Which Petrol Model

[maverick54]

Hi guys new to this forum. After 5 years of owning an Astra Diesel (full of probs) I am now ready to return to a petrol engine.

 

Looking at the petrol models of the Octavia I'm a bit confused with the TSI and FSI etc. Which is the best petrol model to go for? Looking to purchase probably a 2010 plate or there abouts.

 

Also am I correct in thinking the Elegance, SE and S are the newer models and the Ambiente is an older model?

 

Thanks guys.

Edited 3 November, 2014 by maverick54

[Fatbloke]

Hi and welcome. I think 2009 onwards will be a facelift model and the trim levels are S, SE, Elegance and Laurin & Klement + the vRS of course. Best info is to copy and paste the link below:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0koda_Octavia

 

All engines have had some issues at some point and details of those are widely available on this forum

 

Hope this helps

[maverick54]

Thank you. Notice you have the 1.8 TSI. Have you owned it very long and is it a car you would reccomend?

[clem87]

I've got the tfsi vrs and very happy with it.

[Fatbloke]

Thank you. Notice you have the 1.8 TSI. Have you owned it very long and is it a car you would reccomend?

 

Absolutely, I have had it for nearly 2 years now and would seriously recommend it. It's economical for a 160bhp petrol (I get ~38mpg on a 15 mile run to work) and the engine is very quiet and smooth. The car suffers from cabin noise, mainly from the tyres but some wind noise at speed too. The interior is pretty good although the driver seat could be a bit more supportive. On the whole a good solid car, not perfect but good value.

[Stubod]

Hi Maverick,

 

..I had a 2.0ltr diesel (2005 Elegance), and needed to change it (falling to pieces), and because of low annual mileage I did not want a diesel (DPF issues), so have recently purchased a 1.4TSi (2010, SE). After the rather rural diesel I absolutely love the 1.4 petrol. I was sceptical at first, but have been well impressed with the power delivery of the 1.4, lots of low down torque, and if you can bring yourself to rev it it feels quite quick......and it is soooooo smooth and quite compared to the diesel, (......regularly think it has stalled!).

 

In normal use don't realy notice the loss of torque and drive it the same as I would the old diesel. Also the 1.4 has been delivering an average of 50+mpg compared to 45mpg from the old diesel, (both measured from actual fill ups). I wanted an elegance but couldn't find one so settled on the SE. I miss the cruise control, central arm rest, self dimming mirror, but thats about it...(car had been fitted rear parking sensors..so a bit of a bonus).

 

All in all really pleased with the "swap", only regret is not doing it sooner......

[littleade]

Welcome to the forum. Depending on your driving style and how important fuel economy is you have a choice between the 1.4 and 1.8 (unless you want a vRS). I had the 1.4 for 12 months and got 44mpg on average over that time, but did drive it more with economy in mind that driving it like I'd stole it. It has good low down torque for such a small engine, but you need to be a bit brutal with it if you want to do any A road overtaking. The 1.8 has more of everything and will be more fun to drive and probably give you around 38 plus to the gallon and cost more in road tax and insurance. I actually wanted to replace my 1.4 with a 1.8, but Skoda stopped putting the 1.8 in the mk2 Octy when I decided to change. Best thing to do is take both on an extended test drive, making sure you have passengers with you if you normally carry them and try it out in 60 amd 70 mph zones. You might have problems finding a 1.8 for sale though. Good luck.

[maverick54]

Thats great news thanks. Its the 1.4 TSI I was leaning towards so its great to have good feedback on one. 2010 - 2011 models appear to be around the £7500 - £8250 mark. Would you say thats about the right price to be paying?

 

I like the idea of the 160bhp on the 1.8 but fear the running costs may be a bit high.

[littleade]

They are nice cars to drive, the engine is super smooth and the gearbox is a joy to use and the boot is humongous. If you look on skoda's website there's a used car section and you can see what the dealers are asking for them so tnat will give you some idea, depending whether you intend buying from a dealer or private. If you do a lot of short trips the 1.4 warms up very quickly, a real boon in winter. I only got rid of mine after coming back from Wales, being stuck behind a dawdler in a Audi A4 tdi who braked for every bend, then out dragged me down the straights as he rode the diesel torque wave which drove me nuts. That was probably a bit unfair on my 1.4, but I had the chance of a vRS after talking it over with SWMBO so grabbed it.

[GroundHog]

I've had both the 1.4TSI (in a hatch) and 1.8TSI (in a Scout). The 1.4 was brilliant - so smooth, and a very relaxed drive. Pokey enough that it could overtake when needed, but economical enough to get 50mpg on a good run. The 1.8 is great - really torquey engine (for a petrol) and with the 4WD in the Scout is great fun to drive, but it is thirsty, and tax costs are going up and up (admittedly the 4WD doesn't help this in our case). I would say test drive them both, but if you carry a lot of passengers, or heavy loads then get the 1.8 as that was the one time the 1.4 would struggle. Oh and avoid the FSI engines like the plague - in a 2010 car you will get the tail end of the 1.6's but they are slow and uneconomical, and just don't make any sense compared with the TSI engines.

