I currently drive a 2.0tdi ambience but am looking to change shortly. Its a great car but always look for something different when I change, variety is the spice of life!

Spotted a 2.0 FSI L&K in our local garage. I haven't driven it yet but would anyone who has a diesel out there change it for a petrol? Or has anyone done this and been happy with the change?

i haven't been between diesel/petrol skodas, but I have changed from a mondeo tdci 130 to the 2.0 TFSI petrol. (I know you were referring to the non-turbo)

I love my new car, but my immediate reaction was that it didn't feel as fast. You get very used to using the low-end torque in a diesel. It takes some getting used to a car where nothing really happens below 4000rpm, coming from a car where everything happened below that figure! The more I drive the petrol though, the more I'm learning to use its performance - and it definitely is fast! I'm just hoping I wont be left wanting for torque once i've got used to it more.

As far as economy goes, I've been very pleasantly surprised. Just before I got rid of my diesel, I did the calculations to see exactly what i was getting and it was consistently 35-40mpg (i do like to "use" the performance ). I think that's pretty disppointing for a diesel. Although i'd imagine modern german diesels will be more efficient than that.

The 2.0TFSI is now giving a respectable 30-35mpg when driven sensibly. I also think the quieter, smoother ride is worth the loss in economy. I'm pretty sure it's also more economical than the diesel when crawling through stop-start traffic, as I do almost every day. If you're not doing huge mileages, I'd go for the petrol

Well I've gone the other way, from a MK1 Octy VRS to a Passat 1.9 TDI and the torque makes it a nicer drive when at motorway speeds. I miss the grunt from the lights and junctions but not really noticed much loss in acceleration at every day speed.

Don't just look at MPG figures for cost but insurance and road tax costs as I'm saving over £200 a year before taking into account the saving on fuel.

I thought before I changed,how often do I really use the performance of the 1.8T and couldn't justify the extra expense for the little it was used.

I drove a petrol Golf the other day, and found myself floundering, and messing with gears where my diesels normally cope.

It could be me getting old, but I prefer a diesel any day for the torque.

Perhaps I would be better suited to an automatic.

I must be getting old.

I'll get me gaberdine and slip ons then......

I've had diesels for the past 120k miles (petrol for 120k before that) and on the occasions when I've driven petrol cars I've not found them anywhere near as nice.

I'd be reluctant to go back to petrol , especially for a normally aspirated engine and the 2.0FSI really isn't anything special.

Obviously you should give it a go and I'm sure the extra kit in the L&K will be nice , but I bet you'll be disappointed by the engine.

and it was consistently 35-40mpg (i do like to "use" the performance ). I think that's pretty disppointing for a diesel. Although i'd imagine modern german diesels will be more efficient than that.

My experience of the 2.0l PD 140 engine was that it averaged less than the Mondeo for the same journies, with a similar driving style (and a 6th gear!) etc, and I know the 170 engine doesn't get fantastic figures either, but I'm sure still better than petrol for similar pace.

I think that petrol has come on a long way recently in terms of economy as well as having more diesel-like low down grunt, but as diesels are being pushed and the power is going up, the only real way to increase mpg is to use things like stop/start and regenerative braking.

Chris

There's a lot of truth in that.

As diesels are becoming a performance option then the economy suffers quite badly , especially in Octavia sized cars and above.

My personal benchmark is 50mpg for a car to be considered economical and my PD140 octavia is just on the right side of that but some fall way short for very little extra performance

I personally wouldn't go back to a petrol car purely on the way the two engines behave so differently.

Just recently I bought an Octy vRS TDI but I test drove both the petrol and diesel variants beforehand. I was so disappointed with the petrol as it just didn't seem to cut it at anything below 4000 - 5000 rpm and even then it didn't give me that sense of urgency like a diesel does. Despite the diesel being 30bhp less than the petrol, it definitely felt faster and goes like the clappers at much lower revs.

The difference isn't just limited to high performance cars either. Drive a 1.4 petrol Fabia for instance and then drive the 1.4TDI and you'll feel the same difference in the way these engines deliver the power.

It all depends on what you're used to but I know I'm a diesel convert and would never consider another petrol car again.

I went from a Clio 1.5 dCI (100bhp) to the Octy vrs TFSI.

The biggest difference for me is in mpg, the Clio would do 60mpg driven hard. So the change to the TFSI has been quite hard. The Clio was unusually economical and in reality the TFSI isn't that bad compared to other petrol cars.

I'm getting a long term average of nearly 35mpg. Unless I'm in the mood to give it some stick I drive it quite sedately. My mate had a Ibiza 1.4 and he got abut 38 with that and the SWMBO get about 40 with her Tigra so for a 2.0T it's pretty good. My mate has a 140 diesel Mazda 6 and he thinks he's getting about 40-45mpg with it.

I can't comment on how the FSI drives. I've usually found petrol engines to feel a bit gutless after driving diesels. When I first drove the TFSI I though it was 'diesely' in that it had torque all through the rev band and there was little need to change down. Now I've had it a while you can indeed drive it on the torque without having to juggle gears but you can also drop a couple and go like hell.

