoke emitted to (in the tester's opinion) obscure the vision of other road users, and first smoke reading must be less than 1.5 ppm. A modern diesel should meet this without difficulty - as long as it's properly maintained.

Farnz,

I think that come 1st April when the new mot rules come in that a car that comes equipt with a DPF is going to be check and without a DPF your emissions will go up anyway thereby potentially failing the emissions test part of the mot.

Farnz,

I think that come 1st April when the new mot rules come in that a car that comes equipt with a DPF is going to be check and without a DPF your emissions will go up anyway thereby potentially failing the emissions test part of the mot.

Have you a reference for these new rules? The only things I've seen are proposals for a visual inspection of emissions control equipment (which includes the DPF), making an empty DPF can enough to pass the MOT.

And, as I said, yes, your emissions will increase when you remove the DPF, but the new limits are already in place; it's not the full Euro IV or Euro V limits, it's the old fast pass criteria. The change is that you must pass on the fast pass criteria (no more than 1.5ppm on the first measurement), rather than being permitted to take the mean of three consecutive measurements, out of 6 maximum permitted measurements (although the level is still 1.5 ppm for modern cars, rather than the 3.0 ppm older turbodiesels are allowed).

For reference, a well-maintained Euro II diesel engine can pass on the fast pass criteria (my wife's car has done so repeatedly). I would be shocked to discover that engine management has deteriorated so badly in the last few years that a modern Euro IV or V engine (which has to meet much tighter smoke per kilometre limits than the Euro II did) is unable to manage a fast pass without a DPF.

Farnz

No I don't have any reference purely what my local mot tester (known for the last 13 years) has read to me from the new rules he had,