According to Car magazine in February.....

"And despite the fact that 98% of all Superbs sold in the UK are diesel, Skoda will persist with petrol engines. This is excellent news for fans of consumer choice, and they've even smuggled in a rather rampant-sounding performance version with 276bhp"

But I am so glad that they are keeping petrol engines....even though there is no V6 or V8 in the new car :(

Diesels are so much easier to drive , hard to stall and they have lots of power at low revs. They also last a lot longer

Edited 13 June, 201511 yr by peterposh

Considering the fuel costs in the UK and when you do tonnes of miles every year, you tend to get much better economy out of a Superb Diesel without having any compromise to performance/torque   So, I'm always up for Diesels

Having driven one of the new 1.4 Tsi's in an Octavia, I would seriously consider the 150 PS one in the new Superb if/when I change my car. They drive like a diesel and my annual mileage has dropped significantly in the past year due to change in employment

I've a 170 diesel, but part of me would really love the 3.6. Maybe sometime in about 8 years when I've seen off the depreciation curve, or most of it.

I would have seriously considered a petrol had there been a few to chose from at the time. Ideally a 2.0 turbo 6sp man, but that was not a superb engine option so it would have had to be the 1.8. 

There are storm clouds gathering over the UK diesel market with the EU issuing edict after edict about OUR emissions (when most of OUR diesel cars arent BUILT in the UK) and the fact that the UK only produces 48 weeks worth of diesel per year, diesel is dearer than petrol, diesel cars are dearer, MOST diesel cars get nowhere near the stated MPG figures, anyone buying a diesel car for private motoring of less than the average mileages per year is frankly deluded, especially when they go wrong (oh boy, look at that bill), If i didnt do 30k miles a year id not go near an oil burner, and after all, that is exactly what diesel is, oil, and will always make smoke when burned.

 

personally id rather have a car on LPG at half the cost of petrol per litre but they havent been developed are in short supply from new, last time i checked only Proton were supplying from new with valve oiling

Most of the LPG converted motors on Ebay are big 4x4's or heavyweight cruisers, mercs and beemers

I would think that most new Superbs are sold to company car drivers or at least drivers covering over the average mileage , hence the obvious choice for diesel 

 

With further legislation likely and buyers now realising the environmental impact of them rather than following government guidance or the manufacturers claims I can see diesels getting much less popular, still think we are 3 or 4 years off though so for most people buying new Superbs diesel will still be the clear winner

Diesels are so much easier to drive , hard to stall and they have lots of power at low revs. They also last a lot longer

 

Anything to back up the last longer bit? They aren't harder to stall; both are equally easy to do if you feed in too much clutch.

 

My 1.8TSi has (touch wood) been more reliable, cheaper to run and more pleasant to drive than the previous 2.0 PD Octavia. 

 

You need to be pushing big numbers for a diesel to work at the pumps. At 15,000 miles a year a petrol still works out cheaper for me to run. A similarly equipped and age / mileage TDi was £2500 - 3000 more than a petrol equivalent. That's a lot of fuel - yes I'll get more at trade in but it was cheaper to buy in the beginning. 

I was very pro diesel and ran them for 10 years but modern petrols are a much nicer to be (within reason! Kias 1.6 petrol in mk1 ceeds was horrible - 1.2 TSI in the Fabia is excellent). 

I would think that most new Superbs are sold to company car drivers or at least drivers covering over the average mileage , hence the obvious choice for diesel

And exactly why you can't buy a petrol engined Passat.

This calculator is sort of useful for finding out which is the most cost effective model to buy for a given annual mileage.

http://www.which.co.uk/cars/driving/driver-tools/petrol-vs-diesel/petrol-and-diesel-fuel-costs/

In Ireland where diesel is around 8 cent a litre cheaper than petrol and road tax is based on CO2 emissions, I'd say the percentage of petrol Superbs on the road is much lower than the 2% for the UK. However thanks to stop-start (And heavy massaging of the emissions test procedure based on the massive difference in real world fuel consumption between them), a 280 bhp Leon Cupra from 2015 is the same road tax in Ireland as my 2011 CR170 diesel (No stop-start)... If I wasn't doing 30k+ km a year I'd be looking at a TSi despite the fuel price difference being in favour of diesel thanks to the faster warm up, higher revs and lower chance of expensive failure. However particulate filters for petrol engines come in with Euro VI emission standards AFAIK, so there may be no escaping this.

