How good is the Octavia 1.0 TSI?

[Robank]

Hi

 

Thought I would drop in and ask for some advice (my last visit to the forum was back in 2017 (sorry went over to Audi for a few years).

 

Just wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of a review on the Octavia 1.0 TSI

 

Normally I would be looking at leasing a VRS, however, lease deals are just crazy just now and I can’t justify the prices they are asking!!

 

If anyone has driven one I would love to get your feedback, I know it will be slow, but is it driveable?

 

Thanks

Edited 13 January, 2021 by Robank

[MM1988]

8 minutes ago, Robank said:

Hi

 

Thought I would drop in and ask for some advice (my last visit to the forum was back in 2017 (sorry went over to Audi for a few years).

 

Just wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of a review on the Octavia 1.0 TSI

 

Normally I would be looking at leasing a VRS, however, lease deals are just crazy just now and I can’t justify the prices they are asking!!

 

If anyone has driven one I would love to get your feedback, I know it will be slow, but is it driveable?

 

Thanks

I would always suggest to give it a test drive yourself if you can. What you might tolerate might be very different to someone else. Personally I think the 1.0 litre is a good engine especially with a manual gearbox but I’ve only driven it inside a polo which is smaller and lighter. It will probably come down to how often you drive with a full car and whether you want to breeze overtakes or take it easy.

 

Frustratingly there are few reviews of the Octavia with the 1.0 litre engine.  Top gear have done one with the new golf though which you might find helpful. Again it’s one persons opinion but a fairly similar car. They quite liked it. https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/volkswagen/golf-mk7/10-tsi-life-5dr/first-drive

[Robank]

You are right about the Polo, we have a new style one (95bhp) and it's a cracker of a car. 

 

Sadly, we can't get a test drive just now (massive lock down in Scotland), however, good shout about looking at a Golf.

 

Thanks

[MM1988]

3 minutes ago, Robank said:

You are right about the Polo, we have a new style one (95bhp) and it's a cracker of a car. 

 

Sadly, we can't get a test drive just now (massive lock down in Scotland), however, good shout about looking at a Golf.

 

Thanks

I have the 95bhp polo too and I’m actually going to be really sad to give it up! 

[Alecs]

No reason why it should be too different from O3 1.0 TSI, I have one since 2016, more than 50.000 km, and I quite like it. Very good mileage (even under 4 liters for 100 km if you drive eco, I think 3.8 is my "record" for extra-urban national roads) and it's quick enough for me (no stress going uphill with 150 km/h with 2 more passengers). Also a quiet motor, very good for music lovers. In my country the taxes and insurances are also considerably lower for small capacity motors, so a lot of advantages as far as I'm concerned. It's probably one of the best motors VW group made in the last 20 years ... and I'm not aware of significant issues with this motor.  

[Alecs]

I just wish they did not "downgrade" it to 110 PS instead of 115 PS ... or maybe compensate that with some boost from the mild-hybrid system so it would have the same performance as O3 1.0 TSI (0-100 in 9.9 seconds). Now it's a bit slower, 10.5 seconds I think for the mild-hybrid and 10.8 seconds for the manual gear. But they have to be more eco, so I guess they had to cut a bit from the power. 

[Alecs]

For UK residents, 4 liters/100 km translates to around 70 MPG and 0-100 acceleration translates to a 0-60 (well, a bit over 60). I just realized most of the audience is from UK (and probably the forum has its origins in UK) 

[BA Baracus]

Driveable -yes

Enjoyable - no

 

Just my opinion.

[Alecs]

0-100/0-60 in 10 seconds is by no means slow, it's actually better than average I would say. If you compare it to a vRS, sure, it's not as enjoyable :) As far as I'm concerned, over 14 seconds is a slow car, 12-14 seconds is driveable, 10-12 seconds is average, 8-10 seconds is pretty good, under 8 you are going already in the sportier zone (with under 6 seconds for really sporty cars and under 4 for supercars). Of course you should also check 100-160/60-100 performance to have a better idea, but it moves well in that interval too. 

[BA Baracus]

Agree with your points Alecs but the Octavia is a family car with significant passenger and luggage space.  If loaded up this engine is going to struggle and be frustrating to drive.  However, an engine like this is ideal in an Up! or Polo.

[Robank]

Thanks for the replies, I agree with BA Baracus regarding the size and weight of the Octavia and tbh that's my main concern.

 

Over the years I've had may cars that a so low in power they are almost dangerous (eg overtaking on a B road)

 

Having said all that, if it drives around town and on the motorway ok then I'll be happy

 

The Octavia will be used as my sensible company car, my other ‘company car’  (Toyota Yaris GR 4) comes in May 

 

 

[Ootohere]

@Alecs

If you are going to quote 0-100 kph, then that is the same as the 0-62 mph times.

There is a few UK Road testers that go on about 0-60 times and get them wrong.   It is amazing how some cars need around half a second more to get to 62 than to 60 mph.

[Alecs]

1 hour ago, BA Baracus said:

Agree with your points Alecs but the Octavia is a family car with significant passenger and luggage space.  If loaded up this engine is going to struggle and be frustrating to drive.  However, an engine like this is ideal in an Up! or Polo.

