At the start of the year a sold my Octavia VRS estate as it wasn’t ULEZ compliant. The replacement, a Qashqai, is a load of crap. 
The Nissan is going and I’m thinking of going back to an Octavia but no idea on engines. 
 

My previous Octavia was a 2014 CR diesel and was utterly faultless in the 65,000 miles I did in it. I’m hoping for similar in whatever replaces it.
 

When I’m commuting, it’s 35 miles each way, mostly motorway. I’m never in a hurry to get anywhere in the car and usually sit at 65-70 with the traffic. I’m after something with decent fuel economy and good reliability.
 

Are the 1.5 petrol engines any good? Same for the 1.6 diesel?

Is the DSG reliable in them? We’ve got very abused Tiguans at work with the 2.0 diesel engine and the engine and DSG boxes have been pretty reliable considering the way they’re treated!

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I’m tearing my hair out with the current car. 

I can't give an opinion on the 1.5 - but I love my 1.4TSI - good, low-down torque, smooth as silk and very good economy. The early 1.5 / DSG combo was reported as having the 'kangaroo' issue. 

I can also vouch for the 1.4TSI, the wife has a 2017 Octavia SEL FL DSG with this engine. Very good performance for a 1.4, but also on a gentle run it can do 55-60mpg with the two of us in it (summer time, drops a bit in the winter) it is a very refined engine (I would say that as I have a Superb diesel).

 

I have heard the 1.5 cambelt can be rather expensive to change due to the equipment required to set it up?. There is also less to go wrong compared to the 1.5TSI such as no cylinder deactivation on the 1.4, and no PPF.