Want to fit a tow bar to my nice new Octavia estate, 1.6 tdi auto, any suggestions/experience?   

 

Anyone towed a small caravan with the 1.6 engine? any issues???

 

Congratulations on the new car! I had a fully coded removable swan neck tow bar fitted earlier this year. Make is Tow Trust, cost approx £500 fitted. In my opinion it's an excellent job, requires a small cut on underside of bumper which makes it 100% invisible when removed. The coding gives some nice features like automatically disabling reversing sensors, and adjusts the cars stability system for towing. I believe it even will set the car alarm off if someone disconnects the 13pin lead if you're parked up somewhere with caravan/ trailer on.

There are cheaper options available, just depends what you're looking for, fixed flange or swan neck / single electrics etc.

As for towing, the octavia is brilliant (and gets great reviews). Mine is the 2.0 184 and I get over 30mpg average when towing our caravan. Car is very stable and just tows without any fuss. As long as your weight ratios are ok I think you'll find the 1.6 tdi an excellent tow car. Enjoy!

On newer cars its a lot nicer to have the dedicated wiring kit for the extra features mentioned above however it is a bit of a ball ache to fit if your doing it yourself.

Quite a few threads on this if you do a quick search. like this one

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/406201-towbar-vcds/

 

TL;DR Get dedicated (or even better, oem factory) electrics. Get it coded properly and then fit whatever bit of ironwork suits your fancy