We are thinking of downsizing from our Smax to an estate car as 90% of the time the smax is too big and thirsty.

Considering a facelift Octavia vrs with the tsi engine around a 2011/2012 plate.

Anyone got experience of this car and if so what’s the mpg like on it ?

I’ve got the same engine in out Golf GTi, and SEAT Altea. On a good run, 36mpg but work & back for 12 miles on the motorway is 30/32 depending on traffic.

You have to work hard to get it embarrassingly low on the road though

My old diesel vRS was about 50mpg for reference, but nowhere near as fun (but a lovely car inside & out)

I’m lucky if I get 30. That’s on a petrol 13 plate 220bhp version…as above though, 35ish is possible of you stick it in Eco and drive slowly.

2011/12 will be the old version though, so not sure about that.

Haven’t you only just bought the SMAX, Mazda estate before wasn’t it?

I had one as a company car.

On the motorway sat at 65-70 it would get up to 43mpg on a run with minimal distance off the motorway each end. (real world maximum likely mpg I’d say)

As an average over 30k/yr I got 28mpg.

Round town it really suffers and dropped to 20mpg, but even perfume burners suffer in that scenario.

The payback was awesome performance and many many smiles per mile.

Clearly not really fast, but more than good enough to embarrass a few and scare one self occasionally.

My commute is a mixture of A and B roads, mixed driving, some pottering, some not.

It works out to average just over 30mpg which I’m happy with. If you flog it then it’ll drop dramatically but I’ve managed to get 40mpg on the commute driving as economically as possible.

I wouldn’t go back to an oil burner.

Thanks.

I’ve had the smax since last June 2013 and only really done a big journey in it last Wednesday where it took a tankful plus another £20 to do 500 miles.

We only really bought it as we moved to the top of Scotland and we thought it may have proved useful to have the extra seats when relatives visited. This hasn’t proved to be the case so want to go back to something smaller and better on fuel but still a petrol.

mk III tsi 220ps version, doing mainly A road, motorway and cruising at 80 to 85, but sticking to 50 at the long stretches of roadworks (M6, M1) then crossing london I get between 35 and 39 mpg…and I don’t hang around on the 25 miles of a road, its a nice car that makes overtaking easy.

round town in london, if you drive sensibly (and you get nowhere fast driving differently) low 30s unless the traffic is monumentally bad, then it dips. My long term average over just over 4000 miles since new is just over 37 mpg

oh and the car lives in normal mode.

I wish I could afford a mk3 version but they are still to new really.

Nothing helpful to add except to boast, I’ve just had 800 miles from 1 tank out my 5 series, amazing what a service will do. Get a diesel

I don’t really do enough miles to warrant a diesel and am wary of dpf and dmf issues.

My brother sees around 28 average, 38 on a run.

Great car- I’d love one

What is your budget renton?

Parkers says mpg of petrol smax to do between 30-34 mpg

From experiance of a mates octy vrs mk2 estate…. We got 28 going to fort william. A92 -A9-a86 loaded with camping gear and bikes

If fuel economy is so important buy something that isnt the sporty model with loadsabhp.

Mk2 55 plate. Around 30-33 on a run, mway speeds 80-85 leptons, driving economically and not hooning.can drop to 20s /teens if pressing on. Have seen 40mpg, once. Great car, had it 6 years, its ace. keep thinking about changing but never come up with anything better than just getting the newer version!

The Octavia with the tsi engine is meant to be quite economical but also quite nippy.

The Smax is just thirsty all the time. We done 500 miles down from the top of Scotland and it averaged around 30mpg at an average of 65 which is woeful.

Budget is around 12.5k max

Moray ain’t the top of Scotland – try Wick 🙂

Depends if you *need* the vRS performance / goodies. FWIW we went from a dead 900S to an Octavia (petrol, as mileage / usage didn’t justify a diesel) TSI (/just/ the 1.4) and have been very happy, not even the top spec – sure of you got the bells and whistles version you’d be happy. Also the newer (’13 onwards) Octavias will have more gizmos, slightly larger, with blue / green efficiency tweaks.

Oh and we found the Skoda dealer – in Inverness – useless. Didn’t like them. Got ours from a garage in Perth, much better, and intend to get serviced locally (J G Wisharts).

Cool cheers for that. I did find the dealer in Inverness a bit frosty.

I like the sportier looking versions of cars,always have.

Oh and Elgin is north of Scotland when the furthest north you’ve been before is Wolverhampton 😉

I’ve got one of the early face lift models (2010?) with the petrol engine;
usually around the 30mpg mark on average, more on a long motorway run. That’s with a 255bhp stage 1 remap installed after only a couple of hundred miles.
Uterly brilliant car. Sure, it doesn’t have all the toys an audi of bmw has, but it’s otherwise cheap to run, reasonable efficient and very comfortable. This one’s a keeper.

Realistically, aren’t you going to lose quite a bit on the S-Max if you sell it now to buy a VRS that’s probably not that much more economical?

