altea freetrack tsi or tdi

[Dawesy]

Hi there
The saab was a good car and I added 17 inch alloys to it which tightened up the handling...To be fair the saab was getting leggy 110k miles....still went well and engine was nice and loose. the saab being swedish i thought would be good in the recent snow and ice - it wasn't.

To compare both it's a little early but the freetrack does seem to handle tighter and is more predictable/ gives more feedback..not yet booted on back roads or had the ice/snow to try the faux quattro out, but things do feel alot better.I'll keep you posted..

and yes it's the 170 TDi...

 

[AjMFreetrack]

Hello Alibearb,

My Freetrack is more noisy than the petrol variant, no doubt, but is a fair bit quieter than the Altea 1.9TDi that I just traded in for the Freetrack.

My Freetrack is a bit quieter now that I've removed the engine cover - it was rattling so much I thought I had a blowing exhaust.

There is a little lug that holds the engine cover on that breaking is a common fault causing the cover to rattle. About £5 from a dealer, worth it as the cover does sound deaden the engine a touch!

Had my Freetrack a week from a an Altea and after 1000K, love it. As good as the Altea but bigger and 4WD, brilliant. Must say though having had this 170 PD engine in many cars this is by a very long way the nosiest, though not enough to be an issue.

 

[Alibearb]

Well I did it, I manged 33mpg in my Tsi on a 190 mile run down to Dorset. Doing a stardy 75-80 mpg and using the brilliant cruise control and the traffic was kind to me. I was actually getting 35mpg for the first half hour. Anyone beat this?

 

[Dawesy]

Well I did it, I manged 33mpg in my Tsi on a 190 mile run down to Dorset. Doing a stardy 75-80 mpg and using the brilliant cruise control and the traffic was kind to me. I was actually getting 35mpg for the first half hour. Anyone beat this?

to be honest I find it hard to get under 35mpg in the Tdi ( and that's on the 7miles blast to work every morning. Still waiting to do a long run in the new silver beast and will let you know how this compares.

 

[Rog.]

Well I did it, I manged 33mpg in my Tsi on a 190 mile run down to Dorset. Doing a stardy 75-80 mpg and using the brilliant cruise control and the traffic was kind to me. I was actually getting 35mpg for the first half hour. Anyone beat this?

That's pretty good for a long run - I'm getting 29mpg average on my 35 mile commute, which to be fair is only 3 or 4 mpg less than I was expecting. And considering I saved around £1K over the price of a TDi, + saving 5p a litre over the price of diesel, it's not that bad...or so I'll keep telling myself, and my bank manager.

Best ever was 38mpg driving like my gran, as for the worst...less than 20mpg?

Cracking car though, owned it a month now and love everything about it! Will have to investigate a re-map, for the fuel savings as much as the power.
Rog.

 

[Alibearb]

Strange, but now the weather's warmed up I can get 32mpg on a 10 mile run to work in the morning. I have also done an oil change to Mobil 1. It's the first change since I bought the car so don't know what was in there before although I hope it was fully synthetic! Also just dropped 2psi out of each tyre just to take the edge off the firm ride, seems worth doing with no noticeable difference to the wicked handling.

 

[Rog.]

That's weird - warmer weather should mean less power from a turbo engine, and softer tyres should mean more rolling resistance - I'm running with 36psi in all four to try to improve mpg. Doesn't seem to make much difference, so maybe I should go the comfort route too?

 

[Alibearb]

And the weather get warmer still and I can get 34mpg on the run to work. Found the aircon defunct last week and yesterday the nice man from the local Seat dealership came out and collected the beast and returned it later in the day fully chilled. Just needed a regas. Started to look at tyres as all four of my Pirelli Rosso's are about down to the wear marks, I think these are the originals as the car has only done 26k now. Bit shocked at the price of replacing these, looking at 700quid for the 4 and this has made me a bit light headed!

 

[Rog.]

Continental SportContact 3 as a cheaper alternative to the Rossos? Just had two fitted by Event Tyres (mobile fitter) for under £300.
They get good reviews, won evo magazine's tyre test 2010.

