Octavia 1.6 TDI CR vs 1.4 TSI advice wanted (please)

[Skoda John14]

Hi All, I want to purchase my first Skoda and I’ll be really grateful for any advice that people can offer.

I’m looking at two almost identical cars but one has the 1.6 TDI CR diesel and the other is the 1.4 TSI petrol. The cars have almost identical mileage, they are almost the same age, they are the same trim level and pretty much the same price. Therefore any advice on which one to go for will be greatly appreciated.

Up until now I’ve always had petrol engine cars because up until now our annual mileage has been quite low, say only 5-6k per year. However we have a baby due for imminent arrival and I know that with my wife on maternity leave next year and using the car much more during the week, plus lots of additional visits to friends and family all over the UK I’ve estimated that our annual mileage will jump to around 12,000 – 14,000 per year. Looking at the potential fuel cost of diesel vs petrol over 12-14k miles the diesel looks quite appealing just to add to the fact that the road tax cost is lower.

However in addition to some long journeys during the course of a year we’ll also do quite a few shorter journeys and so I wonder if this means that we should think twice about buying a diesel because of potential issues with the DPF and/or anything else? Also I wonder whether we’ll actually see anywhere near the higher mpg potential of the diesel over the petrol when used on the shorter journeys without the chance to get the engine warmed up?

Over the course of a normal month I’ve worked out that our regular journeys to visit friends & family will be:-

4 x 51 miles

4 x 16 miles

24 x 7 miles

16 x 12 miles

4 x 9 miles

4 x 24 miles

Then they’ll be up to about 20 miles per week or 80 per month of short local journeys which could be something like a 2 mile journey to the shops when there’s a lot of shopping or a trip to the DIY store to pick up a bulky item that I can’t walk home with.

Plus over the course of the year they’ll be at least two or three long trips to including visits to friends & family in Scotland, Cornwall & some other stops and these will most likely be 1,000 mile plus round trips.

Also having not owned a diesel before do they in general cost any more than petrol cars to maintain and service? Also any other diesel related tips that I should be aware of will be gratefully received.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer advice!

John

[alkip]

Diesel

[Skoda John14]

Hi Briskodian,

Thanks for the quick response and the tip to go for the diesel.

Also any other tips & opinions will be gratefully received.

John

[alkip]

Sorry for being so to the point initially John, my works phone rang as I was answering you

Your journeys sound fine for a DPF equipped car, servicing is a tad more expensive but this is more than recouped in the better mpg figures you'll get, although I am led to believe that the 1.4 is pretty frugal. The residual on the diesel should also be greater for when you come to sell and personally I love the torque of the diesel engine.

[GroundHog]

The 1.4TSI engine is a marvel and lovely to drive. On long runs in my old car I could get 45-46mpg without too much effort. However, if the diesel is the same price as the petrol then I would go for the diesel as they are cheaper to tax, and hold their value better. The only additional thing you will have with the diesel is the danger of DPF failure, which if you're doing short journeys you need to be aware of, but hopefully with your regular longer journeys this risk shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I would recommend you test drive them both, though, as if you've been used to petrol then you may find the 1.6 diesel sluggish off the line, but then the torque will be nice.

[Yeti_Man]

This is simply going to be split between wether the person replying prefers a petrol or diesel!

Drive them both is what Id agree with. Id probably tolerate a DPF equipped diesel with your journey outline but for me the 1.4 TSi is way more favourable. Its a lovely light engine that gives great performance over a nice rev range. But then I prefer the drive and ownership prospect of modern petrols to modern CR diesels. ;-)

I believe the diesel has to have the cambelt changed at four years for a cost of around £350. I'll await to be corrected if thats not the case though.

[GroundHog]

Not necessarily - I'm a huge fan of the TSI engine, having gone from the 1.4TSI Octy hatch to the 1.8TSI Scout, but economics have to come in to it as well

You are correct about the cambelt though - the TSI engines don't need one, but the diesels do every 4 years. This was one of the factors for us choosing the petrol over a diesel Scout, and the fact it was 3 grand cheaper for the petrol, but if the two Scouts had been the same price, we would have no doubt gone for the diesel, even though our mileage is similar to the OP's.

Edited 6 December, 2012 by GroundHog

[Stubod]

...I current;y drive a diesel, as it suits my driving style (lazy), and offers reasonable mpg v performance......I would always go for a slightly larger engine, a 1.4 in an Octavia seems small......HOWEVER.......this may just be my perception....I think the only way you can judge is to drive them both over a reasonable distance.....particularly if you are a petrol driver at present....diesels offer a subtly different driving style / performance...

