After owning diesels for the past 25 years, with the latest 3 being a Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3 Octavia, i'm thinking my next car might be a petrol. I'm not doing big miles (<10k per year), not towing or carrying loads (90% of the time it's just me in the car) and thinking a petrol may have less potentially expensive issues (DPF, EGR etc) although happy to be told i'm wrong.

 

I'm not in need of a VRS but on the other extreme i wouldn't be dropping to a 1.0. My latest Octy is a 2015 Mk3 SEL 2.0TDI 150bhp with 110k miles. I'm looking the same trim level and similar power/performance but not sure of the pros/cons of the latest petrol engines. Likely budget would be up to £19k and 4 years old.

 

So far i have seen the 1.5 TSI ACT, 1.4 TSI PHEV and 1.5 TSI MHEV within my price range with the latter being on the more expensive side. 

 

Would be keen to hear first hand opinions/experience on these engines and which you would go for in the same position.

 

Thanks   

We went for a 1.4 PHEV. We do a similar mileage a year, but most of the miles are short distance ones that we can do on battery, the remaining ones being long drives to Cornwall or Scotland. We had a diesel up until then. The 1.4 gives us plenty of performance, even in a fully loaded estate with 4 adults and a very full boot and it never seems to struggle.

 

Your choice may depend on where you are coming from - we had a 1.5 diesel Ford Focus before the Octavia, so probably similar performance, on paper at least, although the performance of the Octavia does seem to be much better.

 

What I would really like is a PHEV with a slightly longer range - 100 miles would be fantastic, but 50 or 60 miles would be great. That would mean we could do longer local trips on battery. 30 miles range always seems to disappear very quickly!

I have a 1.5TSI ACT 6-speed manual estate, SEL FE; covered best part of 50k miles in under 3.5 years.

 

I have been most impressed by the economy from this engine. Overall, it has averaged about 57mpg since I bought it; and on a recent 3500 mile road trip to northern Italy it was 60mpg. That trip with two of us and a full boot (esp. on the return leg with 4 dozen bottles of wine 🍷 on board). To be fair, on the autoroute/autostrada I kept the speed to about 110-115kph (70mph-ish) rather than the limit of 130kph.

Performance is more than enough for me and feels quite sprightly above 2500rpm, so compared to the TDI you're familiar with at first it may feel a bit sluggish at low revs. Depends on driving style, but I find it absolutely fine.

 

Most of my mileage is on medium to long journeys of fifty to two or three hundred miles on dual carriageways or motorways hence the good economy. A run to the next town and back (15 mile round trip) will give about 50mpg plus or minus a few. For my mileage pattern a PHEV would not be a good investment - but I can see that those with a higher proportion of short journeys it would be worthwhile.

 

A while back I drove a 1.0TSI e-TEC (MHEV) estate for about 8500 miles. Mostly it performed well, though for long motorway trips and heavy loads it lacked a bit of oomph. Economy was not dissimilar to my 1.5 TSI ACT manual though I no longer have the records.

 

If I were to replace my Mk4 with another Mk4 I'd go for the 1.5 TSI MHEV - for two reasons...

• I'm getting older and fed up with a manual 'box when in stop-start traffic
• The integration of the DSG transmission with the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC). Allowing the technology bring the car to a halt in a traffic queue, then move off again by itself would be a dream.

If it helps - I was also a dyed-in-the-wool diesel man and also previously had an Octy 2.0 TDI 150, that I thought was the best car I had ever owned as it perfectly suited all my needs.

 

Very reluctant to part with it, but the years passed and I finally called in the dealership to check out the Mk4, having also started wondering for various reasons whether I should go petrol and also DSG.  They had no Octy demonstrator, but suggested I should try out a 1.5 DSG TSI that happened to be dressed in a Kamiq's clothes to see what I thought of the engine/DSG combo.  It was quite a revelation and, long story - short, I ended up buying the Kamiq demo.

 

I have been very pleased with the car and in particular with the engine/box.  I get acceptable fuel consumption, similar to SteveTheElder's experience;  given the price difference between the fuels, running costs must be only pennies either way.  Like Steve I am also impressed with the performance above 2500 rpm;  tap the DSG into S mode and it will blast past any slower stuff.

 

At your current mileage, you must be on the cusp of the diesel/petrol viability equation. For the reasons you have already stated, there is a strong argument for going petrol;  I really would urge you to have a test drive of a petrol 1.5 TSI ACT, whatever bodywork it is wearing.

Thanks everyone, it's good to see the feedback is positive.

If you're not going for the RS then I would suggest that you go for the 1.5 petrol because it gives you just that little bit more, I've noted that there have been quite a few posts regarding the hybrid with battery problems being the main bugbear. 

 

I don't seem to recall that many adverse posts regarding the 1.5 engined cars and they've generally been very favourable. 

48 minutes ago, TheWanderer said:

If you're not going for the RS then I would suggest that you go for the 1.5 petrol because it gives you just that little bit more, I've noted that there have been quite a few posts regarding the hybrid with battery problems being the main bugbear. 

 

I don't seem to recall that many adverse posts regarding the 1.5 engined cars and they've generally been very favourable. 

That's a fair point. I hadn't thought about battery life and tend to hang on to my cars for 9 or 10 years, so could be expensive to replace the battery at some point.

You may find that you'd be replacing them quite regularly.