Musing on the way to work today on the M60 sat in the inside lane, how often do peeps really use the available performance? On the commute I now cruise at 65 ish in the inner lanes to maximise fuel consumption and stay away from the road rage of the outside lane (Im sure you know what I mean!) Its only every now and again that I stretch the cars legs, mainly in acceleration mode. Making me wonder if I should have got a diesel instead!, had these thoughts with my mk1 vRS and then went and bought a mk2 vRS petrol!:confused:

Musing on the way to work today on the M60 sat in the inside lane, how often do peeps really use the available performance? On the commute I now cruise at 65 ish in the inner lanes to maximise fuel consumption and stay away from the road rage of the outside lane (Im sure you know what I mean!) Its only every now and again that I stretch the cars legs, mainly in acceleration mode. Making me wonder if I should have got a diesel instead!, had these thoughts with my mk1 vRS and then went and bought a mk2 vRS petrol!:confused:

I very easily see your point of view having trundled into N London this morning at around 50 -55mph on the A1(M). My vRS is a TDI and I too rarely get to use its full performance on a daily basis. I really ought to go out on country roads early morning more often.

On a straight mpg basis the TDI vRS gives about 10mpg better than a TFSI on like for like motoring.

So in answer to your question: YES your pocket would be better off on a daily basis with a TDI BUT how much will it cost you to change car with depreciation etc. etc.?

So in answer to your question: YES your pocket would be better off on a daily basis with a TDI BUT how much will it cost you to change car with depreciation etc. etc.?

Plus there is the extra initial cost of the diesel engine over the petrol. You need to do quite a few miles to recoup the cost through lower fuel bills through better ecoenomy, especially with diesel now costing 5p more per litre than petrol.

I take my car out for journeys other than the daily commute so it is at those times I get the pleasure of the performance.

Rarely. But I like the effortless way the car accelerates even when driving sensibly.

Plus occasionally scaring BMW drivers booting it up Powrie Brae coming out of Dundee.

Rarely. But I like the effortless way the car accelerates even when driving sensibly.

So does the TDI

.... oh dear here we go again with the TFSI vs. TDI discussion ...... !

I take mine out whether I need to go out or not!

Yep, I use the performance a fair bit... but do spend a lot of time driving "for economy" so to speak. Thats why I love the TFSI so much, its such a torquey, smooth engine when pootling about, but an absolute hooligan when you want to have a play!! It really is a split personality.

A TDI is too much of a compromise on both parts imho. A bit peaky to drive round town, ultimately slower, really quite noisy and not that smooth to drive either, and then when you boot it you are left with bitter disappointment, and the economy isn't good enough to justify it imho! :P

Interesting question.

Id say in 90% of the driving I do the performance potential of the car is pretty unusable.

As such Ive just bought a TDCi Fiesta run around for the work commute (10 miles either way, six of which is in traffic!).

As a comparison, Im getting a genuine 52mpg in the above scenario, in the TFSi VRS I get 22.5mpg.

Quite a difference, and do I actually get to work any quicker? Nope! :P

Lee

Plus there is the extra initial cost of the diesel engine over the petrol. You need to do quite a few miles to recoup the cost through lower fuel bills through better ecoenomy, especially with diesel now costing 5p more per litre than petrol.

There are retained value, servicing, road tax and insurance differences aswell.

1) Retained Value (3yrs/36k miles):

PETROL

Hatch 43% of 17,905 = 10,205 loss

Estate 41% of 18,755 = 11,065 loss

DIESEL

Hatch 44% of 18,760 = 10,506 loss

Estate 44% of 19,610 = 10,981 loss

2) The servicing on average (on variable setting) could favour the diesel by upto 20% extra mileage between services for the same driving style. The servicing itself is less, for example the first two services for diesel are 437 versus 454 for petrol.

3) Road tax is currently 65 a year difference (so 195 over three years and expected to rise)

4) Insurance group is 14 vs 15 for diesel versus petrol. These are not linear groupings and obviously the cost depends on many other factors, so can't really state a value for this.

5) But assuming a 10mpg rough difference in fuel economy (35 to 45 mpg) at 107p versus 112p per litre gives a difference of (4,045 diesel fuel bill versus 4,968 petrol bill) 923 over just 36,000 miles.

If you did 20k per year (60k over 3 years) the difference would be (8,280-6741) 1,539 squid.

PS - if you feed your FSI-T with super unleaded the above differences grow to 966 and 1,611 respectively.

If your sole justification is cost, then sure the diesel makes more sense.

