1.9 Tdi

[baron]

Hi all.
Can anyone please give me some feedback on how the 1.9 TDI in manual performs in an Octavia wagon. A friend of mine has a VW Polo with this engine, and I was very impressed with the performance and fuel economy, I am thinking that the 1.9 might be just the car for around town and occasional country driving. Cheers.

[Frufru]

That engine is simply sweet. Even though it has been around for probably more than 20 years, can do hard yakka no probs (my bro 's got 1991 VW Transporter with non turbo variant of the same engine).
When you open my bonnet, it has VW and Audi written all over it. As strange as it seems, I simply love one thing which in some reviews they complain about - turbo lag. You have this 1-2 second lag and then you receive this awesome kick in the backside and off you go as turbo kicks in. Economy is very good, but depends how you drive it. I have 5.6 l/100 km after running in period (did try to run it a bit harder) and with some fair share of country driving which arguably can skew results (by the way, trip computer underestimates real consumption by a factor of 1.07). There is an ample pulling power, but dont rev over 4000 rpm, no point. Overtaking on the country roads seems to be quite painless, but true is that speed limit here is around 110 kph and I never went over 145 kph.
I have to admit I havent got a wagon, but coming from Europe I know that it is expected to have the virtually the same consumption as sedan : 5.3-5.8 l/100 km, depending upon conditions and driver. One thing though is different from Europe - price for diesel in comparison with petrol. I paid today 165.7c and it is a rip-off. Considering that all those trucking companies dont pay excise, I feel like I pay more because of that.
If I were you, I would consider buying DSG (automatic with tiptronic). I didnt have money left for it, however I have heard people saying that engine is quieter with DSG, consumption is virtually identical (+0.2l) and it will keep value better than anything else.

[baron]

Thanks for the feed back Frufru.
So you have the Octavia sedan is that right? are you happy with the fit and finish of the car and how does it compare to the VW's.

[Frufru]

I am very happy. The fit and finish seems to be very good, but of course it is not Audi :) . Wagon must have a loads of space, as sedan has all I need!! I find seats quite comfy..hmm let me think what I did not like... Yea, I think that speedo measures too high speeds in 60-80 region. It shows 80 and I can swear I am only doing 70. However at 115, I feel like doing 115. Gearbox is fast and easy.
I personaly think that there is hardly any engine noise however thats only comparing with likes of .. Hilux, diesel Corolla and Transporter. If you come from petrol car, you may find diesel engine noisier especialy until warms up.
There is nothing like a testdrive I reckon. I would be very keen to hear your feedback if you testdrive Octavia or other VW like Jetta and compare it with diesel Mazdas.

[GDG]

Hi Baron,

I have a 1.9TDI 5M wagon (and a sedan) and can honestly say that it performs very well - better than I had ever expected it to. I am not sure what the Polo's spec is but in the Octavia the stock version is the 77kW 250Nm I guessing that the Polo version is a little less than this. Fuel economy can vary depending on the level of stop start you do on your trip around the city and suburbs. My 26km trip to work in the morning in relatively light Melbourne traffic can have consumption figures anywhere between 4.5l/100km and 5.6l/100km. The same trip in the opposite direction 5.5l/100km to 7.1l/100km on a really bad traffic day. These figures could easily be improved upon if I were to drive it in an economical manner - which I really don't do.

I usually fill up as soon after the low fuel indicator light starts to flash as it is really in your face and hard to ignore. I get between 900km to 950km from each tank fill which usually means I am filling up once every 3 weeks. For the occaisonal long (> 100km) trip on the freeways I've had consumption figures between 5.2l/100km and 5.5l/100km which also includes the trundle through the suburbs to get to and from the freeway. At 110km/h the engine is running at around 2100rpm compared to about 1600rpm at 80km/h in 5th so you won't get fantastically low fuel usage stats on say a trip from Melbourne to Sydney but 5.5l/100km should tolerable for the occaisional long haul trip.

The 1.9L TDI engine is not as refined as its newer more powerful 2.0L TDI brother but it still a respectable powerplant to have under the bonnet especially from the fuel economy point of view. It still has ample poke to get you out of any tight situations.

The best way to experience how the car handles and how well it made is to visit a Skoda Dealer and take one for a decent test drive.

