I currently have a 2010 1.6TDI Fabia Hatch, its done 122,000 miles and i have owned it from close to new, i love it, i have had it remapped and its on about 150bhp at the moment, its a manual. I am looking for something slightly bigger for going on holiday in the uk, we will still be keeping the Fabia (my wife will be having it) as its just too good a car to px and lets face it, it would not be worth much anyway even though i have really looked after it.

 

My question is this, what is it like to drive (with a full car of 4 x adults and luggage) with a DSG box with say the 1.2tsi or the 1.0tsi in the Estate form ? i am looking at about a 2017 model so i can get the cheap RFL.

 

Any experience much appreciated.

 

If its a no no, then my 2nd option is a 2.0tdi Octavia estate dsg of about the same age in either the SEL or L&K spec.

A 2010 in many ways will be better than a later car so hold on to it.

 

I've no idea about DSG box but others will have lots of info that box on a 2017 VW.  2017 your into looking after the 12v battery so as to not upset the VW computers and their programs a lot more than on a 2010, and more so still on later cars.

 

Octavia is a bigger car so better for longer distance travelling fully loaded, diesel fine for this too - but it depends how often you do this and a TDI wont like lots of shorter journeys, more so than a petrol.

 

My wife has a 2015, 1.2 TSI (5-speed manual) 90 of whatever they call them now, and that manages very well with one or two seats occupied very easily within the legal speed limits of the UK.  You can notice when 4 seats are occupied compared to two and of course it depends on how big and heavy the four in the car are, but even with 4 and luggage it should manage fine but in a different way to your Mk2 1.6TDI.  The Mk3 as my mate told me has the most cabin space in it's class (when my wife bought it in 2017) but how this compares with Octavia space I don't know, Octavia always look more old style saloon and estate lower and longer but that might not translate to much more  (ETA: cabin space) or any more than the higher shorter MK3 Fabias.

 

I've driven a 1.0 (3-cylinder) TSI, 110 whatevers, 6 speed manual, SEAT Arona and I found it to be fine but I've no idea about 4 with luggage over longer distances but sure it'd do it.  The 4-cylinder VW engines are noisy to me so the 3-cylinder was more so but I'm used to much. much older and nosier engines (though much sweeter and smaller 3-cylinder engines than VW do).

 

You probably know the differences in driving a diesel to petrol engine.  Personally I ignore the manual gear selection suggestions as I know more about real world road driving that the VW computers do (well at the moment, but I'll decline and no doubt they'll progress, they certainly need to).

 

You need to test drive as many good example of both the cars you're considering to see what suits you best, and of course there's lots of info on them in this forum.

 

You really need to decide how often you're going on holiday and if it justifies getting a 2017 diesel (PDF) for rest of the year use or petrol and which car you feel comfortable in.  You can always hire cars for different needs if they're only very occasional use of those needs.  Then you could buy a 2005, or older, car for yourself and have plenty of money to hire big luxury car for occasional holiday use, or buy a 2005 or earlier version of those.

 

Others will follow with more info and entirely different ideas to mine.  Good luck.

 

Edited 23 November, 20241 yr by nta16
typos and missing word

The DSG in the Fabia is the dry clutch DQ200, since 2016 these have been generally OK. However you mention a remap of your current Fabia. Be aware that VAG only fit the DQ200 to engines with a max torque output less than 250Nm that might be a consideration if you planned to remap it. If you look at the diesel Octavia with DSG make sure the gearbox has had its oil and filter changed every 40,000 miles. As nta16 says diesels do not like short journeys and need regular long high speed runs to keep EGR and DPF clean. 

Thanks for the replies, i would not remap any petrol Fabia i got, it would be the 110 bhp and i would leave it at that. I will test drive one but i won't be able to test drive it with 4 adults in it and a boot full of gear which is how we will go on holiday, i do want an auto as i am sick and tired of the clutch in stop start traffic, which is all there appears to be nowadays.

Actually the DQ200 DSG has not been any better since 2016.  No improvements, i will bump the thread for the Mk3 Fabia where the new issue arrived.

True the first issues were 2009-2012, then 2013-2015,  Then 2015-2018 yet more with unreliability, 2018 on sadly still some issues.

 

As to remapping and the 250 Nm max.  Plenty of us have ran them with stage 1 or 2 and 215PS or so.

The Polo GTI 1.8TSI 2015 has 192 ps and supposedly 250 Nm with the DQ200 ,  The manual is 320Nm but still 192 ps. 

23 hours ago, Hudson1 said:

i am looking at about a 2017 model so i can get the cheap RFL.

Cheaper RFL stopped on 1st April 2017, so you need one before this date.

 

Thanks. AG Falco