Hi All,

 

I'm thinking about getting an Octavia Estate. As my wife would be the main user, she would be mainly doing short journeys during a lot of the week, with possibly longer runs at the weekend.

I've seen quite a few 1.6 diesels for sale... given the main type of driving of the car, would getting the diesel be a bad idea? Should I be looking at the 1.0 petrol instead?

 

 

Short answer... yes.

Long answer...... It depends.

If you can guarantee to be doing those longer trips at the weekend then you'll possibly have no issues.  However, the savings on fuel need to be significant to make up for the short fall. The 1.0 is a nice engine to drive but I've only tried it in smaller cars. I would certainly prefer it over the 1.6 diesel though. How many miles a year do you intend to do? Fuel is roughly 10% more expensive for diesel so you would need to be doing 10% better economy. Certainly possible but marginal IMO. 

 

This site (HERE) looks to have some valuable info. A quick selection shows the 1.0 to £150 a year cheaper on fuel over 10k miles. That saving would pay for spark plugs though.

Edited 24 April, 20233 yr by MarkyG82

We was originally going to purchase a small hatchback for my wife to drive as her mileage really isn’t huge. However our young 2 sons now have bikes that don’t fit in the back of my hatchback Octavia without wheel removal or seats going down. As the seats can’t go down with them in the car, we have to remove wheels. Getting the wheels off is easy, it’s getting them is a real pain.

I think we’d probably do a maximum of 5,000 miles a year. I imagine some of the family stuff we currently do in my Octavia would be transferred to the Estate car.

 

Their seems to be a lot of the 1.6 diesels on Auto Trader at good prices,  it if it’s going to potentially give us problems if we don’t do the mileage, then I’ll look at the Petrol.

My bikes never once saw the inside of my parents car or anybody elses. Times change, it certainly would not have been a factor they considered in choosing a vehicle.

 

Wwhen I was a baby up to toddler age my parents had a pre-war Morris 8 Tourer, my sisters who would have been 7 and 10 years old then rode in the backseat and I was placed outside on the dicky seat in the slipstream of the exhaust and oil fumes, it's what made me a petrol-head!

There are probably good reasons why there are so many 1.6d for sale.

I believe they are popular with UK uber drivers so mileage would be relatively high and probable dpf issues starting to appear.

Personally I would be looking at the 1.0tsi depending on price and availability of course.

If you have to get the diesel it might not be a bad idea to get an odbc dongle and phone software to see the state of the dpf before purchase and maybe also see what error codes might be there?

Edited 25 April, 20233 yr by Gerrycan

9 hours ago, JamesK said:

 

I think we’d probably do a maximum of 5,000 miles a year. I imagine some of the family stuff we currently do in my Octavia would be transferred to the Estate car.

 

Their seems to be a lot of the 1.6 diesels on Auto Trader at good prices,  it if it’s going to potentially give us problems if we don’t do the mileage, then I’ll look at the Petrol.

 

With this mileage any savings you make on running costs will be small if at all. A diesel needs to be up to temp to make the best if it and sounds like you would never get it that way.

 

Have you considered a used EV? Unless you are going to be going more than 100miles on one journey you should be able to find something useable. Although not much in the way of big boot options.

Edited 25 April, 20233 yr by MarkyG82

4 hours ago, Gerrycan said:

There is probably good reasons why there are so many 1.6d for sale.

I believe they are popular with UK uber drivers so mileage would be relatively high and probable dpf issues starting to appear.

 

 

Yes, a lot of the 1.6 diesels are high mileage, so it would make sense that their previous owners may have been for taxi use. I think I will avoid the diesel and look to get the 1.0 or 1.5 petrol.

 

1 hour ago, MarkyG82 said:

 

With this mileage any savings you make on running costs will be small if at all. A diesel needs to be up to temp to make the best if it and sounds like you would never get it that way.

 

Have you considered a used EV? Unless you are going to be going more than 100miles on one journey you should be able to find something useable. Although not much in the way of big boot options.

 

We was going to get a small hatchback, but with the boot requirements, and for not a lot more money you can get an Octavia Estate we thought that would probably make the most sense. My wife was looking at things like 19 plate Hyundai i10/Kia Piccanto, and when you look at the prices they are selling for these days, you can get a 19 plate Octavia - but most with higher mileage.

I would avoid the 1.5tsi and go for a 1.4tsi as the cambelt change on the 1.5tsi can be a bit on the pricey side. 

I had the 1.6 diesel and it was great in town for MPG and awesome on a run hitting 70MPG. 

The concern I have is that my wife's drive to work involves a 1.5 mile drive to drop my son off at his school, and then another 2 miles to her work, and then the same in the evening. I think in the long term if we don't get the additional long runs that it may cause a problem if we look at the diesel.

 

Are there any issues with higher mileage 1.0 petrols? I've seen a few with 60-80k miles on them at not too ridiculous prices, and some with much higher mileage, but would probably avoid those, even though our mileage will probably be quite low.

There are not many reports of 1.0 TSI with higher miles with the spark plug changes and oil and filters.

 

We have yet to know more on 1.0TSI's with GPF,s that are doing short cold start trips lots like some have over the covid years.

You only know how cars after 5 years when they have been on sale over 5 years. 

 

1.0TSI with a DQ200 DSG are a pretty good, reliable engine, as were 1.2 & 1.4 TSI's. 