Well that’s why I am asking on various forums what the real world mpg is like before I do.

“going to lose quite a bit on the S-Max if you sell it now to buy”

and that loss will buy alot of fuel….

stick a VRS body kit/interior on a smaller engined model if its just the look you want…..

Sui – Member
Nothing helpful to add except to boast, I’ve just had 800 miles from 1 tank out my 5 series

How big is the tank though? Kind of irrelevant without that snippet of info.

A mate of mine has the previous gen Octavia petrol estate. I think he can coax 35mpg out of it, but it’s normally quite a bit lower.

Sui – Member

Nothing helpful to add except to boast, I’ve just had 800 miles from 1 tank out my 5 series, amazing what a service will do. Get a diesel

And when the fuel pump/injectors/DMF/DPF shit themselves you will cancel all that out and then some.

The newer tsi engine is meant to be a lot more economical than the tfsi engine fitted to the mk2 from 05 to 09.

More to the point….. How many bikes can you fit in the estate version with the back seats up ?

retro83 – Member

And when the fuel pump/injectors/DMF/DPF shit themselves you will cancel all that out and then some.

Is this aimed at diesels in general or BMW diesels in particular?

My diesel’s still on it’s original fuel pump/injectors/DMF (& clutch)/turbo/exhaust/intercooler……it’s done 249k miles. It doesn’t have a DPF though.

well the old one was 37mpg combined on the official figures – and repeatedly got 28….

the new ones 45 combined on the official figures so i would expect 35.

your getting 27 assuming you ran your tank dry both times which i dont believe unless you had the AA out- and even then the engine will cut out before you have finished your 70 litre tank. – so your probably getting more like 30-32.

“Is this aimed at diesels in general “

aimed at modern diesels where people mistreat them – and it seems most folk do from what i see… labouring the engine in low gears as its economical , running them hard then turning them off , booting them from cold , running crap fuel.

Surely if ibwas to get 27 running the tank dry then I’m going to get less by not running the tank dry.

Quite a few threads over on briskoda where owners are claiming to get around 39 – 42 on a run. But then again owners will always big their cars up.

Around town where the smax is mainly used kills the mpg as its an auto as well.

renton – Member

Quite a few threads over on briskoda where owners are claiming to get around 39 – 42 on a run. But then again owners will always big their cars up.

What age Octavia are they referring to? I looked at getting the MkI petrol vRS quite a few years ago and it did seem that many people were getting 30-40mpg on a motorway run. That was the 180bhp 1.8T engine. At the time it sounded about right, as a mate of mine with a Corolla T-Sport (1.8 petrol, 190bhp) could get 40mpg out of it on a commute.

How many miles a year do you do? Same bloke who had the T-Sport has now got the previous gen vRs diesel estate and gets low to mid 50’s out of it without any bother.

.

“Surely if ibwas to get 27 running the tank dry then I’m going to get less by not running the tank dry.”

less gallons of fuel to do the same amount of miles?

I’m looking at the mk2 facelift from 2010-2013 when the new model came out.

I tend to drive (these days!) pretty sedately. And mileage is – 5k? that sort of figure, some long journeys to central belt, mostly in and round about town. Not much really (hence petrol over diesel, and a lot of the time in town hops).

The 900S would get maybe 35mpg on a decent longish run, maybe 38mpg. The Octavia 1.4 TSI – same sort of run, long journey – talking 45-47mpg, certainly > 40mpg. It’s a ’60 plate, so facelift type from 2010.

The EA113 engine, sometimes known as the TFSI, that graced the pre facelift Octavia VRS MkII(and the Golf GTI MkV and Leon FR) was pretty thirsty. It also sounded like a diesel and had a standard timing belt.

The EA888 engine (sometimes known as the TSI) in the facelift Octavia VRS (and the MkVI Golf GTI and the facelift Leon FR) is a much nicer engine, smoother, quieter, no diesel like rattles, a bit more power and about 10-15% better on fuel. Also it uses timing chains rather than belts so that one less thing to worry about.

In my Leon I typically get low 30’s but that’s over a fairly short commute with a roof rack permanently in place. On a longer run I’ve typically got two bikes on the roof so again low 30’s due to the extra drag

” Also it uses timing chains rather than belts so that one less thing to worry about.”

Orly…… dont what ever you do then google “VRS TSI cam chain tensioner failure” its quite expensive.

Orly…… dont what ever you do then google “VRS TSI cam chain tensioner failure” its quite expensive.

Yeah, don’t do that – it’d be a really bad idea.

Wouldn’t say TFSI sounds like a diesel, however can be a slightly noisier/rattly on startup. Once they’re running there isn’t all that much between them, the tsi is a bit smoother and slightly better mpg & power.

TR, you should know by now, only the best in my cars. DPF is fine, it sits on motorways. DMF, again fine, sits on motorways. Fuel pumps, again fine, i only use qaulity fuel, filters oils changes etc all done in good time through an Indy. Anyway, it worked out at aprox 62mpg on the OBD, or 60mpg based on a fill level of 60 litres.