On paper running costs between the petrol and diesel for me worked out about the same over 3 years, possibly cheaper with the petrol since insurance was cheaper than I expected. I'll be moving closer to my work soon so that will push things in favour of the petrol again.

i'd agree with that. the TFSI is very torquey, and 6th gear is perfectly usable around the shorter out of town stretches, rather than just on the motorway at 80mph+ as it was in my previous diesel (probably a characteristic of the car though, not the fuel).

I was a diesel convert at first - did over 100k miles in them, but eventually started to miss the refinement of a petrol engine. Modern diesels are fantastic, but i still think they've got some way to go to come close to petrol smoothness and driveability.

I'll think I'll keep my TFSI until the VW common rail diesel filters down to skoda, and see if that's any good

After diesel cars for the last 12 years I made the mistake of buying a 150bhp fsi Elegance estate earlier this year. I never really came to terms with it because of the constant gear changing. I always found it annoying having to change from 6th to 4th to get meaningful acceleration on a motorway. At the time the discount and special offers on the petrol car were much higher than diesel. The salesman later admitted that they were struggling to sell new petrol Octavias (apart from vrs).

I've just changed the fsi for a 140bhp pdi dsg. The torque is amazing and it's a far more relaxing car to drive even though it's a bit noisier.

It really depends on personal preferences and costs. Petrol Octavias will always be cheaper to buy than diesels. Diesels have better fuel consumption but this difference will never offset the initial cost of petrol versions (unless you do massive mileages)

On the contrary , diesels may cost more to buy than petrol but when you sell it on it will still have retained much of the difference so you need to do far less mileage than you might expect

On the contrary , diesels may cost more to buy than petrol but when you sell it on it will still have retained much of the difference so you need to do far less mileage than you might expect

Good point!

Good point!

My Mk1 octy TDI was about £1400 more than a 2.0 petrol , but when I traded it in after 3 years and 82k miles it was worth about £1k more than the petrol would have been.

£400 extra cost over three years compared to what was about a three grand fuel saving

The Vrs petrol is a totally different comparison. It is demonstrably quicker than the diesel model and produces large amounts of it's torque from 1700 rpm or so. If you're towing or wanting to slog fom 30 mph in sixth gear then go diesel, if you want performance then it's petrol as far as the Vrs in concerned.

I had a new Astra 1.6 16v hire car from work a few weeks ago and initially enjoyed regularly pushing it to the 6500 redline simply as I my octy 110 TDI only goes to 4600......until I was totally thrashed by a P reg A4 110 TDI up a hill, there was literally nothing I could do about it.....and wanted my octy back. I'm sure on paper the Astra is a faster car tho but in the real world the Diesel's torquey performance is more useable

At risk of being a statistics bore, I just checked parkers and the 1.6 16v astra gives 155 Nm or torque, which is never going to compete with a diesel. I'm pretty sure the vRS petrol (280Nm) would have kept up (or breezed past) no problem at all...but you'd be about 10mpg worse off!

Well I changed from a Octy 2.0TDi Elegance to a 2.0FSi vRS, had the diesel 3 years just under and have had the vRS a month now.

TBH I much prefer the vRS nicer motor IMHO having said that I loved the TDI and the things I miss about it is only having to fill up every 550/600 miles compared to 350/400 with the vRS. I debated the diesel vRS at the time but would of been easier to get the TDI chipped to 170 and a lot cheaper. I just like the look, sound and drive of a vRS petrol. The TDI was ideal when I was doing 32K a year but not any more.

Been looking at both TDI and TFSI vRS for my next lease car, but taking company car tax and fuel considerations taken into account, the petrol-engined car would cost me an extra £74 a month. No brainer for me...

I have recently changed from a 406 HDI 110 bhp to an Octavia 1.6 FSI. (I thought I did not need a diesel anymore, driving less miles/ year)

Both cars drive very differently, as expressed in this post already. The low revs torque of the diesel was great (best engine I've ever had, a minimum of 51.4 MPG per tank with a lot of driving in town). But the FSI, although only 1.6 is good enough in town as well. It does not have the same pull, of course, but it remains comfortable (and fuel efficient!) for all the start / stops and low speed (anything up to 25-30 mph) miles I do.

On the road, it cruises just as well as the HDI (as much as you can compare a petrol and a diesel engine anyway).

And when you need power / want to have a few hundred yards of fun / engine "cleaning", then go over 4000 rpm!

I guess the power of the 2.0 will help at cruising speed, so I wouldn't hesitate to get a petrol if your calculations (miles / year) add up.

I've been looking at the Octy vRS... got a test drive today, and then a Seat Leon FR DSG on sat

I love the fabia, but I miss my Lupo's ability of cranking it all the way around to 7000rpm

I'd say look at a 1.8 TFSI as I think you would probably miss the turbo.

This engine also replaces the 2.0 FSI anyway.