Skoda Octavia VRS (mk2, 2.0T) vs Mondeo 2.5T/2.0T Ecoboost

[Howard-]

Morning all,

Just a (hopefully) quick one, and I know it's a bit specific, but I'm wondering if anyone has ever driven/compared the two, or otherwise has any comment on these particular cars.

I'm struggling to decide between the two!


I'll be coming from a Mondeo ST220, if that helps.


Cheers.

[kambites]

The Octavia is smaller, considerably lighter car. The Mondeo was far too big for us to consider when we bought the Octavia.

[BorkFactor]

Isn't the 2.5T in the Mondeo the Volvo T5 engine?

Really like the look of them, quite tunable too I believe?

I would imagine it it is cheaper than the VRS as well, that would be my choice.

[Bullett]

I love my VRS, excellent little car. Plenty of space, have taken the whole family to france and back for a week with two young kids (2&3 at the time) and all the stuff that entails.

My wife has a Focus ST if the mondeo has the same engine as that 2.5 turbo it's very thirsty.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

I liked my (slightly fiddled with) Octavia whilst I had it. It wasn't until I started looking at other cars to replace it with that I realised what a poorly made car it was. I went from a Mondeo ST TDCI to the Octavia and did yearn for a Ford again and would have got a new shape Titanium X-Sport but on our budget they were all manuals and we wanted an auto so went for a BMW. The Ford thought impressed me a lot...

[neil1jnr]

Ford

[Howard-]

Thanks guys, I'm erring towards the Mondeo but the 2.5T's reported thirst does put me off slightly. But then if I go for the 2.0 Ecoboost it's only going to cost me thousands more to buy


More opinions of either car welcome!

[ManOpener]

A colleague of mine has a 2.5T Mondeo, and I've got a Leon powered by the same engine as the Octavia. It's a nice piece of kit (the Mondeo, that is) but the economy is atrocious. A TFSI (EA113) pre-FL Octavia VRS should manage ~32mpg average in mixed driving and nearly 40 on a motorway run (in fact I've topped 40 before on a combined motorway/A-road run down to Bristol with extensive use of cruise control); a TSI (EA888) post-FL one ~36 and mid 40s respectively. He struggles to get anything starting with a "3" out of his Mondeo and frequently manages as low as 19mpg in mixed, albeit spirited, driving.

I'd probably go for the Octavia unless you really want that lovely 5-pot warble. The Mondeo is a better steer and probably better put together too, but I'm not sure I could live with a car that was that much thirstier for no actual performance gain (in fact a drop if you're looking at DSG Octavias).

Edited by ManOpener on Friday 22 August 12:06

[Howard-]

ManOpener said:

A TFSI (EA113) pre-FL Octavia VRS should manage ~32mpg average in mixed driving and nearly 40 on a motorway run; a TSI (EA888) post-FL one ~36 and mid 40s respectively.

Really? Are these "well-known" averages? That's very good if so.


I'm not THAT fussed about MPG but it's starting to sound like the 2.5T is annoyingly thirsty for the performance on offer. Although 260-280bhp from a remap would remedy that

I think I need to try an Octavia and see how I like it. I do prefer how they look, inside and out. Titanium X Sport Mondeos seem super rare.

[ManOpener]

Decent thread on Briskoda about fuel economy here : http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/149339-octavi... There's a pretty large range in there, mix of different driving styles, of FL and pre-FL cars, but the averages I gave are about right.

I average about 32 in my Leon on weeks where I'm doing longer journeys. If I'm just going across town to work every day for a week in 8:30/5:30 traffic, I only get about 22. Then again, I could quite realistically see a 2.5T Mondeo getting 15 in that kind of driving.

[Bullett]

I agree with Man on those MPG's done similar myself.

Don't forget the Octavia is possible to tune as well. I've read 240 from a remap and up to 300 with other mods.

[Howard-]

Thank you. I tend to take 'single-car/make forum MPG quotes with a pinch of salt because of a mixture of purchase justification syndrome, and others seemingly insistent that you shouldn't own a car like that if you don't drive it everywhere like your hair's on fire

But these figures seem quite consistent. It's nice to know that I'll likely see a reasonable boost in economy over my current 3.0 V6! Mind you I can achieve 35-37 on a quiet motorway, sticking to 70MPH.

[ManOpener]

Stg. 1 remap for a 2.0 TFSI is between 240-260bhp depending on who you go with. Stage 2/2+ are about 270/280 respectively. 300bhp is round about the upper limit of the standard turbo, but the larger K04 from the S3/ED30/Cupra is a fairly cheap swap. They're good for up to 400.

[Howard-]

Who's best for a remap?

Are the plug-in Bluefin/Superchips ones worth considering?

[ManOpener]

From the big tuners, Revo and APR seem to be the top two.

From the cottage industry/small specialists, R-Tech seem to have the best rep. Their custom rolling-road maps are very popular on the various forums and Nikki really knows what he's doing. Very much about attaining maximum driveability rather than just chasing peak power figures.

Badger Bill at Badger 5 Motorsport has also been doing some development work on custom TFSI maps but I think these are only for the K04 turbo engines. He's much better known in the 1.8 20VT tuning scene than he is in the TFSI one but he's getting some really good results over on the SEAT Cupra forums with his custom Revo-based stage 2 maps.

The Bluefin stuff uses Superchips maps. It's pretty well-regarded as a discrete and easily removable solution but many people think you get bette results with a live RR map.

Edited by ManOpener on Friday 22 August 13:32

[kambites]

Howard- said:

Really? Are these "well-known" averages? That's very good if so.

Sounds about right. We average around 30mpg in our Octavia, which is almost entirely short (<4 mile) trips around town. Motorway trips almost always seem to give 38mpg.

[kambites]

I'd be interested to know if anyone can recommend a chipper to improve MPG and/or throttle response; I have absolutely no interesting in increasing power.

[Tomozuki]

I don`t know if this thread is still active, but I just wanted to add my 2 minutes about Mondeo 2.5t. I haven`t driven an Octavia yet, nor the 2.0 Ecoboost, but 2.5t is a fantastic engine to have. It is so elastic and smooth compared to some turbodiesels I have driven. Thirsty? Definitely isn`t much of a town car because it is quite heavy; thus a heavier foot can push it up to 18mpg, but cruising on highways and classic roads is just outstanding on some low revs. Driving 50mph can squeeze about 35mpg out of it which isn`t bad. My average consumption is about 9,1 litres or 26mpg, but I mostly do highways with an excess of 100mph (160km/h). Since I do a lot of mileage, I was thinking about converting it to gas. I suggest you try the Octavia and both Mondeos and decide afterwards.

[Howard-]

Heh, I went for a Mondeo in the end. 2.0 Ecoboost Titanium X Sport. It's a fantastic engine and I'm very pleased with it, especially with the Bluefin remap that I wasn't able to resist for long


The Octavia just didn't offer the level of equipment that I really wanted in a car. I'm very picky I know