... so we've been talking for a while about the new kilometers I get to do through work and the current car is on a lease. With me pretty much guaranteed to go over the agreed kms, I went to talk to the dealer. He had a white Ambition BusinessLine, spec'd with LEDs. 1.0, manual, Combi. So on the 24th the grey hatch will be swapped for a white Combi. This is on a 100k km lease over four years.

 

A couple of thoughts on consumption: the current car has a long-term average of 5,2l/100, with average speed of 63km/h. That's just since the winter tyres were put on, but it reflects pretty well where the numbers were going. 54mpg ain't too shabby for a petrol Octavia. Yes, mostly 100km commutes / airport runs with 100km/h limits, but the temps are awful, lots of wet roads (which makes a significant difference) and no particular attention paid to consumption. 

Very interested to see how the Combi stands up to this, as it will have a GPF. It's also getting a towbar. Tyres will be Nokian Hakka 9s for winter.

 

Now to clear all the junk from the car and work out what I want to customize on the new one...

 

 - Bret

So, the car is now with me after a short holiday at the dealer due to some unforseen issues with oil pressure early on (i.e. <50kms). I have the full documentation, they did some serious test driving (90kms!) and refilled it as a courtesy; it was washed, now has its towbar, and I'm just glad to no longer be driving the barge of a Superb I had as a loaner. 

The difference in winter tyres between the Superb and the Octavia was shocking... the new ones grip so much better it's impressive.

 

Now to put some kms on and get it run in....

 

 - Bret

Here's hoping the new one is as good as the old one which was a pearler.

Be interested to hear your comments as this one is fitted with gpf (?) and presumably a different mapping for the higher Euro standard. They stuffed up the 1.5tsi manual in its updated guise on initial release after all.

I presume this is still the mk3? If so a pity it is not the more slippery mk4 with all the motorway mileage you do.

 

The traditional Aussie take on big distances was that you needed a big car with a big capacity engine. Probably true about 40 years and further back but there is still local disbelief that a car the size of the Octavia can be powered by a 1L triple, even with turbo, and it also means we don't get Superb or Kodiaq with 1.4tsi/1.5tsi.

These modern turbo lawn mower engines handle the distances and speeds easily and you have demonstrated, they do it sipping less fuel than others

 

What are you going to be pulling with the towbar? Or is it just for bikes?

The towbar is for a small trailer - we regularly have garden refuse to go to the tip and it was a pain to dump it into bags and then into the car and hope it didn't get too dirty. The plan is to have a small trailer which does double duty for camping and household stuff, <750kg, as that means I don't have to take it to be tested every year.

 

The Superb - it was a 1.4TSI ACT DSG and I drove it around 1500km. Average was still over 6.5l/100, which I found to be mildly excessive considering the speeds; the ride was better than the Octy and it was pretty darned good on the absolutely atrocious roads up north the other weekend, but I'm glad to get my own car back. We were doing probably 65-70km/h on unploughed roads - and even that was too fast. ESP did kick in a couple of times and I'm very glad it exists. It still felt like a bit of a barge after the Octy....

 

Yes, this definitely has a different map. I can feel it already go to 2000rpm immediately after a cold start, and there are more vibrations there than there ever was on the old one. Yes, it's a Facelift III. I think the only thing I'm going to miss is HBA, and that's not an easy retrofit. I will look into how to mount a couple of additional lights and try to get the running in completed sooner rather than later, so we can get on towards decent numbers.

 

Current customization list for the new one: 

 - fan level in auto

 - coming / leaving home to TFL 

 - enable driving school mode (going to need it!)

 - lose the chrome grill, replace with blackmagic

 - add more light

I'm debating just how far to push and audio solution - might just go for a couple of AudioSystem CO35.4s with a DSP and then a simple monoblock with a 10" in the boot. If I switch out the main speakers as well, should get a decent setup for a reasonable outlay and level of complexity. Need to find a decent 10" that will be happy with 200W or so that wants to fit in 11-14l. I have an 8" that will fit, but it doesn't drop as well as I'd like. 

