Was thinking of updating the car to a diesel. Have petrol focus at moment but doing a good bit of mileage and want to bring the running costs down. Any ideas on a skoda octavia diesel hatch back? Is it cheap to run? Any recommendations appreciated
Yes it is cheap to run. I do a mix of city\country driving and generally get 450
miles for a tank of diesel (around 44 euro). If you are doing long distance driving and dont drive like a nut case you will get 500-550 miles for a tank. The digital display in the car shows 65-70mpg when you drive like that.
Car tax is high though for second hand cars, for the 1.9 diesel it is 500+
I have a 08 octavia. Cant fault them on running costs. Tax 150euro but I think it has gone up slightly. As for reliability, I have had no problems yet. I will trade for the newer type Octavia next year. You will find a lot of info on www.briskoda.net click forums on top of the page on that site. Easy to miss it.
I have a 06 petrol Octavia and love it. I get about 760kms for a tank of petrol (€57 this week). My brother has a Diesel 05 one and he wouldn't change it for the world, he actually hates driving the petrol ones and loves the diesel!
One more happy customer here (1.9 TDi).
They're not the quietest engine in the world, but are very reliable and sip fuel if you go easy on the accelerator. Ask yourself why you see so many taxi drivers using them!
I have a 1.9 TDi 2008 Octavia Elegance. I bought it 7 months old with 7k on the clock.
I've had it a month and I love it.
I drive to the west a lot and in metrics I can get 4.7 litres / 100km. That's over 60 mpg.
Plenty of power in it, and it's very comfortable. I'm definitely a fan. I drove the 2.0 TDi VAG engine on holidays recently and you don't really need that kind of power for Irish roads.
The 1.9 TDi is a bit loud and unrefined for town driving but it suits me. Btw it (the engine that is) is being replaced soon as it's a little long in the tooth.
How is it long in the tooth with only 7k on the clock?
We run a 2002 1.9 tdi Octavia as a works car, owned since new, and it has been faultless so far. It now has 350k on the clock ( kilometers that is) and I reckon it would do another 200k with ease.
In fact the internal comustion engine hasn't changed much since initial conception.
To say it is old technology is a bit simpplistic. Big jump from the 90's 1.9 td to the 150 bhp 1.9 in the GT TDI's essentially the same engine with a few tweeks.
VAG got great going out of the pump deuse engines. Still love me 130.
But it seems Common Rail is the way forward for power and low carbon.
Ah well bye bye PD.