Well, I drive it since 2016 and I did not have this issue. But I don't load it with 400+ kg/900+ lbs of passengers/luggage, it's true, my family members (beside me, meaning wife and daughter) have less than 100 kg/220 lbs together  and luggage does not go over 50 kg/110 lbs usually. So with 150 kg/330 lbs typical load I would not even feel any impact. That does not mean that there were no situations where I had 300 kg/660 lbs passengers + up to 50 kg/110 lbs of luggage, but even then I did not find it frustrating to drive. And I drove quite a lot of cars that were frustrating to drive because they were underpowered (I would say at least 10). 1.0 TSI is not one of them. It's just a prejudice that some have about 1.0 motors, even if they are the power equivalent of old 2.0 aspirated motors, where nobody had issues like these. 

[Alecs]

49 minutes ago, Robank said:

Thanks for the replies, I agree with BA Baracus regarding the size and weight of the Octavia and tbh that's my main concern.

Well, it's easy to test, take some family members with you and go on a drive-test and see how fast it moves and if it's ok or not. 

[Robank]

Hi Alecs

 

Sadly not so easy to test.

In Scotland we are in complete lock down and Skoda don't know when we can have a car to test drive.

 

 

[MM1988]

1 hour ago, Robank said:

Thanks for the replies, I agree with BA Baracus regarding the size and weight of the Octavia and tbh that's my main concern.

 

Over the years I've had may cars that a so low in power they are almost dangerous (eg overtaking on a B road)

 

Having said all that, if it drives around town and on the motorway ok then I'll be happy

 

The Octavia will be used as my sensible company car, my other ‘company car’  (Toyota Yaris GR 4) comes in May 

 

 

Well if you have the Yaris GR then that will satisfy all your driving urges. The lower powered Octavia will be fine.

[Westbury63]

The power to weight ratio looks fine IMHO. I would be happy with one. Mind you, I drive at a sedate rate and use an egg timer to measure acceleration! Living in the flat lands of East Anglia I have no hills to contend with, and the roads are fairly busy so very often a Citigo will keep up with the flow of traffic.

 

 

[Robank]

51 minutes ago, MM1988 said:

Well if you have the Yaris GR then that will satisfy all your driving urges. The lower powered Octavia will be fine.

 

Fastest car I've every driven, I can understand why Top gear gave it 10/10 

[Alecs]

1 hour ago, Westbury63 said:

The power to weight ratio looks fine IMHO.

 

 

Yes, for Octavia 3 was exactly 100 PS per tone, 1.150 kg and 115 CP . Weight without a driver, true. 

[Westbury63]

4 hours ago, Robank said:

my other ‘company car’  (Toyota Yaris GR 4) comes in May 

 

I just looked up a review of those. Wow! Toyota Yaris sub 6seconds 0-60 !!

[Robank]

Top gear got it done to 4.6s 0 - 60 

[TheUltraRunner]

Very nice driving of the new Toyota Yaris GR. 

If this is not allowed to post here, I'll remove it.
 

 

[nickcoll]

I am sure the engine is fine, but personally the one thing that would count against it for me is the beam axle rear suspension rather than the IRS which you get with more powerful variants. The handling is just nowhere near as good and whilst fine as a "family car" the IRS does make for a much more sporting drive if you are that way inclined.

 

The difference when driven at all enthusiastically is like chalk and cheese. But everyone's requirements are different and all the other strengths of the Octavia are still there.

Edited 15 January, 2021 by nickcoll

[Robank]

 

Thanks for all the feed back, had a chat with Skoda (Glasgow) yesterday and I've been quoted 12 -15 weeks for delivery which is a long time for a 'standard car' .

 

I've been offered a fantastic trade in price for the Audi which will drop if I have to wait 15 weeks, so I'm looking at taking a 'in stock' car.

 

Unfortunately, there are no 1lt estates 'in stock' in the UK so it's looking like a 1.5 lt in metallic (black, blue, silver or grey).

 

Only challenge it's £50 per month more than I wanted to pay  (I know £50 is not a lot of money, however,  as it's a company car and  I do have budget constraints)   

Edited 16 January, 2021 by Robank

[Pob17]

1 hour ago, Robank said:

 

Thanks for all the feed back, had a chat with Skoda (Glasgow) yesterday and I've been quoted 12 -15 weeks for delivery which is a long time for a 'standard car' .

 

I've been offered a fantastic trade in price for the Audi which will drop if I have to wait 15 weeks, so I'm looking at taking a 'in stock' car.

 

Unfortunately, there are no 1lt estates 'in stock' in the UK so it's looking like a 1.5 lt in metallic (black, blue, silver or grey).

 

Only challenge it's £50 per month more than I wanted to pay  (I know £50 is not a lot of money, however,  as it's a company car and  I do have budget constraints)   

I have a 1.5 estate, and had a 1.0 Scala as a courtesy car earlier this week. Performance of the 1.0 in the Scala was ok, but the main difference was how much smoother the 1.5 is. No 3 cylinder drone and much less vibration. The fuel economy in the 1.5 was also pretty much identical to the 1.0 on the journey to and from the dealers.