[baron]

Hi all.
Well I took your advice and test drove a black 1.9tdi 6 speed 4x4 octavia wagon today, and I must say it was one of the best cars I have ever driven. It had plenty of performance, and the gearbox I must say is magic, what a pleasant car to drive. The quailty of the trim, and fit and finish is up there with the best of them. The only thing I could fault with the car was the narrow front seat bases, if they were just that little bit wider, I would give the car a 10 out of 10. Anyone thinking of buying a new car of that size and in that price range should have a test drive, you won't be disappointed. Cheers.

[DanSA]

It shows 80 and I can swear I am only doing 70. However at 115, I feel like doing 115.


You are correct. I have noticed that the speedo can be optimistic by up to 8kph depending on speed. Measured by GPS.

If you want to see tru spd you can do it via the climate control system, subsection 19. This also shows how the speedo is optimistic, presumably to help you keep your licence..

For full info on doing this, see Briskoda thread here:
http://briskoda.net/forums/octavia-ii/new-octavia-tips-tricks/55750/

[Frufru]

You are correct. I have noticed that the speedo can be optimistic by up to 8kph depending on speed. Measured by GPS.

If you want to see tru spd you can do it via the climate control system, subsection 19. This also shows how the speedo is optimistic, presumably to help you keep your licence..

For full info on doing this, see Briskoda thread here:
http://briskoda.net/forums/octavia-ii/new-octavia-tips-tricks/55750/

Thanks DanSA, thats awesome. Cant wait to check it out. Its like learning cheat codes in Doom! I can even decode the option list in my service manual.

[mrx]

By using the climatronic readout, I use the following rule of thumb. Travel 5km/h over indicated speed up to 80km/h, 10km/h over above that, and it's untested (of course) but I'd say there's a good chance it'll be out by 15km/h once you hit the 3rd "region" on the speedo.

[baron]

Gday all.
How do you guys find the front seats in regard to comfort on long trips, as the seat base seams quite narrow at the front. The test drive of the Octavia 4x4 was not long enough to get a good idea of their comfort. Are the seats all the same or do different models have different seat bases. Cheers.

[GDG]

Baron,
I find the seats are comfortable enough for me. I'm 5'9" tall. Just did a longish trip on the weekend 250km each way in the 1.9TDI hatch/sedan and had no comfort issues with the seats. I too thought the seats were on the small side when I first looked at these cars but they are much better shaped than my previous car's much larger seats. I would assume that the seats across the whole range are of similar shape. They would have to be to be to fit inside the plastic trim (with the small storage tray) that surrounds the seat base. Did you notice the passenger seat base has a storage compartment under it and the drivers seat has room to mount a small fire extinguiser underneath it?

btw. The hatch, which now has 5000Kms on it, returned 4.6l/100km and 4.5l/100km for each of the 250km trips. Load was similar to previous trips so I guess the engine is starting to loosen up a bit since we last took it out on the open road back when it had just 1000km on the clock.

[baron]

Gday GDG.
Which dealer did you get your cars from? How do you think servicing will go with only 2 dealers listed, and one of them being in Geelong. I did hear that Werribee Volkswagen was going to become a Skoda dealer, but when I rang them up to confirm this the salesman told me none of the staff have heard any such rumor. I think if Skoda wants to make a bigger impact in Victoria they will definitely need to get more Volkswagen dealers involved which will also work out better for the consumers as we will have other dealers to compare prices with. Cheers.

[rym]

There are 3 now, Preston, Richmond and Geelong. Richmond was introduced at end of April.

[GDG]

Baron,
Bayford in Preston was the dealer for my two Skodas. The servicing for this dealer is done at Camberwell VW. For me Camberwell is not too much of a problem to get to however with the new location opening in Richmond I'm hoping that they will be co-located with a service centre which would make my life easier still. It's still quite a few months (7,5000km) away from my first 15000km so I do not have any experiences regarding Skoda servicing as yet. I think it would make good sense from a dealer perspective to have a Skoda Authorised service centre (not necessarily in the same location as a showroom) to the north,west and south of Melbourne. Geelong is just a bit too far west to be of any use to anyone in the western suburbs.

[Whats_a_skoda]

The RS seat's probably the firmest. But I've found it very comfortable on long trips. I've done 6100km in this so far, of which a couple are 4 hour drives. I had a golf V prior and that wasn't as comfortable as this. Thigh length is right, lumbar is good too.;)

[mrx]

I drove the RS immediately after the 1.8TFSI with leather seats, and found the RS seats to be much more comfortable. The seats in the RS are still feel very firm and lack the side bolstering compared to the seats in our Golf GTI. However, you don't get sore after a long drive, so they must have all the right bits in the right places.