240k mileage too high to buy?

[bmhill]

i have been looking at getting a Octavia with high miles

says in advert its not been a taxi but a company owner

heres the link

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112031423331?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l6345&_trkparms=gh1g%3DI112031423331.N101.S2.R1.TR14&autorefresh=true

 

my questions are this

in the event of failure of engine or gearbox are the parts readily available for these ie replacement engine or gearbox at reasonable prices?

what type of engine is in this car?

are there any other things i should be looking at?

it has full skoda service history 

 

thanks for any advice folks

 

[tubbytommy]

id think its the 1.9 pd engine and they are readily available.

the 6 speed dsg on the other hand would be scary to replace.

my main concern would be the box being faulty. 

[bmhill]

id think its the 1.9 pd engine and they are readily available.

the 6 speed dsg on the other hand would be scary to replace.

my main concern would be the box being faulty. 

from what i am seeing on the net its £500 to recon a box although i do know thats for gearbox's that are simple and manual etc so i would think it would be expensive

[tubbytommy]

from what i am seeing on the net its £500 to recon a box although i do know thats for gearbox's that are simple and manual etc so i would think it would be expensive

I've no idea what a dsg box cost to fix but I'm guessing it's not a cheap simple job to do.

It's a bit of a punt but at that mileage surely it's coming to the end of its life.

[bmhill]

It's a bit of a punt but at that mileage surely it's coming to the end of its life.

that's what i was thinking but the Yorkshire in me thinks its a bargain.......

but then again .....

[tubbytommy]

that's what i was thinking but the Yorkshire in me thinks its a bargain.......

but then again .....

What would cross my mind is after so many faultless miles why have they decided to sell now??

It's either a bargain or a money pit.

[Ranger]

In my experience VW based cars are easily up to high mileage providing they're looked after, full history on this would give me some comfort although I take the point about the possibility of a big bill from a DSG failure.

 

I used to drive 55 - 60K miles a year and managed to get through 11 company cars in the 20 years I was doing it. The highest mileage cars were in excess of 150k at less than 3 years, only the VW group cars (Golf/ A4/ Touran/ Superb) stood up to the punishment. Vauxhall, Volvo, BMW all had significant failures during the time I had them whereas the VW group cars seemed to go from strength to strength. Curiously economy on all was better at the end than at the beginning and the oil consumption also improved, particularly those with 1.9PD engines.

 

It is a bit of a risk, depends if you can risk maybe a couple of grand on top of the buying price or a replacement box, if it drives OK I doubt I'd be worried about anything else too much.

[EconoMiser]

If it's any comfort, I've got a Passat 1.9 TDI PD 130 I bought new on 11-9-01 (yes, remember it well) that's just coming up to 300,000 miles: it's never let me down, & I've replaced remarkably few items (eg. still on original battery & exhaust system).

But it's been serviced normally (that's 30 oil changes & 5 cambelts!); and it has got a 6-speed manual 'box.

As a matter of interest, I've just (half an hour ago) ordered a new Superb.

Best of luck with the car if you get it.