...happy hunting....I am sure that either will suit your needs..(but I would go for the diesel......)

[M12MKD]

I had a VW golf 1.4TSi hire car for a few days, as you can imagen ragged a bit and blasted up the motorway and still returned just shy of 40mpg.

Had a 1.6TDi octavia hire car after my octavia was getting repaired and that was also good, around town returning low 50s.

Both had good points I'd test drive both and see which works best for you.

[tony2311]

Just test the diesel, if you like your car sounding like a van in the morning and at traffic lights then its fine. petrol cost less to buy and its around 7pence cheaper a litre, But most important for me was the refinement of a TSI engine. diesel are not that good either, my 1.2dsg does 36mpg round town. the 308sw auto 1.6diesel is only doing 39mpg round town.

Most important for me was i didnt want my car to sound like a van/minicab

[M12MKD]

Just test the diesel, if you like your car sounding like a van in the morning and at traffic lights then its fine.

My CR albeit the 2.0 doesn't sound like a van and to be honest on start up my uncles 1.8TSi doesn't sound any quieter.

Yes its a diesel so it wont sound like a petrol, that doesn't mean you cannot enjoy the noise.

[Skoda John14]

Hi All,

Thanks to everybody for all of the comments and it's much appreciated because I'm new to Skoda and the VAG group engines so all the advice is greatfully received!

Following the tips I'm going to try and get test drives in both to see how they feel.

Also whilst I'm trying to think about which one to get would you say I'm mad to be considering a nearly new Mk2 Octavia with the Mk3 due to be launched very soon? The cars that I'm looking at are ex dealer demonstrator cars and I'm a bit worried that if I buy now the cars value will drop like a stone in a few months time once the Mk3 is is available. Whatever car I buy I'm likely to hang onto it for at least three years. However I'm wondering whether I'm better off buying a late pre facelift Mk2 or an early FL Mk2 because they've already lost a bit of their value? That way I might not take quite such a big hit if I'm lucky enough to save my pennies and consider a Mk3 in 3-4 years time. Or should I be holding out and saving for a bit longer waiting to see what the Mk3 will be like?

Thanks for all tips advice on the diesel vs petrol question and for any thoughts as to whether I'm crazy to consider buying a nearly new Mk2.

John

[littleade]

Hi John,

Here's a spanner in your spokes! As you're thinking ex demo have you considered new? It sounds silly, but with the VAT back offer on new Octys at the moment the difference between buying new/nearly new can be very small indeed and if the finance offer is still on you can get 3 years free servicing and another £500 off but you'd need to check with the dealer. A lot of us who bought Blacklines took the finance out for the free servicing/£500 off then paid the finance off straight away- Not sure if you can still do this but it's a cracking deal if it's still available. As far as MKII vs MKIII is concerned I personally doubt you'll get such a good deal on the mkIII, because they're the latest model. Petrol vs Deisel? As previous posts the only person who can answer that is yourself, but DO make sure you get a DECENT test drive in both, not just a couple of miles up the road. Deisels noisy? Sorry but that's not quite the case with the latest CR Deisels, they are a LOT quieter than the previous PD engines- I know I have both, though obviously not quite as quiet as the petrol, but they're no Taxis!. The 1.4 TSI is a nice smooth quiet engine which doesn't feel like other 1.4s to drive (again I know because I had one which I've just traded in), but it didn't suit my driving style- it has good torque low down (wants you in 6th by 40mph) but lacks good acceleration 40-80 if you want to overtake. It'll keep up with other traffic no probs and is quick round town, but on the open road it lacks that ability to overtake other cars that are accelerating too, which is not being unkind to the 1.4 just truthfull of what to expect. I got 44mpg over the 12 months I owned it (accoding to the maxidot which might not be 100% accurate) but to get that sort of MPG you'll need to drive economically.This may not be important to you but better to know up front. There are cases elsewhere of bigger TSI engines suffering cam chain tensioner failure which results in a engine change as valves and pistons beat each other up- I do not know if it effects the 1.4 or not but wothwhile finding out either way I guess. Looking at your milage I'd say you won't have any issues with the DPF if you went for deisel. OK so the mkII will depreciate, but as you'd get the VAT off a new one in the first place don't forget to take that into consideration.

From just a milage point of view deisel would be the better choice, simply because at 36-42,000 in 3 years time it'll hold it's value better than a 1.4 petrol with the same miles.

You're not crazy to consider a mkII IMHO, but you may be a bit mad if you don't get one, though some models (vRS's) are fast selling out new, so I guess the others will soon too!

Best of luck

Ade

[ItalianJob]

The 1.6CR is excellent. It's quite refined and drives a lot better than you would expect. We get 62 MPG on ours

at work and it's not even run in yet.

