New to the group - seeking advice

[Lawrence Ellul]

Good morning to all. I'm new to the group and I need some advice. I'm looking into getting the new A3 (8v) as a replacement for my car. I've been searching the web for quite some time and I'm thinking of getting the sportwagon with an S Line trim. I will be getting the diesel engine with manual gearbox however I'm not sure as to which engine to go for. From where I come there are no motorways hence the driving is mostly urban/extraurban with a max top speed of 80Km/h. I'm looking for economy mostly hence the 1.6 should be fine but seeing the "official" consumption figures the 2L should be quite comparable with respect to consumption plus it can be more fun when required. From your experiences what is the average consumption? i'm coming from a 14 year old 206HDi which still returns around 50mpg.

 

[Rideen]

You are in a very similar situation as myself. No highways around and yet I bought a diesel, haha!

It all depends on whether you want a faster car, do you have cash for upgraded engine or do you want economy? I personally went with 1.6 TDI with 116hp as 2.0 TDI was 7000 Euros more expensive (1.6 TDI was on sale).

 

[Lawrence Ellul]

i'm looking for a second hand car to be exported from the UK to Malta. Price wise the difference between an auto and manual is minimal 1 or 2K. I want economy but i do not want a sluggish car. Registration is slightly more for the 2L but road tax is similar for the 1.6 and 2L is the same over the years. still need to test drive one in the coming weeks. I cover around 200 miles a week to go to work, do the school run and run errands, hence I had opted for a diesel in the past and will still prefer a diesel

 

[Rideen]

I still haven't driven the new 1.6 TDI 116hp but I have driven friend's older 1.9 TDI 105hp and it was alright so I hope 1.6 TDI will be fine for me after my previous heavily modded 2.0 TDI 220hp.

 

[SamP97]

Just ordered my new car and will be sending my 2013 A3 S Line on to it's next owners whomever they may be, and pray that they show as much love and appreciation for it as I did, because it is great!

It's the 1.6 TDI 105PS (had a stage one remap taking it to 147 I believe). In fairness, economy wise I can't fault it, if traffic treated you well and you made a conscious effort to, I'm sure you could get 600 miles to a full tank, mine really was that good on my commute to work, but I had an absolutely empty (at 6am) A road doing 60mph the whole way.

However, do not, ever, get this engine if you are the type of person that even remotely, sometimes, once a month, needs to have a bit of fun. Even after my remap, matching power and torque of my friends 2.0TDI at 150PS, and still, not fun. Don't get me wrong they go well and once you know where in the revs the power is you'll know theres ample power for almost any situation. But fun, no, petrol has always been the way.

My friend struggles to get 45mpg out of his 2.0, and we have the same commute, literally a couple doors apart. Whereas I can hit 60mpg on the short trip computer for a pastime.

 

[Lawrence Ellul]

Thanks SamP97. I know what you mean. I'm the kind of person who trys to get from a to b with the least fuel consumption. I've adapted by driving style over the years and constantly get over 50mpg in mostly urban/suburban driving conditions on my peugeot. Still I occasionally want to have some fun and it is here that my car fails me as it is very sluggish with the 50Kw that it has. Still unsure on which powerplant to get, do not know what are the real differences in consumption between a 1.6 and 2.0L stock engines.

 

[SamP97]

Thanks SamP97. I know what you mean. I'm the kind of person who trys to get from a to b with the least fuel consumption. I've adapted by driving style over the years and constantly get over 50mpg in mostly urban/suburban driving conditions on my peugeot. Still I occasionally want to have some fun and it is here that my car fails me as it is very sluggish with the 50Kw that it has. Still unsure on which powerplant to get, do not know what are the real differences in consumption between a 1.6 and 2.0L stock engines.

Blimey, 50kW! In that case, you may be pleasantly surprised with the 1.6, especially in urban conditions, the 2.0 will suffer a harsh defeat where fuel is concerned.
There generally is this idea that the 2.0 is just as good on fuel as the 1.6, however, you have to take into consideration that IDEALLY diesels will be doing dual carriageway/motorway trips, and this, is where the 2.0 has just as good if not better fuel, because you aren't pushing it hard at all to keep up with the higher speed, open A roads with loads of hills are the same story.
It's a workhorse, and in the towns, it'll find itself completely out of place. Another thing to bare in mind is the bigger the diesel, the bigger the need for a longer journey, dpf's and egr's don't last forever.
Your residuals tend to be higher on the 2.0 though, something to keep in mind if purchasing through PCP (kind of make the assumption most people do nowadays).

