There is also the 2.0 JTDm 170 hp that came in 2010 and is also a good choice because of the power/consumption ratio.
I guess that's the single-turbo version of my engine. While I love the wide powerband, NVH is severely lacking. It's about as refined as a turn of the century 1.9 TDI.
As for consumption, I'm getting about the same mileage or slightly worse than my Octavia 1.4 TSI DSG did. It's about 500kg heavier though and has AWD and a 6-speed Aisin automatic. I'm not complaining because I know what kind of milage a 2.0T in the same car would get me. No thanks.
I put some 60,000km on a 2012 Octavia Combi between 2012 and 2017. Here are my ?0.02:
+ Huge boot. This is one thing I miss because I do need to carry a lot of shit from time to time. However, the boot on the liftback is nearly as huge. The difference is like 20-30 liters and it's all above the parcel shelf IIRC.
- The boot is huge in part because there's no false floor, just carpeting on top of the spare wheel. There's nowhere to stash the towing strap, jumper cables, detachable towball and whatnot.
+ Legroom is more than decent, both front and back. I'm ~198cm ish and most of it is legs. I could only barely reach the pedals with the seat all the way back. However, you can tell it's a stretched Golf because at that point my ears were far behind the B pillar. You can also tell by how the floorpan comes out a bit in front of the rear seat cushion. They moved the rear seat back a bit as well.
- It's narrow. Again, it's built on a small car platform. I'm not exactly thin and if I sit next to myself, I'm rubbing shoulders.
- The load capacity is pretty bad. Four adult passengers and some luggage and it's a handful if you need to swerve. I was surprised.
+ Excellent dipped-beam lights, as long as you go with xenons anyway. I've never been in a car with halogens. All bulbs in the car are easy to replace, by the way.
- ROAD NOISE. This is more of an issue in Scandinavia, I guess, where the road surface is coarse because everyone and their dog uses studded tyres in winter. The equivalent Golf is far, far quieter. My coworker owns a mk6 wagon, I've compared them. There's no contest.
- You can buy a loaded Laurin & Klement version with electric leather seats, satnav, AWD and whatnot but it's still a cheap car and the parking disc you put in the door pocket will go SCRRRAPE CLONK when you brake at the first light and then SCRRRAAPE CLONK again when you accelerate away.... because the door pocket is hard plastic.
During my ownership, my car needed a new headlight because water got into it at the car wash and ruined the xenon levelling electronics. Also new front sway bar droplinks (these are on tons of VAG cars and a huge seller at my job right now) and a side indicator... which is LED and in the mirror. Also a water pump, which failed right before 60,000km. The pump on the 1.4 TSI is on the accessory belt though so it was an easy fix... once they managed to source the part. I had one in stock at my own job, but I was 500km up north when my car conked out.