I wouldn't be so quick to write off the 1.0 as it has a good slug of torque from 2000rpm to call on.

No, it isn't going to be winning any traffic light grand prix, but i'm sure you'd have guessed that. The main potential stumbling block in my opinion is going to be gearing, so take it out for a test drive to see how it feels, that is the only way to be sure.

Looking at the bare facts, it seems absolutely fine with 116bhp and 200nm of torque from 2000-3500rpm. In addition, it only weighs 1172kg, which is not a lot at all for a car of that size (the much smaller Audi Q2 with this engine is heavier). Compare it to the original Octavia 2.0 estate, this also had 116bhp, 170nm of torque (at 2400rpm), but it weighed 1275kg despite being a smaller car.

BTW, i drive a VW Caddy 2.0 SDI van for my work, it has 70bhp to call on and i find it perfectly adequate for my needs. But so many people these days, simply have to have more and more power. If you feel the 1.0 will suffice, just you go for that, it seems like a good little engine.

Yup the 1.4L we are looking at was registered last year, presumably just before being replaced by 1.5, so won’t be chain driven will it?

and have opted for Octavia Estate

Are you 100% certain that is a good idea. We have tried 3 in the past and they have all been unacceptably noisy. They were good value but we could not have lived with one. The Skoda Superb and for that matter the Seat Leon are so much more refined. Look at the Skoda forum, loads about booming and tyre roar problems with Octavia estates. We walked away each time.

Yup the 1.4L we are looking at was registered last year, presumably just before being replaced by 1.5, so won’t be chain driven will it?

Correct, it’ll be belt driven.

The belt drive engine was introduced for the Golf Mk7, Seat Leon Mk3 and the Audi A3 late in 2012 with deliveries starting early 2013. My 1.4 TSi Leon Mk 3 was built February 2013 and like all Mk3's was fitted with belt drive engines. Skoda did not adopt the belt drive engine until later in 2013 for the Octavia (when it was updated) but since the OP is looking at a 2018 car it can only be belt drive.

Its a brilliant engine, had 2 now, one in the Leon and now in the Superb.

Wife has a 1.0 TSi 110 PS in her 2018 Fabia and that is also a brilliant engine. Never short of performance and on a trip we saw over 60 mpg. But I still need convincing about fitting such an engine in a car the size of an Octavia, Never driven one so probably worrying about nothing. We had a Golf TDI with only 90 PS and 148 torques for 7 years and that never lacked performance (even when towing over a tonne of Caterham and trailer) and since the 110 PS TSi has more power and identical torques (and a much wider power band) its probably perfect providing you don't expect to beat 1.4 TSi's.

Edited by skidpan on 03/05/2019 at 18:54

That is the reason my 2.0SDI Caddy doesn't feel particularly slow (certainly in most of the situations i find myself in), it's short gears. Same for the Peugeot Partner Combi we used to have, with the 1.4 petrol (75bhp). It rarely felt as slow as you might think due to a combination of being geared to make the most of what it had, and not weighing very much!.

Indeed - my (or now my sons) old non turbo mkI Octavia 1.4 (75ps) from about 3,500 miles (now over 130k miles) has always been surprisingly "nippy" and I suspect it's a combination of well judged gearing and the engine management - considering it's a 16v engine what power it has shows up at lower revs and it's red line is just over 5,000 rpm, which is low for a petrol. It should be a slug - but it's not – it’s held its own driving through Europe numerous times.

Back to the original post - I have a 1.4tsi (very last version of the EA111 cam chain one in a 2014 Superb II) and love it. Pretty good performance and overall fuel economy is over 45 mpg. I like the silence in traffic and the fact you can't tell if stop/start has worked without looking at the dash display or rev counter. The gearing is substantially taller than my old Octavia - the 1.4 tsi at 60mph is only revving at 2000 rpm in 6th.

Whilst there have been reports about the older 1.4EA111 cam chain 1.4tsi (mine is one of the last - we shall see!) as far as I know the later EA211 cam belt 1.4 tsi has been a great engine.

I've driven a 3 cylinder 1.0 tsi and whilst it's lively once the revs are north of 2000rpm and they have a great sound (reminds me of a v6 I had years ago) - for me I wasn't keen on the slight background vibration when sat in traffic from the slightly off balanced engine. I've not tried in an Octavia yet and this may have better engine mounts etc. I've driven in courtesy 1.0 Skoda Rapids etc.

PS On a Skoda forum it's been reported that there is a fix around for the 1.5tsi kangaroo problems although post September 2018 the petrol direct injection engines will be fitted with an OPF (Particulate Filter)

Edited by Big John on 04/05/2019 at 00:19

I may be out of date but always feel a larger engine is less stressed and hopefully last better than a smaller one. However my SLK has the 2.1 diesel but the same unit is used in some E classes which are much larger but seem to manage fine. Bit confusing really.

drove plenty of VW's with that engine working in a VW dealership in the early to mid noughties and it was a cracker. But as i said earlier, it is the gearing which is (potentially) most likely to cause problems in an Octavia with the 1.0. That old 1.9TDI Golf would have been geared for the 'real world',

Have to say that the 96 Golf TDi 90 PS had the worst "town" gearing of any car we have owned before or since. You never seemed to be in the correct gear, 2nd too low, 3rd too high. Luckily once on the open road all was well with 70 equating to about 2350 rpm. At the same time as we owned the Golf we also had a diesel Polo and that was a pleasure to drive in town. The Mondeo TDCi that followed it was very good in town but the very short first gear was all but useless at the traffic light grand prix.

The gearing in the 6 speed Fabia with the 1.0 TSi 110 PS is spot on. Like all modern turbo petrols it has a very wide spread of power with none of the lag or sudden loss that many diesels suffer from. At 70 mph in 6th its doing about 2200 rpm which is the same as the Superb 1.4 TSi. No idea but it may be that they adjust the gearing in the Octavia to compensate for the extra bulk.