Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - View Single Post - The new Mrs Arragonis-mobile

Arragonis · 07-11-2014, 06:25 PM

aka the car with no name.

Our family experiment with an unmodified Prius (2011) ended here

Summary - it makes driving eco easy but you still need to "try" to get every advantage. The main issue is that the built quality is very poor - think 1990s Yugo - compared to other cars the same price - nearly £36K here, $50K US. And when you need to "press on" the petrol engine is, well, cr@p - noisy, thirsty (compared to a Diesel) and lacking in grunt - 90hp from 1.8, really ? The Prius itself is not comfortable or quiet on a long journey - e.g. 500 mile round trips to England (aka Civilisation) and back to Scotland (Northern Colonies )

The A-Family replacement is a Skoda Octavia 1.6 CR with DSG (aka computer controlled semi auto) - for those of you outside Europe this is an identical but badge-cheaper version (in money terms, not toys) of a VW Golf "Wagon" with an engine I don't think you can buy - 1.6 TDI, 115 hp.

It has "all the toys" (sat nav, trip computer - inc MPG, glass roof, stop-start, parking sensors, fancy interior) and was owned by someone who did <3K miles in 12 months. It is more or less a brand new car but for £6K off the new price. It still smells new inside.

So how does it drive ?

In short this is a Prius killer, for most drivers.

The DSG is amazing. Each gear change is invisible to the driver except for the rev counter dancing up or down - no jerks or sudden shifts.

You can "tune" the car selecting ECO, Normal and Performance modes for the DSG and engine - selecting ECO for the engine for example means the Start-Stop is super attentive, sport mode means it is always on. For the gearbox it means more rapid up changes (ECO) vs more kickdown (Sport) - all super smooth. In "eco" mode the DSG makes sure the engine is under 2K in all gears, and there are 7 of them for it to select from.

When cruising ~70 MPH (UK motorway limit) is about 1500 RPM.

One downside on this model is there are no F1 style flippers to shift up and down - you have to use the lever pressing front and back for that. But there is no need to at all as the gearbox is better "sorted" than most of us here. It even shifts between Neutral and coasting in gear by itself depending on what gets the best MPG - it says "Coasting" on the display, otherwise the revs drop to idle when you lift off - even at 70 +.

The 1.6 engine proves there is a "replacement for displacement" by putting out as much torque as Mrs A's previous Octavia (which was a 2.0 litre 140 PD model) and almost as much as my Audi A6 2.7 TDI. In short this thing is quick - overtaking is no problem (up to, *cough , sorry officer), lane changing is instant.

The instrumentation offers instant MPG, MPG since refuel, since start (this journey) and since reset - a random one for the driver to decide. A downside is that you can only display one at a time (i.e. not instant vs avg) which is not so great but they refresh very quickly. We await a tank to go so we can check how accurate they are.

Tyres happen to be the same model and size as the Prius.

Issues so far - the sat nav (SD card supplied) wasn't working but we only discovered that afterwards. The dealer we bought it from (Nissan) didn't know what to do so passed it to the local Skoda place who more or less shrugged and suggested £100+ to sort it. As Mrs A travels for work she needs it, so I solved it online and it now works for under £20, although built in sat-nav is always less good than the Android one or TomTom. The Prius one was equally cr@p too.

Second issue is that because cars keep track of servicing this thing thinks it needs an oil change just because it is coming up to a year old. The selling dealer stated both of these had been done, but as they obviously haven't we will get them done (so we know they have been) and have an argument with the dealer seperately later - this thing is needed for work.

I'll put tanks into the history to see how this goes, but as the old Octavia would do about 400 miles a tank and this one is 350 miles with 2/3 a tank to go I think it might be quite good in comparison.

I intend to update Hermann when I get a chance - work has been very busy for the past few months.

07-11-2014, 06:25 PM	#1 (permalink)
Arragonis The PRC. Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Elsewhere. Posts: 5,304 Thanks: 285 Thanked 536 Times in 384 Posts	The new Mrs Arragonis-mobile aka the car with no name. Our family experiment with an unmodified Prius (2011) ended here Summary - it makes driving eco easy but you still need to "try" to get every advantage. The main issue is that the built quality is very poor - think 1990s Yugo - compared to other cars the same price - nearly £36K here, $50K US. And when you need to "press on" the petrol engine is, well, cr@p - noisy, thirsty (compared to a Diesel) and lacking in grunt - 90hp from 1.8, really ? The Prius itself is not comfortable or quiet on a long journey - e.g. 500 mile round trips to England (aka Civilisation) and back to Scotland (Northern Colonies ) The A-Family replacement is a Skoda Octavia 1.6 CR with DSG (aka computer controlled semi auto) - for those of you outside Europe this is an identical but badge-cheaper version (in money terms, not toys) of a VW Golf "Wagon" with an engine I don't think you can buy - 1.6 TDI, 115 hp. It has "all the toys" (sat nav, trip computer - inc MPG, glass roof, stop-start, parking sensors, fancy interior) and was owned by someone who did <3K miles in 12 months. It is more or less a brand new car but for £6K off the new price. It still smells new inside. So how does it drive ? In short this is a Prius killer, for most drivers. The DSG is amazing. Each gear change is invisible to the driver except for the rev counter dancing up or down - no jerks or sudden shifts. You can "tune" the car selecting ECO, Normal and Performance modes for the DSG and engine - selecting ECO for the engine for example means the Start-Stop is super attentive, sport mode means it is always on. For the gearbox it means more rapid up changes (ECO) vs more kickdown (Sport) - all super smooth. In "eco" mode the DSG makes sure the engine is under 2K in all gears, and there are 7 of them for it to select from. When cruising ~70 MPH (UK motorway limit) is about 1500 RPM. One downside on this model is there are no F1 style flippers to shift up and down - you have to use the lever pressing front and back for that. But there is no need to at all as the gearbox is better "sorted" than most of us here. It even shifts between Neutral and coasting in gear by itself depending on what gets the best MPG - it says "Coasting" on the display, otherwise the revs drop to idle when you lift off - even at 70 +. The 1.6 engine proves there is a "replacement for displacement" by putting out as much torque as Mrs A's previous Octavia (which was a 2.0 litre 140 PD model) and almost as much as my Audi A6 2.7 TDI. In short this thing is quick - overtaking is no problem (up to, *cough , sorry officer), lane changing is instant. The instrumentation offers instant MPG, MPG since refuel, since start (this journey) and since reset - a random one for the driver to decide. A downside is that you can only display one at a time (i.e. not instant vs avg) which is not so great but they refresh very quickly. We await a tank to go so we can check how accurate they are. Tyres happen to be the same model and size as the Prius. Issues so far - the sat nav (SD card supplied) wasn't working but we only discovered that afterwards. The dealer we bought it from (Nissan) didn't know what to do so passed it to the local Skoda place who more or less shrugged and suggested £100+ to sort it. As Mrs A travels for work she needs it, so I solved it online and it now works for under £20, although built in sat-nav is always less good than the Android one or TomTom. The Prius one was equally cr@p too. Second issue is that because cars keep track of servicing this thing thinks it needs an oil change just because it is coming up to a year old. The selling dealer stated both of these had been done, but as they obviously haven't we will get them done (so we know they have been) and have an argument with the dealer seperately later - this thing is needed for work. I'll put tanks into the history to see how this goes, but as the old Octavia would do about 400 miles a tank and this one is 350 miles with 2/3 a tank to go I think it might be quite good in comparison. I intend to update Hermann when I get a chance - work has been very busy for the past few months. __________________ [I]So long and thanks for all the fish.[/I]