 

[Alibearb]

Thanks for that, yes those Continental 3's look very good, I'm hoping to put it off 'till autumn. Well the aircon's stopped working again, already. Despite me telling them that it had been regassed in November and that I thought it must have a leak as it shouldn't have leaked out as quick as that, they just regassed it and probably didn't check for leaks. Well, I'll be on the phone first thing Monday and get them out to collect it again.

 

[Alibearb]

Just an update since it's months since I dropped in. It was the aircon compressor that had failed, so got changed under warranty and it's been fine since. Did a couple of long drives in France in the summer and thoroughly enjoyed the car on those super smooth French motorways. Fullly loaded up averaged about 33mpg. The car is still running great with nothing failing or breaking. Ended up buying 4 Falken ZE912 tyres which have improved the ride and make no difference to the handling despite being loads cheaper than Pirellis etc. I did buy some LED bulbs off ebay to replace the 501 sidelight lanps with but they wouldn't work despite being Canbus type - anyone know or some that would fit?

Freetrack TSI 09 standard car Magic Black

 

[ericcat]

I'll chip in with my update after having my Freetrack exactly a year. I still love it. It performed brilliantly in last year's snow on standard road tyres; it's now got a set of cheap winter tyres (as detailed elsewhere on this site), so we're ready for anything this winter.

I was without it for about 7 weeks while it had a turbo problem and worn wheel bearing sorted. These were claimed for under an RAC used car warranty (so nothing to do with SEAT), but my SEAT dealer of choice - R.M.Fisher in Lancaster - dealt with the warranty company (and their penny-pinching delay tactics!) for me. The delays were all caused by the warranty company, not by the service crew. R.M.Fisher have since come across another car with the same turbo problem.

The turbo's shaft was apparently well out of balance, which caused the seals and bearings to wear, which caused oil leaks and oil burning, which caused emissions problems. The turbo was repaired rather than replaced (thanks warranty company, you saved about £150 but delayed the job by 3 weeks minimum) and the car's running well now.

We went back to R.M.Fisher last week for a service, and had my fuel injectors replaced under a "product enhancement" programme. There's apparently a problem with a batch of injectors on VW group cars. Some have failed, causing either running on 3 cylinders, or no running at all.

After replacement, the engine runs a bit smoother, but is noticeably more economical, probably because the injectors are clean.

As I said above, still loving this car.

 

[sanf]

Really intersting thread, having read it through I've still got a couple of questions. I've found a really nice 09 Freetrack 2.0 TSi, with about 40,000 miles on it. We are looking for a good family car that can deal with everything from short trips to grand-parents to full on camping trips, with bikes and roof boxes - and kids in the back.

It seems to fit the bill size wise, and I like it's kind of rugged look. I haven't driven it yet, but expect to do so over the next week, so hopefully won't be disspointed. A couple of quick questions -

Do Freetracks have bluetooth as standard?
Does the IPOD connect through the same set up as the DVD? The garage didn't know.

The thing is I want to use it as my main car for work. I really enjoy driving and like having something a bit fun. I do about 20,000 miles a year. The quoted combined MPG for the car is 34mpg. 75% of my driving will be on motorways, I use cruise control and tend to cruise 75-80.

With the current cost of petrol vs diesel, and working on the diesel averaging 44mpg the difference in running cost is £723 a year. But the TDi seems to be about £2,000 more than the same model petrol. So looking at running costs over 4 years - including the initial spend, car tax & fuel then it's a total of £1092, so a bit over £250 a year. Which seems well worth it for the extra performance.

I appreciate this doesn't take into account factors such as the gvt changing the price of petrol to match diesel, car tax going up and depreciation. I enjoy an entertaining car, I had a Merc C320cdi, which was great and did around 39mpg.

I've recently had an Audi A6 Tdi 170 - which is really disappointing. It only gets 40mpg, when driven gingerly, and has the worst power delivery of any car I've ever driven. Nothing at all, then all of it in one great big torque-y lump

The Freetrack seems a really interesting alternative car, that can be fun to drive. But do I go for the newer petrol (over a 2 year older diesel) and hope there are no major changes to petrol vs diesel costs??

This thread seems to back up to quoted combined mpg of the petrol, any more info to help on this.