However, my personal justification for the TFSI over the TDI is that its worth £1500 a year for the :D:D factor! :P

If your sole justification is cost, then sure the diesel makes more sense.

However, my personal justification for the TFSI over the TDI is that its worth £1500 a year for the :D:D factor! :P

It is not my sole justification, I just like the way diesel delivers its power and the relaxing nature of its effortlessness in high gears.

Just interesting to look at the numbers. If I really wanted to save money I would not have bought a new 20k motor and would be running a couple of hundred quid well used Rover Metro into the ground.

Each to there own, but having had a Golf GTI DSG which I drove like a Go-Kart (which also only has stop and go pedals) and baulked at low twenties MPG :(, I will stick with the diesel which can be quick, but when off boost more than makes up for my lead foot indulgences.

It is an interesting question. I changed from my Mk 1 vRS to my Mk 2 2.0FSI mostly to swap the "unused" performance for comfort [and, in the case of going from Mk 1 to Mk 2, better handling, more space and better gear change.]

Possibly it is an age thing but I do like the way mine rolls more smoothly over all the local speed bumps and rough roads, rather than clunking over them.

Similarly when I change tyres I'll go for quietness rather than ultimate grip, since I am unlikely to ever corner on the limit !

As for missing the turbo punch, well I find the 2.0FSI doesn't hang around when pushed and I never get anywhere near the top speed of either version. I am lucky enough to not worry about mpg economy as I only do under 9000 miles a year, so I do occasionally give it a blast for fun, and, as said, it does go pretty good in the gears.

Some good compartive figures there.

Not enough to make me change though.

You did forget to factor in the extra cost of borrowing the 1k extra over 3 years though :P I don't have to concern myself with the servicing cost as it was included at the time Also not sure on the servicing being favoured toward the oil burner either.

I enjoyed the performance every chance I got

Good to see you lot pulling over to let the van go by

Good to see you lot pulling over to let the van go by

Yup, never underestimate a caravelle

Some good compartive figures there.

Not enough to make me change though.

You did forget to factor in the extra cost of borrowing the 1k extra over 3 years though :P I don't have to concern myself with the servicing cost as it was included at the time Also not sure on the servicing being favoured toward the oil burner either.

Stu, I am not some religious cult (!) trying to convert you to the dark side, "just the facts ma'am".

To make you happy, the cost of an additional 1k would be 225 interest only over three years at average bank rates of 7%.

At 4.9% APR as per Skoda finance it represents less than 150 over three years.

My servicing was included aswell, so it wasn't something I took any notice of (I only rang the dealer this morning to get the prices for the thread reply)

The servicing requirements are generally less on diesels as they are lower stressed engines. The requirement for the 20% variation is that the vehicle be set to variable and driven hard, then you get 12,000 to 14,000 miles petrol vs diesel.

What is your vehicle's current servicing estimate?

(add the Variable Servicing estimate to the driven mileage)

Mine is 10,100 + 8,600 = 18,700.

Obviously, a sample of yours and my data is not statistically valid, and VW state variable servicing may result in service requirements anywhere between 10 and 20k.

I enjoyed the performance every chance I got

Cool pics:thumbup:

Stu, I am not some religious cult (!) trying to convert you to the dark side, "just the facts ma'am".

:rofl:

I've been to the darker side and now I'm back. I am in the position to have the use of both fuels as the mood takes me (SWMBO has an oil burner) so I do have a comparison.

Blimey, more ground clearance than a Scout!

So does the TDI

.... oh dear here we go again with the TFSI vs. TDI discussion ...... !

I drove the TDI before I bought. I'm just not doing enough miles to justify it.

If I really needed economy I would get a small diesel.

I did my maths before I bought and came to the conclusion that over 3yr they would cost the same to run. So I took the extra 30hp.

No regrets.

tbh, living in a city, I rarely use the full performance potential of a 2CV!. However, when the mood takes me I leave the city and head for the B roads, and realise I'm not a good enough driver to use the full potential of the car :(.

Thats why I wanted a petrol vRS, best of both (as mentioned above), happy enough trundling along in traffic but great fun on a blast.

I think that for most folks, the lazy ease of driving a diesel is worth more to them than a petrol engine that has to rev to 7000 odd rpm in order to get the most oomph out of it!

I must admit I tend to use the performance more than I should although I don't use mine for the daily drive to work as I use the wife's x reg clio as I park on the street.

We tend to do quite a few long journeys at weekends and have plenty of days out up in Northumberland etc so I enjoy the spirited drive