On 25/04/2023 at 08:14, MarkyG82 said:

A diesel needs to be up to temp to make the best if it and sounds like you would never get it that way.

 

Completely untrue in regards to a comparison with a petrol engine for economy on short journeys.

 

A petrol engine runs an enriched mixture for many miles after start up and only reverts to the stochiometric ration when it is nearing normal operating temperature with the thermostat opening.

 

The starting enrichment of a diesel engine is removed within a few seconds of firing up a cold engine, as soon as the compression ignition is maintained.

 

The great advantage of diesel vehicles before they became hindered by DPF's was their outstanding economy on short runs compared to petrol engines, that advantage remains but there are now other considerations like the DPF service life.

My head was in the clouds of marine engines I used to work on. Of course there's startup processes etc. My main issue with short runs on these diesels is the dpf as you suggested.

 

I'll get my coat now.

Yes you dont want to use your diesel powered ship for the school run!!! 😆

 

When the penny finally drops that it will be impossible to stop all ICE production they will force scrubbers and bunker fuel on us!

The coolant is up to temp quick in a petrol or diesel the Oil can be a long time in a diesel & now VW are using VW508 00 / 509 00 so 0w 20 FS IV.

 

You get small petrol N/A or Turbo engines, you get petrols with a GPF now and the oil might take a good few miles till showing 50*oC and get to 90 when cold but by 5 miles is getting OK efficiency.

Even just running a mile each way from cold starts you might get 40 miles per gallon from them.

If you can get 40 MPG from the TDI's doing 1 mile cold start journeys 40 times then fantastic.

 

In the 44,000 miles my 2.0TDI SCR DSG did i know how crap it was on a cold start at around freezing going only 6 miles, then a cold start back in comparison to if going on for 15 miles and more and getting into the 40,s mpg, then 50,s and 60,s.

 

Warm mid teens centigrade and the same 6 miles and a whole different thing economy wise.

 

So we have Euro 5 diesels and euro 6 and euro 6d and Adblue and different ways they got the WLTP results / RDE2 results.

How they manipulate the ECU software. 

 

Once the TDI had enough miles that it hardly sipped Adblue, had a 20,000 mile oil change it was regenning and drinking fuel like Oliver Reed, and started showing a blocked filter that took longer and longer to clear.

If i was doing only maybe 4-5 miles a day for 5-7 days it was using 4.562 litres (a gallon for 25 miles or so.)

Long runs, using coasting it really did 63-66 mpg.   It had a 63 litre tank. 

Edited 29 April, 20233 yr by toot

29 minutes ago, toot said:

Even just running a mile each way from cold starts you might get 40 miles per gallon from them.

If you can get 40 MPG from the TDI's doing 1 mile cold start journeys 40 times then fantastic.

 

In the 44,000 miles my 2.0TDI SCR DSG did i know how crap it was on a cold start at around freezing going only 6 miles, then a cold start back in comparison to if going on for 15 miles and more and getting into the 40,s mpg, then 50,s and 60,s.

 

Warm mid teens centigrade and the same 6 miles and a whole different thing economy wise.

Indeed we do live in very different climates.

 

I try not to use the car for short journeys but it still happens a lot more than it should, today was less than half a mile to the Pharmacie for meds because of the bank holiday weekend, I physically could not have walked yet I ran 5.5k the porning before when the problems started.

 

In my old village and in the new if I drove slowly sticking to the 50kph limit and paying lip service to the 30kph one I would be at an average of over 50 MPG within the first mile, every time no matter the weather unless I was held up by traffic, but I would never have a cold start like you do.

 

I should add that I rarely encounter traffic so can roll across every junction where I have visibilty and never have to wait with the engine idling, different story if I take to the main road where I live now, within 300 yards I am at a stop junction trying to cross 2 lanes of a very busy main road.

If I continued at a leisurely pace to my mates village 2.5 miles further on (no point rushing for such a short distance) it could reach something silly like 65mpg but if I took to the main road at 80km/h or more the 50mp would drop before eventually climbing back and exceeding it.

 

Very interesting to hear that modern petrol engine warm up so quickly and give almost equal economy on short runs, a lot of work has been done over the years to achieve that, it could never have happened with carburettors, mechanical water pumps and wax thermostats with the heater bypass circuit.

Edited 29 April, 20233 yr by J.R.

The problems are coming for some with petrols and GPF,s.  But if VW Group are sensible with pricing of the part and the labour time is not much then just another addition cost to be priced into Green ICE vehicles.

Like the more expensive oil and some that use more oil while supposedly using less fuel.  Then there is the cost of the Low Rolling residence tyres when needing replacing.

 

It will be interesting comparing the actual fuel and maintenance costs over 10 years with a petrol or diesel new in 2010 compared to a new 2020 TSI or TDI.

Personally i think a New old stock 2010 car running for 10 years from now would work out less pence / euro per mile / km.

Edited 29 April, 20233 yr by toot

During my non-DPF 1.9pd ownership I was very impressed by how good the consumption was even on very short journeys.

I only lived about 6 km from work and got over 50 mpg on the run to and from....however on cold days (less than 10C)  I just started to get hot air from the heater when the journey ended. Compare that to the less than 1km for warm air from the 1.4tsi and only slightly worse consumption.