 

[Rog.]

Having run my petrol Freetrack for just over a year, and 20K miles, I'd say do your sums very, very carefully. I'd work on 27mpg. To be frank, I'm chuffed if I get home and find I've done over 30mpg, and that usually means I've been driving like my gran, and coasting down hills. For short round town trips, it can dip to 24mpg. Having said that, you won't average 44mpg in a diesel version either.
I made exactly the same decision as you - the diesel version looked over-priced compared to the petrol, the power band is really narrow, and I was scared off by all the talk of DPF problems. One year on, I'm looking wistfully at diesel powered Honda Civics and Mini Coopers, having worked out I could save in the region of £1500 if I traded the Freetrack in.

That's the bad stuff...the good stuff is it is great fun to drive, handles brilliantly for a tall heavy lump, and has more toys than you can shake a stick at. It's probably the cheapest way to insure 200BHP too.

Bluetooth is standard, and I plug my iPod into the DIN sockets (3.5mm jack to 3 way DIN cable is £1.99 from eBay), and yes these are the same sockets you'd use for a DVD player. Some had a dedicated iPod socket fitted as an optional extra in the bottom of the storage bin between the seats.

They are great cars, and great value but that initial purchase price is low for a reason.

 

[ericcat]

Having run my petrol Freetrack for just over a year, and 20K miles, I'd say do your sums very, very carefully. I'd work on 27mpg. To be frank, I'm chuffed if I get home and find I've done over 30mpg, and that usually means I've been driving like my gran, and coasting down hills. For short round town trips, it can dip to 24mpg. Having said that, you won't average 44mpg in a diesel version either.
I made exactly the same decision as you - the diesel version looked over-priced compared to the petrol, the power band is really narrow, and I was scared off by all the talk of DPF problems. One year on, I'm looking wistfully at diesel powered Honda Civics and Mini Coopers, having worked out I could save in the region of £1500 if I traded the Freetrack in.

That's the bad stuff...the good stuff is it is great fun to drive, handles brilliantly for a tall heavy lump, and has more toys than you can shake a stick at. It's probably the cheapest way to insure 200BHP too.

Bluetooth is standard, and I plug my iPod into the DIN sockets (3.5mm jack to 3 way DIN cable is £1.99 from eBay), and yes these are the same sockets you'd use for a DVD player. Some had a dedicated iPod socket fitted as an optional extra in the bottom of the storage bin between the seats.

They are great cars, and great value but that initial purchase price is low for a reason.

Bluetooth kit isn't standard. Not many Freetracks were specified with the Bluetooth phone kit - look for the two phone buttons on the steering wheel, and the bigger LED display on the dashboard - but it's easy these days to get an aftermarket kit fitted well.

I too plug my music player into the DIN sockets behind the centre console. They give a far better sound than an FM transmitter. You might be lucky and find a Freetrack with the USB/iPod connector installed (another option from new).

On running costs, the petrol car is in a higher insurance group than the diesel. I can get 50MPG in my diesel going to work (17 miles of motorway and A-road), but half of that is downhill. I usually get 42MPG going the other way (ie uphill).

There are disadvantages to the diesel - bit noisier, narrow power band as mentioned above - but of the two it would be my choice again.

 

[ca9dsc]

I have a 2.0 tfsi and I can say it is a great car to drive.
If you take it for a blast you don't want to know what the mpg is, but you'll be amazed how such a big car can be so fast, if your brave switch off the ESP and have fun with the 4wd.

Drive it steadily and you'll get 35mpg.

I'm in no rush to change mine, where else can you get a 200hp engine in a family car without paying a small fortune.

I've not driven the tdi, but I'd your not doing many miles or worry too much about fuel costs then get the tfsi

 

[G.P]

Always turn my ESP off as it provides more feel of the road with it off which is far safer however, which model do you have which is 4wd?

 

[ca9dsc]

I've got the altea freetrack tfsi

 

[andyj]

I beleive that all Freetrack's are 4wd....

 

[Alibearb]

New world record MPG for my Freetrack TSI this morning. Warm dry morning, very little traffic, 10 mile run to work maily on A & B roads, aircon off, just me in the car.......40.1 mpg!