Do you every have trouble starting your car? Sometimes mine takes a good bit of cranking, like 6 or 7 seconds to start, and then it grobbles for a bit.

Also, what kind of MPG do you get in the winter?

Glow plugs?

Not sure if it has them. You don't do a glow plug cycle when starting it apparently.

I would have thought you really needed to in cold weather Molgrips.

my 2L HDi is exactly the same in the winter.

oils too thick, so its hard work to get the engine up to the… velocity, for want of a better word, to compress the fuel quick enough to ignite it.

you could but lighter (less vicous that is) winter oil in it….

No, starts first time every time (famous last words).

MPG I think is about 44 mpg average but most of my journeys are only 8-10 miles so that doesnt cover a decent run. Over 40 mile journeys it goes up to about 50mpg.

I have the DSG box & my biggest complaint is that sometimes it appears to get a bit confused between changing from first to second just as the boost is about to appear… which can leave you attempting to pull away very slowly… I appear to have learnt to drive around it as have not noticed it as much as when I first got it

I had the same problem with my diesel focus. Garage yesterday said 3 of the 4 plugs were gone. Replaced and now works fine.

or could be slightly weak battery, so not quite enough oomph to turn it over at the required speed?

that can be checked by effectly jumpstarting the car off another, as the other car will be running, power will be no problem.
if its any quicker then, its your battery being a bit tired (i would say, im no mechanic)

Still needs glow-plugs, just doesn't need pre-heat.

I'd surely get a fault code light if I had glow plugs out, would I not? Plus, unless they were all out I'd see it misfire when it caught – it doens't seem to do this. It's almost as if there's air in the fuel line but I'm sure that woudl screw up the CR system way more than I'm experiencing.

Battery is fine since it cranks merrily away whilst not starting. Having said that it does turn a bit slower than I was expecting – maybe oil too thick?

Gee-Jay – you get 50mpg even in winter? I am getting 48mpg on winter diesel, had 54 max in summertime. Also – top tip for pulling out of junctions (or doing anythign else quickly for that matter) is put it in S mode, then back to D when you're away.

down to 48 on my 15 mile commute, would normaly be above 52 in summer

I started doing the S & then D thing but (generally) appear to have my right foot trained now so I dont suffer much,… it may also be slightly more fuel biased & I have changed the garage I fill up at.

Fuel consumption is difficult to be more accurate about as I say tending to short journeys & currently showing an average of 44mpg, it is due a service though so may get better soon 🙂