Hello,

My first post here, and though I have done a search I guess some or all of this will be a repost so appologies in advance for that.

My old banger of a Felicia has it's MOT in a month's time and I'm concerned it will fail badly. If it all gets a bit expensive I will be in the market for a new car, which I have decided will be a Mk1 Octavia vRS Estate.

I am looking at spending £4k-5k, as based on a trawl of auto trader, ebay etc. this seems to be the sweet spot of quality of vehicle vs. price vs. amount of depreciation left to go. However I am very tempted by some of the high mile (some are ex-police) vehicles around, simply because they are so cheap.

I'm not looking for a perfect blemish-free example, but I am looking for a car which will provide trouble free, reliable and relatively cheap motoring for the next five years or so.

So, if any of you could help me with any the following questions I'd be very grateful

1) Given the choice of a newer high-mile car or an older low-mile car, assuming both were serviced properly and are generally of similar quality, which would you take a punt on?

1) Do Octavia vRS' handle the miles well if serviced properly? Does high mileage bring make any particular / expensive problems more likely?

3) Would you take a punt on a high-mile ex-police car?

4) Are there any particular issues I should look for when road testing cars which are not the usual things for all cars or are not mentioned here?: Car review: Skoda Octavia I (1998 - 2004)

5) Anything else I should know?

Thanks

Neil

Neil - got a vRS estate meself, so good choice! For age vs mileage, look at the car overall - I had the choice between 60,000 on a 3-yr old or 40,000 on a 5-year old for the same rough price. Ended up going for the first as the latter, even though in a Skoda dealer, frankly wasn't in a saleworthy (bonnet pebble dashed to *$%£ etc, dealer had a frankly uninterested attitude). I also found there weren't many estate vRS available when I was looking

General view seems to be the engine takes mileage well. Always check the cambelt has been changed on schedule and I suggest fit a new metal water pump at the same time as cambelt if you need to replace. Mine didn't have metal pump so not sure how new you have to be for the metal ones as claimed in 'honest johns' (no relation!) column. Maybe mkII's do?

There are threads on ex police mk1s here so have a search for these, two quite recent - don't personally see a problem. They'll be used hard but serviced properly.

Make sure the aircon works! If my screen gets really misted it only clears with the air con on, as it's not the best design vents IMO. My dad's Passat has the same vents and is no better.

Haggle hard on price - with credit crunch and people tightening purse strings you should be able to knock prices down a lot

Hope that's some help, and the Felicia don't cost you a fortune in the meantime!

Cheers EMDrox I just spotted the police threads.

The Felicia doesn't owe me a penny. Bought for £2k 6 years ago and other than consumables I mustn't have spent more than £300 on it in that time. Marvellous car. However there is a fair bit of rust round the arches now, clutch is starting to slip and there are some strange grinding noises coming from somewhere (poss CV joints).

Engine is in perfect nick though!