The new Mrs Arragonis-mobile

[Arragonis]

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.

[redpoint5]

I value the comparison you have made between the Prius and VW; thanks for sharing.

Unfortunately, in the U.S., VW is terrible. They aren't reliable (although I've heard the Golf is a little better), and service costs are twice as high. The Prius here is much cheaper, but VW carries a premium price. Old used Golf's with a million miles still go for thousands of dollars.

My friend recently purchased a Mk4 Golf, and so far has had a bad wheel bearing, bad alternator, and now an exhaust leak in the flex pipe. Way too many issues for a car with under 200k miles on it.

I'm guessing VW quality is better in Europe, and servicing them is more reasonable.

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

Exchanging an old & tired "headache" for a new & improved "headache," are you?

As long as that headache is not either Mrs A's listening to the rattles, or mine listening to Mrs A describing the rattles in full detail, I'm happy.

The new motah is rattle free so far.

Originally Posted by redpoint5

...Unfortunately, in the U.S., VW is terrible... They aren't reliable I'm guessing VW quality is better in Europe, and servicing them is more reasonable.

I have heard this from a few friends based in the colonies and I do wonder if VW sell something else there compared to here. Here they have a reputation for lasting a long time but when they break it is usually something spendy in the mechanical department, so if you buy one with a service history they tend to last well into long life.

The longer life of cars is interesting as Audi (my own) has issues gong beyond 80K, VW maybe beyond 100K (below) but Vauxhall (aka GM in the UK) has managed to produce an engine/gearbox combination that goes 2-300K with no problem at all in the Vectra 2.0 CDTI- taxi owners love them.

The car Mrs A ran before the Prius was another Octavia - a 2.0 PD 140 model she took from about 15K to 99K in 3 years. At a service about 98K the service people asked if we would like them to check for a "problem" which turned out to be the oil pump failing at 100K plus for the 2.0 - which can either cause the engine to go into "Limp" mode or, er, "beggorah" the engine completely. The cost of the fix was spendy and the offer of the company supplied Prius came up so we changed rides. The new owner of the Octavia fixed it and all is fine for him/her.

Skoda trades on making "Happy Owners" but to be honest the dealer nearest us is carp (as was the last one) so we will be servicing with local independents. As long as they service to the same spec (i.e. OE parts, oil etc.) and are VAT registered in the EU the warranty stands.




And of course having tapped the above the CWNN decided it wants an oil change in 20 days - of course it does, it is 12 months old...

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

Sounds reciprocally reminiscent of our experiences with (old) 2011 Cruze and (new) 2014 Prius.

Any rattles on that new Prius? On Priuschat, many complain of rattles on the gen III, but I wonder if they improved after the 2012 model year.

I'm in the market for a Prius, but I have no tolerance of cabin rattles and creaks. If I could pinpoint the noises and easily eliminate them, I wouldn't mind too much.

[ecomodded]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I value the comparison you have made between the Prius and VW; thanks for sharing.

Unfortunately, in the U.S., VW is terrible. They aren't reliable (although I've heard the Golf is a little better), and service costs are twice as high. The Prius here is much cheaper, but VW carries a premium price. Old used Golf's with a million miles still go for thousands of dollars.

My friend recently purchased a Mk4 Golf, and so far has had a bad wheel bearing, bad alternator, and now an exhaust leak in the flex pipe. Way too many issues for a car with under 200k miles on it.

I'm guessing VW quality is better in Europe, and servicing them is more reasonable.

Your friends car only needed basic maintenance

the repair lists is not unusual ,if anything its a cheap easy fix , I woulkd be pretty damn happy if that's all my new used car needed.


You should blame the seller of the car he sold in need of those repairs not VW




My tdi does nothing but save me money

[Ecky]

In the 'states, diesel is often 15-20% more expensive than petrol.

Pics of the car?

[ecomodded]

At the moment in my Canadian small City Regular gas is $1.39.9 a liter
Diesel is $1.36.9 a liter , 3 cents cheaper ..,

I sometimes pay 2 or 3 cents more a liter for diesel but that's it.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by ecomodded

Your friends car only needed basic maintenance

the repair lists is not unusual ,if anything its a cheap easy fix , I woulkd be pretty damn happy if that's all my new used car needed.


You should blame the seller of the car he sold in need of those repairs not VW




My tdi does nothing but save me money

A failed alternator is not basic maintenance; it is a repair. There is no service schedule for replacing alternators, exhaust flex pipes, and wheel bearings. The alternator was twice the cost and twice the labor charge compared to performing the same repair on an Asian or domestic brand.

Perhaps your experience of owning a VW has adjusted your expectation that these are normal maintenance items instead of irregular failures rarely encountered by brands/models known for good reliability.

While this anecdote alone is worthless, my other friend has owned 2 Jetta NA diesels, and 3 engines (they all burned out for various reasons). Then another friend had a Mk4 Jetta TDI that had something major (was never told what) fail just outside of warranty that cost $6000 to repair.

In all this time, my '96 Subaru Legacy went 240,000 miles with not a single failure of even the smallest component. I raced the thing whenever I was on gravel roads, would speed up for potholes, and bash through the forest. It had every excuse to fail me, and never did.

My TSX only has 100k miles on it, but so far not a single failure of any type. Since owning it, I've changed the oil 4 times and put fuel in it.

[ecomodded]

User experience will vary with most cars I never heard of the Jetta being a lemon

Your car has its detractors as well

here is just one unhappy owner of a used legacy

1996 Subaru Legacy LEMON - 1990 to Present Legacy, Impreza, Outback, Forester, Baja, WRX&WrxSTI, SVX - Ultimate Subaru Message Board

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by ecomodded

At the moment in my Canadian small City Regular gas is $1.39.9 a liter
Diesel is $1.36.9 a liter , 3 cents cheaper ..,

I sometimes pay 2 or 3 cents more a liter for diesel but that's it.

We pay that but in GBP.