Hello Everyone, I'm considering changing my ageing (2[14) Superb estate for a newish Octavia (also estate). I've settled on an Octavia as I'm not prepared to pay £590 VED for a Superb for 5 years ! and we don't quite need the amount of space we used to.

 

Question is do I go for an 1.4 IV 2/3 years old or one of the newer 1.5s. I can see merits in both but I'd really appreciate any thoughts (probably an SE-L)

 

We do a real mixture of shortish journeys and then quite a lot of 500 mile round trips up to Scotland visiting family - about  16,000 a year. 

 

Many thanks.

You’ve probably seen the recent thread about the amazing economy of the manual 1.5tsi ACT. On long motorway runs my manual estate will comfortably return 60mpg.

 

In the four years I’ve had mine the relative economy of the 1.4IV and 1.5tsi ACT has been debated in this forum but from memory not in threads which are obviously titled. A bit of time searching will hopefully reveal them.

 

IIRC, some folk with the IV get 90+mpg on shortish runs where a reasonable proportion is on battery. Conversely, the long motorway runs give high 40s mpg. Caveat - those numbers are from memory, but should be in the right ballpark.

 

It will come down to the mix of journeys you do. For me, the petrol wins because the vast majority of my mileage is long runs (Hampshire to N Wales or Scotland), and like you, about 16000 miles/year. Most of our short runs are the domain of the other half’s CityGo.

 

The 1.5 drives nicely, plenty quick enough without the excitement offer by a VRS. It will cruise all day fully loaded at motorway speeds and surprisingly (to me) quiet & comfortable.
 

For context, before this Octavia I had a manual mk2 1.4tsi Superb hatch (twin door boot/hatch).

I’ve gone from a 2013 diesel Superb to a 2022 Octavia 1.4 iV SE Tech. I couldn’t be happier. I am lucky in that I can charge for free at work and am with OVO so can charge for 7p per kWh via their app. My work is 9 miles from home and I do a lot of 2 mile journeys. 
 

The fuel economy feels excellent. I don’t know accurate it is but the app says I did 1312 miles in November and December (got car on 11/11). I have an average of 80.5mpg and 5.7 miles/kWh.

 

The only downside is the boot in the hatchback is shallower than the standard model. I have to leave the parcel shelf out most of the time to get my son’s very large ice hockey kit bag in. I don’t have to do that in my wife’s 2021 Octavia estate.

Edited 9 January, 20251 yr by Phil Lee