Estate, Diesel, VAG or Volvo sought.

[Daveymaclad]

Originally Posted by Tanni

I do like the Skoda Octavia Estates and I have seen a few within my budget on Autotrader. I am a bit wary of eBay, unless of course it's someone on here! So Volvos are generally dearer, you reckon?

The car I had before the 530d was a 53 plate Octavia vRS estate, yellow.

Bloody brilliant machine. VERY easy to work on (even I could do it!) and the parts are dirt cheap. Also had some poke to it, low 7's to 60 and if you're in no hurry you can easily eek 40+ mpg on a run. My best was a 70 mile round trip along the M3 where I averaged 47mpg!!

There's zero refinement to them though, so either fit upgraded speakers to drown out the road noise (that's what I did) or just accept that it's going to be noisy and no massively comfortable on long journeys. Having said that. £1,300 could easily bag you a near minter. I paid £1,700 for mine in 2012 as a 9 year old car with full skoda service history to 115k and mapped to 200bhp.

Only in the last weeks of my ownership did anything go wrong which was the flexi hose from the down pipe to the centre section gave way so sounded a bit tractorish.

[PoloGaz]

If it has to be diesel then the pd130 is the best all rounder. Powerful and reliable. The later 2.0s can suffer from all sorts of bother.

You can get that engine in an octy estate but think it's quite rare. More common in the golf and passat

Volvo 5 cylinder diesels are the Audi/VW units. Very reliable!

[Daveymaclad]

Originally Posted by PoloGaz

If it has to be diesel then the pd130 is the best all rounder. Powerful and reliable. The later 2.0s can suffer from all sorts of bother.

You can get that engine in an octy estate but think it's quite rare. More common in the golf and passat

Volvo 5 cylinder diesels are the Audi/VW units. Very reliable!

Not much point searching for the uber rare pd130 in the octavia when the 1.8t petrol is quicker, quieter, cheaper to buy, more plentiful, better looking (in vRS trim) and still achieves north of 40mpg aaaaaaand it's not a diseasle!

[PoloGaz]

It's just that he said it had to be a diesel...so I was weighing in on that.

[Daveymaclad]

Originally Posted by PoloGaz

It's just that he said it had to be a diesel...so I was weighing in on that.

Ahh, apologies!

So then to the OP, consider the frugality of some of the petrols out there that'll be fewer pennies to buy in the first place!

[John.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=321&v=lbgTmJ-nDCg

[Tanni]

If I don't find an Octavia, what about this?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...used&logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...used&logcode=p

[Coxy]

Originally Posted by Daveymaclad

Ahh, apologies!

So then to the OP, consider the frugality of some of the petrols out there that'll be fewer pennies to buy in the first place!

here here!

a lot of people seem to think that buying a diesel will mean they are getting about 6 million mies per gallon and petrols do low 20's!

they also forget that it generally costs about 30% more to buy a good second hand diesel based on the above facts!

they also forget that servicing costs are generally 30% more on a diesel as well!

someone on here did a very interesting chart a few years ago which basically let you put in how many miles you did a year and work out how long you'd need to own a diesel car to make it a more viable option than a petrol. The only slight plus side now is that diesel is marginally cheaper than petrol where as before, it was about 5p a litre more.

But at the end of the day, it still sounds like you're driving a tractor!







ps. my daily is a Skoda diesel, just saying!!

[Hanuman]

I bought a brand new diesel a long while back, but kept is a decent while, and used it a lot on longer journeys, so it did pay for itself.

As an alternative; Mazda 6 2.0d. Easily achieved 53mpg with me driving. 53plate. My brother recently bought an average looking similar age car for £hundreds. It had very little service, though, and needed some stuff for the MOT.

Passat. I've rented a couple, and loved 'em, but they were later models. I've heard only good things about older cars, circa 2000-2003.

[John.]

Originally Posted by Tanni

If I don't find an Octavia, what about this?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...used&logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...used&logcode=p

Allegedly some V6tdi's of a certain year suffered terminal cam lobe wear, not sure what year but that one looks very nice and service history too.......and leather! A bit more to it than the same age Octavia so maybe more problematic?
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