 

Also debating whether I can do the ambient lighting nicely or not; though I figure the "easier" way is to replace the door cards, I also suspect that as I haven't got powerfolding mirrors, I won't have the correct door control modules 😞

 

 - Bret

We have just done some long trips in our 1.0.

 

On a mix of A roads and motorways (50% of which were 50mph limit roadwords) we got nearly 60 mpg on a 100 mile return trip.  On the 140 mile trip home I got 54 mpg without as much 50 limit and driving to favour arrival time over economy.

 

I am very impressed.

I have a 1.0tsi DSG in one of our cars, (not an Octavia) and agree it is a very good engine.

 

Fuel consumption varies considerably, on my regular commute (out of SW London) which is about 13 miles (20km) it is typically 42-45mpg.   But same route, same time of day has been down to 34mpg (big queues due to accident), and as high as 52mpg (when I had to go into office between Christmas and New year when roads deserted).  For info there are 16 traffic lights on my commute.

 

When I have been out in country, clear rural roads, no traffic lights, have got 54-55mpg (and that is with winter Goodyear Ultragrip 9+ tyres in temperature of 5-9c).   So should be able to get bit more in summer 

 

So in summary about 42-45mpg typical +/- 20% depending on traffic
 

 

 

 

13 hours ago, Kental said:

We have just done some long trips in our 1.0.

 

On a mix of A roads and motorways (50% of which were 50mph limit roadwords) we got nearly 60 mpg on a 100 mile return trip.  On the 140 mile trip home I got 54 mpg without as much 50 limit and driving to favour arrival time over economy.

 

I am very impressed.

I remember during a fuel crisis in the 70's  a blanket 50mph speed limit imposed in the UK. People were amazed at getting 50 mpg or more from their cars.

Many small cars then had top speeds of only 75 to 85 mph and were aerodynamic bricks so 'cruising' at the 70 mph speed limit usually got returns around the low 30's.

Memories.

New temporary speed limits introduced, but not a blanket 50 mph for passenger cars other than on single carriageways.

Edited 9 February, 20206 yr by Roottootemblowinootsoot

...74 also saw speed limits introduced on gravel here, which might explain quite a lot  Still, 50mph on gravel is not slow  

 

Winter motorway limits are normally 100km/h, many of the a-road 100km/h limits are also replaced with 80 in winter. Summer it's back to 120 and 80/100 on the main routes. 

 

 - Bret

 

so, I took the car to the office today. 

 

1. The suspension is way firmer than the old car. Is this a thing that FL is better done? Stiffer dampers, slightly less pliant ride but way less roll in the corners?

2. The Audio system is better than previously; the seperation of voices and instruments is significantly better and it's way less SHOUTY than the old one at higher volumes. That might change, though, but for the moment it's not bad.

3. Consumption could be even better in this one than the last; a self-imposed cruise ban still saw me getting around 5.8l on the way into the office. The old one was slightly higher than that when new, so here's hoping. The tyres are just the latest version of what was on that car (hakka 9s on this car, hakka 8s before). 

4. This car's noisier with a bunch of noise I need to track down and eliminate, mostly seemingly from the rear. Will have to look into this, it was bugging me. 

5. The lights are just as good as the Xenons, but high beam is better (by a margin, not by an order of magnitude). Nice spread, decent amount of light... but I would like more. Have to go play with the BCM for that, I think.

 

I don't like the lack of ambient lighting and need to fix that (which may yet mean a complete set of door cards so I can butcher them). I'm not missing autodimming side mirrors, the inside one seems better than the last iteration. 

 

 - Bret

... that number from yesterday evening was actually 5.2 according to the dashboard. The car is just short of 500kms on the odo. That's 54 mpg.. with rain and ambient around +1.

 

 - Bret

Business as normal for consumption then 👍.

The weather sounds.....lovely 😞

up over 1000 now and the pull is better than the old one; I'm also already getting 5.x on the computer. This implies it might be even better than the old one on consumption. 

 

Interestingly, I also saw the difference 10km/h adds - I'd checked the consumption 25 minutes from home and had a 5.0 average. Adding 7km/h to the cruise promptly pushed that to 5.2. I'll have to try a little with different speeds across the entire trip to really comment on any differences (there's a nice big hill directly after that section) but I'm pretty happy with the numbers so far. Also acceleration seems pretty brisk, especially if I let it hit 4k rpm from a rolling start. 

