Finally my new lease car arrived, the day before the recent bad weather. Ordered in August with delivery predicted first week of October, to then arrive late January does suggest a backlog at the factory.

It wasn't the best week to take delivery of a new car, especially with brand new summer tyres, but I already have a good impression.

The TSi certainly has lots more torque than you'd reasonably expect out of engine of this capacity. I'd say that around town and on single carriageway roads this is actually a better engine than the old PD TDi (but not so much when compared with the new CR TDi is what I am led to believe). It pulls really well, but is quiet, smooth and refined. The old engine basically had two modes - stop and go,go,go.

Where you notice the lower torque is on dual carriageways and motorways, changing lanes or filling the big gap that suddenly appears in front of you. I suppose I had become lazy because the diesel pulled so strongly from any speed in 5th or 6th. With this one you think 'OK, that will take a bit longer than I'm used to'. I've only done a few hundred miles so I haven't wanted to really push it. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

When I ordered the car I did a calculation that went along the lines of...

- Less tax due to lower list price

- Lower cost of fuel

+ Lower fuel consumption

...but I have to say (although keep in mind it doesn't even have 1,000 miles on it yet and it has been freezing) than the best average trip consumption I have is 37 mpg. Hopefully if this can creep up above 40 with warmer weather and a few long runs then its should work out OK. I'm under no allusions that the fuel cost will be higher, I just don't know if it will be marginal or significant yet.

What is clear so far is that whereas with the diesel, once it had warmed up, the consumption was in quite a narrow range almost irrespective of how you drove it, this one varies hugely. The gearchange indicator becomes a bit distracting as it constantly nags me to change up earlier than I normally would, and believe me I hate either revving or labouring engines. The fact is though, after a bit of experimentation, that it really does know best. I'm not going to change the habits of a lifetime but will be mindful of the consumption. Even so, I am sure that I will get nowhere near the published figures.

Other good points that I didn't have on the old car are the bluetooth, maxidot and mf steering wheel. All seem to work well. The bluetooth took half a dozen goes to pair with my phone (I had to press ok on the phone and the mf wheel almost simultaneously for it to work) but once it did it was perfect. I have an HTC Windows Phone so I was a bit apprehensive, but I think these days everything should work out of the box really.

Nothing else to say so far, I'm really pleased with it. I'll tell you what, though, whoever ends up with my four year old 58,000 mile TDi will also have a cracker. If it had been mine to keep it would still be on my drive now.

I have had plenty of chances to compare my FL 1.4 TSI to a friends pre-FL 2.0 PD TDI as well.

I also testdrove a 2.0 TDI PD DSG before deciding on the TSI. Or rather, 3 minutes behind the wheel of the PD made me drop the thoughts. The dealer had rather cleverly arranged for me to keep a brand new 1.2 TSI over night a few days earlier, so a second hand pre-FL PD felt rather agrarian.

I'm happy with my 1.4 TSI. I'm not seeing *quite* the fuel figures I had hoped for, but I love the engine especially with the DSG7. One of the best engine/gearbox combos I've ever driven.