 

[Daveotto]

I would think again about diesel v petrol given your weekly mileage and the roads in Malta as you might end up with DPF regeneration issues.

 

[Lawrence Ellul]

Well i usually do around 200 miles a week, usually have a 1 hour trip in the morning to take my son to school and then go to the office, on the way back the trip is around 30-40 minutes depending on traffic. Since there are no highways locally the 1.6 should be ideal from what I can understand.The only problem is i cant find reliable mpg data for my kind of driving areas urban/extra urban only to base my decisions.

 

[Rideen]

1.6 TDI shouldn't consume more than 4.5l / 100km. As for DPF regen mentioned above, it won't be an issue as you're driving for 30-40mins on a daily basis, just keep the rpms in the ideal range and give it a good punch every week or so and you should be perfectly fine with 1.6.

 

[Lawrence Ellul]

4.5 would be ideal... I'm having a test drive later on this week to see how it feels

 

[Daveotto]

basis, just keep the rpms in the ideal range and give it a good punch every week or so and you should be perfectly fine with 1.6.

Length of journeys should keep the number of DPF regents down but not sure there are enough suitable roads in Malta to give the car its occasional needed blast

 

[Rideen]

Length of journeys should keep the number of DPF regents down but not sure there are enough suitable roads in Malta to give the car its occasional needed blast

I overlooked that indeed, I thought Malta is as big as my country but it seems Malta is only 316km squared. Last resort would be driving around in circles.

 

[Lawrence Ellul]

how long does a dpf regeneration take? might remove the dpf after warranty

 

[Rideen]

About 10-20min of 2k rpm driving I'd say for 1.6 TDI. I am about to do the same when warranty is over.

 

[Lawrence Ellul]

Thanks

 

[Daz Auto]

how long does a dpf regeneration take? might remove the dpf after warranty

About 10-20min of 2k rpm driving I'd say for 1.6 TDI. I am about to do the same when warranty is over.

Is that legal in your countries?

My wife has a 1.6 TDI with Stronic. If you do get one make sure you disable stop/start. It really isn't smooth with that engine. I found the 1.4 TFSI engine was seamless with Stronic and stop/start.

Also, I remember people saying that the lighter 1.4L petrol felt much more nimble that the diesels.

Given the type of journeys that you are doing I doubt if the diesel is going to be that much more economical.

Edit: it just occurred to me - is diesel a lot cheaper to buy than petrol where you live?

 

[Rideen]

Is that legal in your countries?

Edit: it just occurred to me - is diesel a lot cheaper to buy than petrol where you live?

It is legal where I live. Diesel is like half the price of the petrol here as well.

1l of diesel is 0.8 Euros here.

 

[Don76]

My company runs quite a few A3's on the fleet. A mixture of 1.6 TDi and 2.0 TDi .

All vehicles cover between 30k-50k per year with a good mix of driver styles and journey types.

The difference in fuel consumption is very minimal (2-3mpg max) However the power difference is significant

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

 

[Lawrence Ellul]

Diesel is €1.18 per litre, petrol is at €1.31. To be fair I've been driving diesel cars for the past 17 years and personally like the torque at low revs. I enjoy it when I have the car full and i'm overtaking cars like a boss in going uphill in a steep and winding 2 lane road. I had petrol cars in the past but none were fuel injected. My wife's car is has a petrol 1L fuel injected engine. I enjoy driving her car but not when fully loaded.

Going back to consumption I think I'm in the sweet spot between the transition from petrol to diesel. I'm doing close to 800 miles a month.

I'll be driving a 1.6 TDI in 2 days time and will report back

 

[Lawrence Ellul]

So I managed to drive the A3 1.6 TDI. I had the opportunity to drive an automatic version and to be honest I was not too much impressed by the drive. Probably it is because it was an automatic and it was the first time that I drove an automatic. I would have preferred a manual one but the local agent did not have one in stock... I still love the look of the car and hopefully in the coming weeks he will have a manual one for me to test drive

 

[Rideen]

My 1.6 TDI arrived yesterday and I am delighted. The engine is much more flexible compared to my old 2.0 PD TDI, pulls very nicely and I did not regret not getting 2.0 TDI.