Might yet have the opportunity to take it to Germany in a couple of weeks and then I'm going to have to give it a run - but I will need to get some new tyres for that as the spikes I run here are verboten the other side of the Baltic.

 

 - Bret

That is pretty impressive for winter and spikes and all. Do you have a pre-heater fitted using fuel?

Be interesting to see if the Octavia 4 gets this 1.0tsi and what it will achieve on a run with the impressive aero figures quoted for it.

 

The fuel figures are impressive with 1.0TSI's with a GPF. 

It will be interesting to see if actually even better with 1.0TSI's with  dsg, s and Mild Hybrid (also the 1.5 TSI Mild Hybrid) as VW Group are having to produce to be getting their average emissions low enough to have them turning out 300ps + & up to 400 ps vehicles in the various VW Brands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 20 February, 20206 yr by Roottootemblowinootsoot

I refilled this morning - filled on Tuesday and again today - now a tick over 1600km (yes, I have been to work every day this week in the car and have dumped a little over 1100kms on in a week as a result). Brim-to-brim with heavy Webasto use (aux heater, fuel run) but reasonable ambients, varying between +5C and -5C and average speeds around 105km/h on the motorway have seen 5.58l/100, so bang on 50mpg. That's very similar to the old one, even now, and that got better after 10000km. I'd expect 5.2 or so on a regular run to the office with minimal traffic in Helsinki.

 

I would expect a DSG to be minimally better. I don't spend much time idling in traffic, it's mostly running at 2200rpm at 60mph and a 7th isn't going to help much there. I might try to analyse some when I am back from the next round of trips, but it's mostly going to play airport taxi and sit in a carpark or on the drive for a while, I think. Current implications are setting cruise at +-5km/h can make a 0.2l/100km difference, so from 5 to 5.2. That's a clean 5% change. If sitting at tacho 100 vs 105 or 110 makes that much of a difference it would be nice to know. Rain seems to make a significant difference.

 

Anyway, more to come as I drive it. Quite happy so far; it rides better than the old one, the lights really are better. Though I'm missing the auto dimming wing mirrors and realise now why it's nice when they fold - no ice on them... would be nice to upgrade  

 

 - Bret

I imagine you only use the Webasto at or before the start and you would do far fewer starts per 1000km than most so the fuel overhead involved is more than acceptable, especially considering the alternative of non use.

The top gear on the 7 speed would  be higher than the top gear on the 6 speed manual. I don't know how it would affect the 1.0tsi but our 1.4tsi manual at 110 kph (68mph) is 2500 rpm and Briskoda 1.4tsi dsg owners seem to quote about 2300 rpm for 70mph. 

I know that my car's instant consumption display at a true (gps) 110kph is 5.7L/100 (49mpg) (flat road, no wind, no other traffic and ambient about 20 deg C).

Dropping speed to a true 100 kph in the same conditions improves consumption to a smidge over 5L/100

As I have said before I do not think I could match your results in your conditions because doing the same 110kph run I mentioned but at night in 5 deg C  temps increases indicated consumption to 6.1L/100.

 

My wife is using our Octavia now for her now much longer 13 km across town commute to her new job. She has been delighted to see some consumption averages of around 5.1 to 5.3L/100  in the lighter traffic conditions of the home leg (about 8 traffic lights) because normally she does not get near my results.

Fun fact: Adelaide and Helsinki have virtually the same size population at around 1.3 million

so, after refilling at 2111, it looks like an extra 3km/h on the clock really does eat quite a lot more fuel... of the order of 3% or so. I'll re-test when I drive again (which won't be for at least a week) but a couple of rapid runs to the airport and the office have really put a dent in the numbers. The increase isn't *that* much but it's obviously over 60mph and that's where it makes a difference. 

108 indicated vs 110 indicated seems to show 4,9l/100 vs 5.2l/100. That's a 6% increase, but I'm not sure what exactly is being taken into account there. 

 

Interesting - I'll try to confirm when I have the opportunity, but for the rest of the week I'm going to let the train take the strain. 

