Like the title says. Last time I bought a car (2017 2.2 Skyactiv-D Mazda 3), it turned out reviews saying it's really great, missed the part where the diesel engine is garbage when it gets older. Mazda Skyactiv uses very wasteful regen cycle and there's a design flaw in the engine where the valves get a bit leaky as they age, which trips regen more and more often. Claimed mileage is a farce, in reality I'm getting 32-33mpg on the 2.2 diesel automatic. This is something I could have found out by asking user forums in advance, so here we go!

Anything like that on the 1.5 TSI petrol? Which magazine thinks the petrol version is very reliable in 5-9 year old category and reasonably economical, although probably the automatic version is not going to hit 40mpg in reality. Unless there's a definite gotcha here, I can see I could score 2020 with circa 50k miles on it for £13.5k and up.

Specifically I'm after the estate version, and will probably put around 3-4k miles on it per annum since I'm mostly working remote so light usage, short trips.

Edited 18 July, 202518 Jul by Barleyman

I have a 2018 1.5 TSI Octavia Estate with DSG which I think gets great MPG. Cruising on the motorway or driving round town it drops to 2 cylinder mode and sips fuel. I assume it's the same engine or similar in 2020 model as mine. Although my previous car was a 2004 V70 R with a 2.5 litre 5 cylinder petrol that got at best 25 mpg.

My only issue is the stop start can be a bit lump when pulling away from a stop - kinda jerks a bit if you try to pull away as soon as the engine restart.

Edited 18 July, 202518 Jul by nick6262

We have a 1.4 TSI with active cylinder deactivation, 2018 Facelift. Sedan. The value shown is achieved during relaxed, long-distance driving.

4 hours ago, Cairus said:

We have a 1.4 TSI with active cylinder deactivation

You sure it's a 1.4 with ACT? I thought the Octavia only came with ACT as a 1.5?

Yes 1.4tsi

Those are uk MPG figures BTW, so about 8.6l/100km.

What about annoyances like lane "assistance", is it constantly tugging at the steering wheel although you're nowhere near the centre line? Does it panic with street parking where you have to do slalom? Can you switch it off easily? Hopefully not shrieking at you if it sees "3t" sign and thinks it means 30..

Hmh, digging a bit deeper into this, it seems Mk.3 2018 face-lift is the peak Skoda for now, Mk.4 2020 gives you "improved" touch screen controls for common tasks like air conditioning or cruise control and you get less reliable engines as a bonus. Also the lane assistance I asked about makes it's appearance. Good fuel economy, though.

2019 or 2020 Mk.3 seems pretty good ride as far as I can tell.

That's exactly what mine is.

• Physical buttons for climate.

• Has the bigger touch screen for car play/android auto.

• Start stop.

• Front assist

• Keyless entry.

• No lane assist or adaptive cruise.

The only thing I wish it had was heated seats.

Add in a Wireless android auto dongle and it's a thoroughly acceptable day to day car for hauling the family/dog/Facebook marketplace "bargains".

There's 2.0 TSI DSG SE-L for sale right now, it seems bit of a rarity. I wonder if I'm going to be stuck with an unicorn that costs as much as a BMW to service if I go with that one? And, no, it's not the VR sports model.

On 22/07/2025 at 04:23, Barleyman said:

There's 2.0 TSI DSG SE-L for sale right now, it seems bit of a rarity. I wonder if I'm going to be stuck with an unicorn that costs as much as a BMW to service if I go with that one? And, no, it's not the VR sports model.

did you make a choice in the end?

On 04/08/2025 at 11:03, nick6262 said:

did you make a choice in the end?

Yeah, I decided to hold fire on that particular vehicle. If I'm going to buy a stupid car, let it be a proper stupid vRS car, for 2019-2020 the price difference isn't that huge. Besides, I would have had to go around London to take a look at it from Oxford, 2h drive is a bit much for car I'm not sure I really want. Plus another 2 hours back whether or not I like it, or a make a long weekend trip of it to the big city, which would easily escalate everyone wants to come and it's four figures escapade right there.

I've pretty much made up my mind on the Octavia 2017 facelift, though. I don't want the 2020 touch screen version, so now we're in the place of looking at vehicles and thinking if I want to be reasonable. "Come on man, it's just £4-5k, think how much more kick you get on the <10min school run.." says the little orange man on my shoulder.

Edited 7 August, 20257 Aug by Barleyman