Octavia vRS Estate - petrol or diesel?

[chimp1965]

Have a low mileage Mk1 Fab vRS and am looking to chop it in for a Mk2 Oct vRS. Mileage is only about 6 000pa and budget is

£10 000 max. Questions:

1 Petrol or diesel?

2 P/EX or private sale?

3 Manual or auto - I'm hearing so many good things about auto these days, maybe it's time for the dark side?

Cheers chaps

TM

[chr1staylor]

1. Petrol. Definitely with your annual mileage, and diesels hold their value much better so you'll get more car for your money if you go petrol.

2. Private

3. Would be tempted to try the auto, but as you'll be buying used I'd go with the manual as I'm possibly a bit paranoid that an out of warranty DSG repair might be pricey, though I'm sure they're generally very reliable.

[Jockdooshbag]

At that mileage a petrol definately. My preference is for DSG but i can understand why people like a manual. Try DSG its amazing. Get a quote for part ex but be prepared to be disapointed. I had no luck trying to sell my last car so i can only assume the used car market is dead. Main thing is to be realistic about what your car is worth.

Just to reiterate petrol makes far more sense for your low mileage. IMO diesel is a compromise but i had to get one and i love it but given the choice id ahve petrol. Saying that the MPG is very satisfying and i doubt id be saying that about a petrol. Did a run out the road on sunday mainly at around 50-60mph and got an indicated 55MPG. Superb.

[Rob_Quads]

Petrol IMO. DPF problems are likely with that sort of millage.

It was good to see the dealer said the same when my parents were looking at a Rapid and they do 10K. He said there was a high chance of problems otherwise

[ItalianJob]

I don't understand the paranoia over the DPF??

What about all of these small 'city' cars that have 3 or 4 cylinder diesel engines, surely they only do short domestic/shopping runs around

town? Do they not have a DPF?

I only do low mileage in my CR on a daily basis but it usually gets a good run out on the weekend. I'm not worried in the slightest about any issues.

Went to Scarborough and back last weekend, got a nice (indicated) 56MPG

[Rob_Quads]

What about all of these small 'city' cars that have 3 or 4 cylinder diesel engines, surely they only do short domestic/shopping runs around

yup - and they have all sorts of problems. Just take a search online. Watchdog had a thing all about it where people were being mis-sold Fiat500s and then had to shell out £1000+ to get it fixed!

Also depends how the manufacturer handles it i.e. on Fords it injects diesel into the oil each DPF regen. If it does not finish it does it again. This can mean if you happen to do lots of town traffic you could need a oil service in 3/4K miles! (A single weekly drive does not fix it as you can still end up hitting the 'need' for a regen while round town and then it kicks in just as your about to stop. It will then do it every do often till it gets completed as soon as it can i.e. if it thinks your on a long drive but aren't. Yup that's another failed regen.

Not everyone hits it but it is a HUGE problem. Now dealers are having to be very careful as they are falling foul of mis-selling and its costing them when they are having to refund cars a year later due to being not fit for purpose.

Edited 25 April, 2013 by Rob_Quads

[chimp1965]

Thank you all. Excellent advice as ever. You will surey all go to heaven (or upwards somewhere at least).

Just got to find one now....

chimp

[ItalianJob]

I didn't think/realise that so many cars had problems.

My other half has a 2008 1.5 dci clio and that's done 64,000 miles and not missed a beat. I'm assuming it has a DPF?

Maybe she's just been lucky.

PS> Nobody in their right mind would buy a FIAT !

Edited 25 April, 2013 by ItalianJob

[Nobafett]

Having owned a diesel and petrol vRS and having driven several dsg's, for me it would be a manual petrol. You just can't beat that feeling of sustaining a perfect 5th to 3rd change.

[Leee]

My annual mileage is about the same.

I changed from my Mk2 Octavia VRS petrol to my Mk1 Fabia VRS. Only because my annual mileage was made up from very short journeys each day, which was killing me on fuel.

But if that's not an issue, I would say Petrol

[littleade]

Based on your budget I'd go petrol too- you'll get a later year with less miles for less money, though come trade in it'll be worth less on a prorata basis too I guess so you might want to at least be aware of that. Don't think the insurance will be much more as they're only a couple of groups higher but VED will be.

Personally I believe it's not the amount of miles you do a year that cause DPF issues, it's the type of journeys you do. If you do loads of stop start commuting and short journeys diesels are probably best avoided. I do similar miles to you, but don't commute and she gets a 160 mile run around once a month so certainly in the CR I'm not experiencing any DPF issues, though with a £10k budget this brings high milage CRs or PDs into play which is probably another reason for you to go petrol.

that being said I've not seen any real evidence on this forum that the CRs are DPF nightmares, most issues seem related to the earlier PD which was never designed to work with a DPF and those CRs that do have DPF problems it's usually a sensor that's gone faulty, not the DPF itself

If you're getting a TSI check the camchain tensioner has been done as there have been others with a TSI vRS who've suffered this fate which involves an engine rebuild/replacement if it happens to you.

Look for a garage with nice ladies behind the till too as you'll be going there more often!

What ever you get you'll enjoy it

[pipsyp]

Fair to say with your budget you'll no doubt find a newer lower mileage petrol car; but just dont lose sight of the fact it will definitely cost you more to run in both fueling and depreciation.

For me the petrol would always be no. 1 choice as its the quicker (though not by the margins some might lead you to believe) and more engaging car but for me the practical choice was the CR, in main because of the slight lack of performance of the CR was outweighed by the diesel cars considerably better all round fuel economy and slightly lower insurance and road tax costs.

I had a nice 23 mile drive home from work tonight, a mix of dual carriageway and twisty A roads and its probably the 1st time due to weather and traffic conditions I've been able to really hustle it along a bit. I drove it pretty hard at times, using S mode and manual shifting most of the time and it returned 37mpg, not a great sounding figure but the petrol in the same conditions I reckon would have returned at least 10mpg less, its also quite warm out and had the AC on. I was actually quite impressed given it returned under hard driving what a petrol probably would being driven sensibly.

Also Id say dont worry about DPF issues with a CR car, i had a 2.0 CR 140 MK6 Golf for 3 years 50k miles and I dont think it ever did a forced regen in all the time I had it and much of my driving was 20 mile round trips to work with the occasional business trip/longer drive.

[stokey]

Having owned both, given your mileage I'd go petrol, I have no preference over gearbox. Having said that you won't be disappointed with the CR diesel.

[Geordie John]

Petrol. It's a brilliant engine. I've always had Golf GTI's and given I needed something with more room, the VRS was the obvious choice. I do about 8k and it's perfect for that.

[M11UKR]

You MUST find the car you will love, this is the first thing you see first in the morning..... I was looking the bike recently with the strict budget but two month later I found it and fall in love so paid much more for it with no regret! That is one of many opinions from above posts Good luck

[Cleo]

I know this is old but what no one's mentioned yet (I don't think) is the low grunt/torque you get with diesel that you don't get with petrol and cheaper tax.....that's why I use them, it's probably not right but it's my choice

[Jaave]

Petrol.

 

2.0 TFSI/2.0 TSI are great engines 

[mikejay]

I went from mapped fabia vrs to octy vrs estate diesel mapped and its amazin. 0 to 60 in just under 7 secs and 50 to gallon on a run. Whats not to like!