Once up to speed on a motorway it always seems to have plenty of effortless overtaking power.

We almost bought the TSI but I talked my boss out of it after having driven both.

[Skoda John14]

Thanks again for the additional comments from littleade and Italianjob.

The 'spanner in the works' is actually a really good idea because I hadn't thought about the savings of the no VAT combined with free servicing plus £500 deposit. Thanks for the idea and I'll have to investigate that if the budget will stretch to it.

Looking at the above there's positive comments about both the 1.4 TSI and the 1.6 TDI CR. Therefore I think that with some pluses/minuses for both it's well worth getting test drives for as long as we can to see how we get with the different characteristics of each engine. It's not always easy to tell on test drives when the car is empty how it will perform for your actual intended use. For example we go camping which means packing the car with a lot of heavy gear but we'll test for as long as possible to try and make up our minds.

Thanks all!

John

[littleade]

You're welcome- was going to suggest drive up some big hills as a substitute until I saw You're from Norwich!

Joking apart how about taking the family on the test drive so you get 5 up inc the salesman to give you some idea. That's where the extra 25% torque of the CR may make a difference and you might find the 1.4TSI 'boggs down' a bit in the mid range in the higher gears, though the TSI will probably have better top end acceleration.

Horses for courses!

Please let us know how you got on and what you chose and why.

Enjoy

Ade

[Skoda John14]

@littleade: Ha, ha and good point about Norwich as it's a struggle to find anything with an incline around here. However there is one big hill (relatively speaking for Norfolk) not far from the city centre that I can try the car on. As we like to take holidays Scotland, Yorkshire and the Lake District etc (when the care will be full of camping gear) it's a good tip of yours to pack the car with the weight of people on the test drives to see how the car performs.

I'll report back once I've made some progress.

Thanks,

John

[Trevor Powis]

All I can add is that I have a 1.6 diesel elegance estate. It is a 60 plate with 54000 miles on the clock. It is quiet, smooth, drives well and averages about 54 mpg on mixed journeys. Only attention it has had is routine servicing and brake pads. I have not driven the petrol but I do love the diesel

[broere]

I'm driving a 1.6 diesel, now with 63.000 km on the clock. A fine car, very reliable and much smoother than my old VW Passat diesel (1.9 atmospheric and very slowwww, but dit 350.000 km without any problems). I average 50mpg overall. And yet, I am seriously considering the O3, with the 1.4 tsi. The stories one hears of EGR-valves and DPF failures and the costs that come with them, come from all types of brands of cars. If only I get a reasonable amount of money for my O2fl, of course. SWMBO, you know.... And the O3 does look nice, doesn't it?

[United 11]

i'd advise the 1.6 TDI as when i'm sitting at the rank in my 1.9 tdi pd old shape octy 57 plate and one of the other drivers has a 12 plate 1.6 octy and i can't believe the noise difference on the first day he got it he brought it round i thought it was a petrol with the sound and he has got up to 71 mpg im also getting a new taxi in January its a skoda superb 1.6 tdi but it's your call

[BA Baracus]

Congratulations on the upcoming baby - hope all goes well.

My thoughts as a family man with kids leaving the baby phase:

- with the missus off on mat leave she may not have time to do all this extra mileage and people are more likely to come and see you, baby needs to get into a rountine and this is best done in their own home; and

- consider getting an estate rather than the hatchback although I appreciate the hatchback boot is still massive, I think it will give you more flexibility in the future.

The smaller the child the bigger car seat and travel system you will need and this gobbles up space not to forget supplies for baby.

New baby and trebling of your mileage does not sound like fun! (and expensive when money will be tight)

All the best.

[FUBAR]

Timing belt one is a bit of a con IMO the same engine with same belt in the Golf has 200000 miles interval and no time limit as its these new contitech high flex belts Skoda say something silly like 110000 miles or 4 years. If that is a real concern to you I would search the forum to satisfy yourself, if it was me I would not be changing it at 4 years sod that.

[Perc]

I would always go for a slightly larger engine, a 1.4 in an Octavia seems small......HOWEVER.......this may just be my perception...

It's just your perception. 1.4 isn't what 1.4 was just a few years ago.

The 1.4 TSI fits the Octavia really well in my opinion.

[countryboy]

The 1.4 has more power but less torque than the TDI, like others have said the OP should try both and see how he gets on, the mileage seems to point to the break even point where having diesel over petrol makes more economic sense. If they are both the same price then I'd be inclined to go diesel route for the bette economy and higher torque for lugging family and all the camping gear up those Scottish hills.

Ian