 

 - Bret

Now using spritmonitor.  I've added in all the old fill-ups and see a tank figure of 6.02l/100 for the last tank. That's .. 100/6.02 = 16.61. / 1.62 --> 10.25miles per litre, so 46.55mpg.

 

That's with a *lot* of Webasto use and ambients generally around zero. I'll be back in the office tomorrow with it, then that's it until the airport on Sunday again, so it will be some time before I have more numbers.

 

 - Bret

On 21/02/2020 at 21:21, brettikivi said:

but reasonable ambients,

 

What is going on up there? I'm used to Helsinki being -15 and knee deep in snow, when I was there a couple of days ago it was +6 in rain and warmer than the UK.

 

Can't remember seeing snow much this winter at all  

13 minutes ago, flybynite said:

 

What is going on up there? I'm used to Helsinki being -15 and knee deep in snow, when I was there a couple of days ago it was +6 in rain and warmer than the UK.

 

Can't remember seeing snow much this winter at all  

Oh I think we all know what is going on...and why it is happening.

this winter has been nuts. We have seen snow here - and I'm 100km north of Helsinki, so normally we'd get it in December and it would stick around until April - for around two-three weeks this winter *at all*. I missed it in November, I was away for two weeks with work and that was the cold snap. We've seen -10 again this week, and there's a hell of a lot of snow up north, including 50cm of ice on the lake we drove around on in February, but down here it has been incredibly warm.

Zero snow in Helsinki isn't that unheard-of, but we normally see it. Not this time.

 

In other news, I'm over 3500km now and getting back below 6l/100 from Spritmonitor. That's not too shabby. I expect limits to be raised again on time on the 1st and then it will go up.

 

 - Bret

.. and this has screeched to a halt with Corona. Now at early May, I've just pushed past 4500km. Spritmonitor does tell me 5.59l/100, though, which is rather good considering the limits are back to 120. 

 

I suspect a trip up north with 80 and 100 limits would already see me back at 5l/100, but not going to do that yet, I think. Personal estimate is that I'll see a long term average about 10-15% better on this car than on the old one. So that would be around 5.2l/100 in summer and something similar in winter with winter tyres. I'd hope to see 4.4 on a trip to the summer house after 10k kms. 

 

For reference, 5,2 is approx 54mpg, 4.4 is approx 64mpg. 

 

  - Bret

with the summer limits now definitely in place and quite a bit of around-town, latest tank says 6.2l. The work commute has levelled out at 5,5, even with the higher limits. There's an interesting conundrum because part of the trip is currently limited to 100km/h, most of the rest to 120, and there's some stop-n-go at the Helsinki end. So if I use the around-town numbers (7) and estimate a 10% increase for 100vs120km/h increase, that implies cruising consumption is around 5.5 for 120km/h and 5 for 100km/h. Pretty impressive and better than the old car - and that got better after 10k kms. We're allowed out some more now so I'd expect it gets the opportunity to stretch its legs up north, which I'd expect to see a 4 at the front for.

 

The car's otherwise pretty unremarkable. Turning the bluetooth volume down to medium has helped tame some terrible treble harshness; I may yet try to replace the drivers in the door and add a sub, depends on how easy it's going to be to revert. The tyres are really loud on crappy asphalt and very quiet on good stuff; the boot takes a shove to close and the driver's door also requires too much effort. Need to adjust those. 

In other times, I would have already swapped out the interior lights for LEDs and would be looking at speakers, but times are unsure and all unnecessary stuff is on hold.

 

- Bret

So now at 8300, I have my first problem: a screw met the front right tyre earlier today. Skoda helpline was helpful and sent a guy over; the leak is plugged and we should be good. Will swap front and rear tyres tomorrow when home. Costs as yet unknown.

The estate is different on gravel to the hatch - you can feel the extra weight and it's not quite as stable at 80+km/h on gravel, but it's not too shabby. I am also sure this FL is more stiffly sprung than the pre FL.

Disappointed in 'only' around 5l/100 *fully* loaded on the way up and a similar number on my 150km round trip today, but it's been hot and Aircon is running. Was hopeful to see 4.5 but let's see what the way home brings.

 

 - Bret