Skoda Octavia - 1.0 or 1.6 - which is better for only occasional motorway driving?

[WhichcarshouldIchoose]

So, we have narrowed our search down to a Skoda Octavia. We're thinking of getting a new 1.0 - we live in the suburbs and don't do much motorway driving - mostly once or twice a year when driving to a cottage which would be about 100/150 miles away. We're keen to get a petrol car and the 1.0 is a mild hybrid ( I believe that's the term). I've read that the 1.0 will struggle on the motorway with a lot of driving. Just wondered what people's experiences were of driving a Skoda 1.0 on the motorway? Is it really worth considering the 1.6? Thanks.

What engine size do you have now? I'm no expert and don't know the Skoda specifically but I've driven both small engine and bigger engine cars on the motorway regularly and I don't really get it when people say you 'have' to have a big engined car for the motorway esp if it's only occasional usage. I would say the only appreciable difference is when you join the motorway, particularly if it's a short slip road and busy, the 1.0 will def have slower acceleration and it's obviously a lot easier/safer to join if you can easily get yourself up to 55ish on the slip road, it takes a bit of practice to do that in a small engine car (you need to remember to stay in low gear and ease up to speed, as opposed to in a bigger engine you can pretty much just put your foot down). Obviously same applies if you then want to overtake, don't pull out into any too small gaps and expect to be able to simply accelerate away as again car will need a few seconds to get up to speed (but ofc you shouldn't be pulling out into tiny gaps anyway no matter how big your car!). So long as you are a reasonably confident/experienced driver and you aren't trying to join a super super busy motorway where people won't let you in or will tail gate you etc, you'll be fine. Once you are up to speed it's fine...

We went 'car shopping' for the first time in years last summer. I was really surprised and impressed at the new engines and the garage basically said we had to throw out all we thought about car engines as we always thought bigger = better.

You'll really just have to take it out for a test drive to really appreciate the difference and what you feel is acceptable to you.

We have the Skoda Octavia VRS Estate and Fabia hatchback - so its fair to say we like skodas!

I'm on my 3rd car, all have been 1.4. This one has a turbo and it does make a difference in acceleration, useful overtaking bikes or pulling out in busier places. My first two cars, you'd have to gear down in anticipation and gear up to accelerate. At least in the early stages of driving it taught a bit of patience and anticipation, not just reacting with your right foot!

Generally for motorways you want a car that's comfortable at driving at higher speeds, but you don't often need a rapid burst of power. Sometimes if you've been stuck in lane 1 going much slower than lane 2, or to match traffic speed and get in a gap when merging in busy conditions.

Thanks very much everyone. We currently have a 1.6 engine.

Personally, if I didn't drive motorways often, I would not choose a 1.0 engine car. Of course you can manage sliproads with practice but it's easier and safer if you can trust the car to accelerate properly. Especially if you're somewhere with dodgy sliproads - I used to live somewhere where, even if I'd been in second gear from the get-go, there was no way I'd get up to a decent speed because there just wasn't a long enough stretch of road for it. It was really horrible.

Thanks Sarah.

You can't really compare engine sizes the same you could with older cars, for example, my car comes with a 1.2 engine that can be configured with an 80bhp engine and a 150bhp engine, resulting in 2 very different driving experiences.

I've got a 1.0 petrol octavia estate. It moves like a rocket on motorway. Only marginally less nippy than my passat 1.8 tdi!

You honestly wouldn't know it was 1.0 litre. A really great car

I've got an Octavia with a large engine (1.6-2l don't know exactly which as DH chose!)

I do find it really good to accelerate quickly, even just getting into a "gap" to turn or whatever and really useful on the horrid little A road slip road near me. I think being able to accelerate quickly when you need to is useful

I’ve got a 0.9 Dacia and while I wouldn’t attempt to overtake on a hill, I haven’t noticed much difference between it and the car I had before which was a 1.8 mondeo.
It can occasionally struggle to get up speed say if someone has been going slow on a slip road then the motorway is an incline, so I haven’t had a good run up. I like it though, hardly uses any petrol 😁

Thanks very much everyone. We opted for a 1.5 in the end. We got what seems to be a very good deal. It's a former lease car 2020 with only 15 miles on the clock. We paid just under £17k and it has 2 years warranty left.