Hi guys

 

Going to be getting a nearly new Octavia in next few weeks. We are a family of 4 living in Jersey, doing about 6000 miles per annum. Once or twice a year we load the car up with our gear + 4 push bikes and go over to France where we'll drive about 4 hours south of St Malo.

 

I'm going to get a Petrol as I don't want DPF problem but which petrol engine size is best? Jersey has lot of country lanes with a few areas where you can do a max speed of 40 so I think the style of driving should be likened to urban.

 

A 1.4 tsi at 150 bhp and urban mpg 47 should be fine on the French motorways

A 1.2 tsi at 104 bhp and urban mpg 43 should more economical in Jersey but will it be okay for the occasional touring holiday with a full load and 4 bikes strapped to it? 

 

A 1.2tsi costs about £2000 less than a 1.4 tsi for something about 2 years old with 25,000 miles.

 

Doesn't seem to be much difference in the mpg.

 

Cheers, Andrew

Edited 6 June, 20179 yr by fobos8

If money isnt an issue, get the 1.4 as its more rounded and probably easier to sell, as most people dont understand small engines can be sufficiently powerful and wont buy them in a big car like the Octavia.

 

However, I've had my 1.2 TSi for coming up to 2 years now, and for average driving its 'sufficient', surprisingly good for its size. I've had it 4 up, boot full of cases and it will hold 80mph no problem up a motorway incline. The turbo fills in all the gaps in performance.

 

The only time I find it wanting for a bit more power is when overtaking lorries on an A road. In those situations as much power as possible is always nice, less time on the wrong side of the road...

 

I average 47mpg, which is mostly driving 14 to work a day, in extra urban conditions, 3/4 miles at 50mph, then the rest 30mph. On a motorway cruise at 70mph ish, over 50mpg is easy to achieve.

 

Edited 6 June, 20179 yr by glosrich

Both are a decent choice, but I'd go for the 1.4 tsi if funds allow. I've driven the 1.2 tsi 110 in the Fabia and it felt "about right" for a car that size/weight but I'd want the bigger engine in a bigger, heavier Octavia.

I've driven a few cars and thought they didn't have enough power but I've never driven one and thought it had too much!!  (OK, maybe one or two)

 

You have to look at the power/torque profile of these engines in relation to the car weight.

The 1.2tsi offers 103bhp and 175Nm of torque. The torque in these engines comes in at quite low revs where it is close to a 1.8 litre NA engine. Despite the internal size of the car it has a relatively low kerb weight less than 1300kg so although performance will be stunted by a full load it will certainly transport a family of four with luggage across Europe at 130kph limits at about 40mpg (that is a guess).

The engine will rev freely but torque falls off quite sharply at higher revs hence the relatively low power yield for a turbo.

Ideal for Jersey and quite honestly with the low speeds and distances you describe you should get close to 60mpg.

The 1.4tsi yields 150bhp and 250Nm of torque (equivalent to 2.5L NA engine) at similar vehicle weight so obviously it will be more capable maintaining speeds fully loaded up steeper inclines in Europe. I'd expect similar mpg to the 1.2tsi.

The reason that my overall average of 45mpg is so poor is down to the high number of really short circa 2km urban journeys it does.

 

In short, the 1.4tsi is the preferred option but the 1.2tsi is still better than the 1.6cr.

Old review: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/skoda/octavia/62525/skoda-octavia-12-tsi

 

1.2 is probably adequate but I would go for the 1.4 as it would be more relaxing to drive and cope a lot better when fully loaded, running costs would be very similar.

 

James

Did a trip to Reading and back on Wednesday. A417 and M4. 70 - 80mph.

 

140 miles, averaged 54mpg on the trip computer.

 

Obviously less if you calculated in manually, but probably no that much.

I'd second (3rd - 4th??) the 1.4. I didn't really like the feel of the engine in the 1.2 Fabia loaner I drove, maybe I wasn't winding it up enough but I couldn't feel much help from the turbo. The 1.2 engine didn't feel anything near as smooth either.  

Edited 10 June, 20179 yr by Warrior193
addition.

I've never seen anything better than 37mpg around town. Longèr trips more than 30 miles or so, then 50mpg with ease , on motorways. 55mpg recently over 275 miles to then from Edinburgh.

I guess Jersey will return lower mpg akin to my town driving but who knows. I've not yet tried a long trip with a towbar mounted bike rack but a 30mile one gave at last a 10% decrease in expected mpg iirc. The drag is enormous and my old diesel Octavia was lucky to get 40mpg at French motorway speeds (rather than an unemcumbered 50mpg).

Diesel always had inherent advantages over petrol insofar as the denser diesel has about 10% more calorific content than the equivalent volume of petrol, the engine operates at far higher compression ratios so extracts more power from the fuel and the engine operated without a throttle so had lower pumping losses at low revs. This meant that diesel could get something like 30% better economy than an equivalent carby or port injected NA engine.

Modern direct fuel injection has reduced the economy gulf to something like 15% because it too does not have a throttle, so has lower pumping losses and can operate at higher compression ratios and allows something called stratified charge which is a fuel/air ratio necessary for combustion in the vicinity of the spark plug but higher than the rest of the cylinder so you get a lean economic burn.

 

My previous 1.9pd mk2 Octavia had a steady consumption of 0.5L/hour at the standard 900rpm tickover, which at the time I thought was fantastic compared to the larger conventional petrol engines I had previously which consumed two to three times as much at tickover similar around town although probably just 50% more on a longer higher speed run.

When I got the 1.4tsi Mk3 I was astounded to see a figure as low as 0.4L/100 at 750rpm. It was much lower than I expected and once I got used to the characteristics of driving a petrol for economy again I found I was getting figures within about 10% of the old diesel which did not have a dpf.

I would still expect a modern diesel with dpf to be more economical than my petrol on a run and specifically where there are adverse conditions like towing, very hilly terrain, high speeds etc. However a dpf diesel subjected to a to a lot of short runs can incur incredibly bad consumption based on a report from one member when his wife used the car for a time.

Attached is a graph from VW for the 90kw 1.4tsi for steady state consumption which I find is remarkably similar to my own in the Octavia. It gives a rough idea of the potential for low consumption at lower speeds.