BigP

@Evolution13 The car has done 82,000 miles. I have only had it a short while so cannot comment on the oil consumption. I am also looking at a replacement water pump as it is leaking coolant. Again, this looks like you have to take a lot of stuff off to get to it, and with a plastic housing it seems destined to fail. My previous cars were Toyota Corolla GT and Honda Civic Type S 2.0. Both were great to drive, very reliable and cheap to get serviced.

Having read all the negative things about potential catastrophic engine failures I asked for a quote from a Skoda main agent in East Sussex to replace the timing chain on my 2011 Octavia 1.8 TSI. The price was £2,278! My word! How did they make these engines to be so fatally flawed and so difficult to work on?