[maverick54]

Thanks guys, read a bit about timing chain tensioner problems with some skodas. Are the TSI engines affected or are they belt driven? My local garage has a 1.6 mpi for sale but my gut instincts were telling me to do some investigating first. Joined this forum and so glad I did. Your knowledge is far better than any info a salesman is going to give me so big thanks for all the advice.

[Fatbloke]

The timing chain is a definite concern on the 1.8 and 2.0 TSi but I'm not sure of the actual incidence rate, problems tend to get very well exposed on forums sometimes skewing the actual risk although this is generally a pretty level headed forum with a lot of knowledge. I've not heard of it on the 1.4 or 1.2 unless someone knows otherwise

[themacster]

Another vote for the 1.4TSi. So smooth and quiet after the 1.9PD diesel I had before. No problems with mine after 4 years and performance is fine. Economical too for what is quite a large car, averaged 50mpg on our summer hols trip fully loaded, though a lot of town driving / short journeys will reduce this - I average over 40 overall and I do a lot of short trips.

[maverick54]

Thanks everyone. I'm definately sold on the 1.4 TSI. One last question for now. Whats this DSG thing all about? Read its something to do with the gearbox but dont pretend to understand it. Is it a good thing or best avoided?

[Stubod]

I paid £8.5k for my 1.4 Tsi (30k miles, SE spec 2010) in June..probably a bit towards the high end, but a reputable dealer and they fitted a tow bar at no charge and they gave me a good price for my part ex....the thing that did surprise me when I started looking was how long they (1.4's), seemed to be hanging around for. I mainly used autotrader, and starting looking about 3 months before I eventually purchased one, and most I saw at the start were still being advertised when I purchased.(...I was looking for an Elegance spec but couldn't find one so settled on an SE).

I did think there must be something wrong with them, but could not find anything significant on google or this forum, so just put it down to people not thinking a 1.4 in a "large" car was worth bothering with. Howerver after a couple of test drives I was hooked!  

[gathy]

Every car has its problems ..my tensioner went at 32k been fine ever since and now creeping upto 100k this problem was in all 2ltr tsi vag group cars,bmw 2ltr derv  do it to name a few (pals mk6 golf gti did it at 16k ).

If  your bothered about something going wrong imho your better off getting on the bus.

 

My car does 38mpg if i drive like Father Ted.. normall easily in the  high twenties round town and £205 a year tax which is a damn site better than my old 18t VRS and considerably better than the focus ST i sold a kidney to run for the wife lol (suprise love ive bought you a new car that i then had to feed on top of my VRS )

 

now shes in a derv lol

[blackspaven]

Love my 1.8

[Fatbloke]

maverick54, on 04 Nov 2014 - 18:01, said:

Thanks everyone. I'm definately sold on the 1.4 TSI. One last question for now. Whats this DSG thing all about? Read its something to do with the gearbox but dont pretend to understand it. Is it a good thing or best avoided?

In the case of the 1.4TSi it is a 7 speed automatic gearbox with a double concentric dry clutch system. It can be used as a fully automatic or you can select manually. I have it and I love it despite having just had the clutch pack replaced under warranty (design fault). It is a very high cost item if the clutch pack or the mechatronics (the gear change control system) has problems out of warranty. Unfortunately these are not unknown. 

There is an element of work in progress when it comes to VAG design and development and new problems seem to appear across the whole group and they seem happy to deny them as long as possible to avoid recalls, service bulletins etc. I suppose most manufacturers are the same tho'.

[maverick54]

So glad I asked that question now lol. The more clever they get with car design the more things can go wrong and it appears to cost us motorists more money in the long run. Got a feeling an ordinary manual gearbox would suit me best.

[Paulbrown]

whats wrong with the VRS

love mine!!

[Cznski]

I've had my 2011 1.8TSI L&K Estate for about 2 months now and I love it!

Such a lot of car for the money. I was originally after a diesel but then this came up with a better spec and almost £2k cheaper than any similar aged 'lesser' model diesels near me - that pays for a lot of fuel!

 

It's done 70k miles so on the high side but the only previous owner was Skoda UK and it has full history and drives and feels like a new car and the interior isn't showing any signs of wear either. Will happily return 45mpg on a long motorway cruise (according to the computer) and so far is averaging 39mpg with mixed driving since I got it (again computer figure so not 100%) Tax is only £180 a year so pretty good for the car (i.e. only £40 more than our banger 1.0 Yaris!)

[nickgpfc]

whats wrong with the VRS

love mine!!

Ditto!!!

[maverick54]

Travelled up to Fords of Windsford today to have a look at a couple. Nice place as they give you the keys and leave you to it.

Couple of things that did baffle me was when I clicked the remote to unlock the doors only the drivers would open. I then figured I had to hold the key fob button down whilst opening the passenger doors from the outside. Sure its something simple I'm missing. Also even though I'd unlocked the door the car kept giving off a steady bonging sound. Whats that all about?

 

Lovely quiet engines (1.4 TSI) but they had both been lease cars and had quite a few scratches on them for the money.

[fairlight5]

Double click of unlock button to unlock all doors.

Press and hold boot release button for boot only. I don't use this as all the other doors remain locked, always worried I would lay keys down in boot only to slam it shut and lock them in the car....

Not sure about the long bong though!

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

[Fatbloke]

The bong may be a low battery warning