 

Looking at how engines are set up however, petrol and diesel are converging in many ways - fuel injection pressure and ignition systems are about the only things that remain obviously different, they're all direct injection with turbochargers and similar compression ratios these days. HCCI engines, if they ever make production, are mostly petrol engines being run as compression ignition engines at lower power while swapping to spark for high power demands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homogeneous_charge_compression_ignition 

Ive just bought a 2015 diesel Soupy (hey, new name!) its on 5 year finance, im 60, I have a decent school contract for 3 years at least so my calculation is by the time its paid for ill be ready to pack in or buy a petrol+LPG version, unless a Tesla has come down enough (for work) if i dont need a taxi Ill buy a Triumph Stag (with the Rover V8)

In Ireland where diesel is around 8 cent a litre cheaper than petrol ........................

 

Thats the ROI I take it? is there any cross border trade on fuel?

AFAIK Northern Ireland fuel is cheaper than the rest of the UK to remain competitive with the ROI prices, but diesel prices particularly are still much better in the ROI at the moment. It does mean that some of the most expensive diesel in the ROI is near the border as they still have customers. Since most of the fuel price in both countries is tax, trading it legally in bulk across the border won't affect the pump price AFAIK. There's plenty of illegal agri-diesel bleaching going on though. It's done all around Ireland (And presumably anywhere with a ready supply of lower taxed dyed diesel), but it's more profitable sold across the border.

I read how ROI red diesel has the dye removed and is pumped by hose under the border from farm buildings to others which straddle the border and sold cheap in the north

 

tch tch

Hidden pipework across the border sounds a bit James Bondish . Usually it's just unmarked/mislabeled tanker trucks, since there's no control on most of the border crossings and the fuel can be distributed further and to more locations. The danger is they use some pretty strong chemicals to get rid of the dye and if any of this is left after the process, it'll damage the engine trying to run on it. Diesel cars from the border areas mostly sell cheap because of the high likelihood they've been run on bleached diesel at some point (Even if the owner is trying to avoid doing this).

In ROI to get used Superb with petrol engine is almost mission impossible.
I was looking for one almost a year ago and eventually gave up and got myself 1.6GL diesel.

I've quickly looked what is currently available and there are 3 petrol Superbs compared to 223 diesels on sale and only one of them mark 2.

In ROI to get used Superb with petrol engine is almost mission impossible.

I was looking for one almost a year ago and eventually gave up and got myself 1.6GL diesel.

I've quickly looked what is currently available and there are 3 petrol Superbs compared to 223 diesels on sale and only one of them mark 2.

 

 

ill get you one, for a fee....lol

I confess that when I've been forced ( ) to drive a Diesel engined car I certainly don't find it easier to drive. Quite the opposite but that's simply because I'm not used to it. I had a diesel BMW (330d) as a rental for a week or so and cheap interior aside the car was lovely at cruise on the motorway but other than that I hated it. And as for that tractor sound at start up.....yuk.

I prefer slipping down a cog or too and flooring it towards the redline (petrol) without riding that 'torque curve' and a plume of blue/black smoke in my wake

[runs and hides from the diesel lovers with clubs]

Diesel smoke is a thing of the past thanks to the DPF, but both tax and fuel prices combined with my mileage and the higher resale value all push me towards diesel. For uncompromised driving pleasure petrol is the only way to go though. I'm surprised you didn't like the 330D - apart from being a lot smaller inside than you'd think from the outside and costing a fortune to buy and maintain, the driving experience is supposed to be very good. 

This calculator is sort of useful for finding out which is the most cost effective model to buy for a given annual mileage.

http://www.which.co.uk/cars/driving/driver-tools/petrol-vs-diesel/petrol-and-diesel-fuel-costs/

But ignores depreciation and road tax...............

Diesel smoke is a thing of the past thanks to the DPF

 

Till its burn-off time then all the soot shoots out

Diesel smoke is a thing of the past thanks to the DPF, but both tax and fuel prices combined with my mileage and the higher resale value all push me towards diesel. For uncompromised driving pleasure petrol is the only way to go though. I'm surprised you didn't like the 330D - apart from being a lot smaller inside than you'd think from the outside and costing a fortune to buy and maintain, the driving experience is supposed to be very good. 

I think the 330d sounds great and pulls like a train with around 500nm of torque on tap!!  One of the best engines around but you mightn't have much change out of a grand when it comes to putting tyres under one though!