I am looking to buy a second hand Skoda Octavia 2.0TDI 140bhp estate. I currently have a 2.0 petrol Hyundai Coupe. It's 6 years old and covered 95,000 miles, and the only real work I've had is replacing the bits that wear, ie the brakes and the clutch at 91,000 miles, but I want something reliable with more space, and be reasonable quick.

Having looked about at the various availble options I fancied the 2.0TDI Octavia as it's very nearly as quick as the coupe, lots more practical and spacious, lots more economical and I thought reliable. However, having looked through the forum, If I got one I'd be spending thousands on repairs on known faults the flywheel, the turbo, the fuel pump, the abs acu, the air conditioning.

Surely I'd have to be a lunatic to buy the Skoda 2.0TDI expecting to have to shell out for the bills for all the repairs I'm going to have, especially when, touch wood, I've had a reliable car with few bills.

Tell me these problems are few and far between and the Skoda 2.0TDI is the sensible choice to make, well, tell me that if it's the truth. I want to get a Skoda, but don't want to have an expensive and unreliable car

All cars have problems and on forums like this, people tend to highlight the negatives as they are looking for help or a shoulder to cry on.

That said, modern TDi engines from all marques do appear to be costly when the go wrong but thousands rumble on to high mileages without a problem!

Steve

Buy one that has under 60000 miles on the clock from a main dealer and you will get a 12 month warranty with it anyway so that's a certain amount of piece of mind. But yeah, people tend to moan more than praise a car. If you relied on everything you read on forums people would never buy anything!

Edited 6 August, 201015 yr by GroundHog

Flywheel - You might struggle to find a modern car that doesn't have a dual mass flywheel, because muttering rotters like them.

Turbo - AFAIK this only applies to 1.9TDis with the variable geometry turbo, and not even all of them.

Fuel pump - Not an issue as long as you don't try and run the car on 100% bio-diesel.

ABS - Dunno.

Aircon - No special faults on the Octy2. My Octy1 (8 years old) stopped chilling this Summer; one regas later and it's Baltic in there. Fail to regas every few years, and any car with air will give you the same problems.

ABS pump/controllers appear to be a common and very expensive problem on a lot of cars these days. Some (including BMW I believe) are replacing these FOC way outside the car warranty period. This is just as well as its often a £1000+ bill otherwise. I wonder if more down to earth brands (like Skoda dare I say) are able to offer this level of service?

PS Even if you buy privately you can get an aftermarket warranty for some peace of mind. No doubt some are not worth it though so shop carefully

Edited 6 August, 201015 yr by juan27

As above forums will always end up highlighting the faults and blowing these out of proportion (no one ever post just to say I have a great car that never goes wrong). I have had a diesel VRS for the last 4 years and the only thing that has gone wrong is an exhaust sensor that was covered on waranty. There is a lot of scaremongering around on the web for various issues but never had a problem with any of them. As a general rule Skoda cars are reliable with no large scale problems (and that includes the diesels). Just look at where Skoda comes on various customer satidfaction surveys etc. as proof of this.

I strongly suggest doing research before your purchase. A very large number of VAG diesel cars have had some serious issues, especially cars with the PD engines with 05/55/06 registrations.

That said if you can find a good one that has been serviced when it should have been and has only had one or two owners then they can provide very cheap motoring. You may also have the option of buying an extended warranty depending upon age and mileage of car. Whilst these can be £300-400 per year for the manufacturer approved one, it does provide good piece of mind.

There is nothing worse than selling a car you know well and that has been reliable and then buying a lemon that someone has part ex'd due to problems

In general terms I think the number of Skoda taxis is a good indicator of their reliability etc.

Another way to look at is you have been lucky with the Hyundai....It could cost you too over the next few years if you keep it!

Let's address the areas of concern you listed...

Flywheel - Tend to fail if you drive it wrongly, labouring the engine. Not a big concern if you drive it with any degree of mechanical sympathy

Turbo - Diesel turbos fail quite a lot, but you can't really avoid it by choosing a particular car manufacturer, given that they're all made by Garrett or KKK. The turbo on the PD140 does seem to have been a little more unreliable than the one on the PD105 1.9, based on forum posts over the years. Certainly not enough to put me off buying one though.

Fuel pump - There is no problem with fuel pumps on VAG diesels.

ABS ECU - Only a concern with Mk60 ESP units. Only a small minority of PD140s will have this. Majority will have ASR, not ESP and thus have the Mk70 unit which is fine.

Air conditioning - No problems here.

look after the car (servicing etc) and it should last. Kick the $hit out of it constantly and it'll go bang common sense stuff really but as been highlighted, all the bad things are concentrated on

The aircon on my car died a couple of months ago. Bought a new compressor and it worked (weakly) for a couple of weeks. Brought it back and the aircon guys had discovered the new compressor had also stopped working and there was a leak in the evaporator heat exchanger hidden behind the radio in the centre console (Diagnosed via leaks into the driver's footwell and heat shield at the back of the engine bay). Looks like a bottomless pit in terms of labour to even get at the heat exchanger (I'll give it a go myself at some stage anyway), but I'm already a little over €400 poorer and the aircon still doesn't work. Crappy aircon reliability is a feature of the VAG range, but it's very expensive to get anything aircon related on any vehicle sorted unless a simple regas is all that's needed or its on warranty. Basically if you're unlucky with aircon it's a money pit, but it's not like the car is undriveable or likely to leave me stranded as a result of this problem.

Other problems tend to be the same across the whole VAG range, but seem to show up slightly less in Skodas because they seem to be put together a little more carefully.

Also if you're getting a diesel check the car for clutch related juddering if you try to pull away quickly - this is not a DMF issue either. Certain clutches do it and there's very little you can do about it apart from driving around it (I've seen exactly the same in a friend's Ford diesel and heard about it in plenty of other VAG cars as they're all probably getting their clutches from the same suppliers anyway). Cold wet weather seems to make it worse if you're choosing a day for the test drive ...

The 2.0 is more prone to oil pump failure than the 1.9 due to the different pump drive arrangement. This is a VAG wide problem - but it does not mean that you would necessarily suffer from it.

The ABS failures for cars fitted with ESP is also an industry problem with the Teves 60 units (some BMW's also suffer from this for example) so it might be advisable to give ESP a miss on the Octavia. Having said that a company now claims to have a cheaper fix for this. Seach this forum - there are plently of threads to give you further information.

As others have said, this forum is quite active and owners tend to discuss a lot of problems because they can often help each other with either information or practical advice (or just provide a shoulder to cry on). So the negatives can sometimes tend to have a lot more air time than the positives.

Look at it this way. Underneath the skin its usually VW stuff, so if you think VW is a pile of **** then you shouldn't buy a SKODA.

Any make/model can give you grief. Get a warranty if you are the worrying type.

Edited 6 August, 201015 yr by Minimoke

I had to replace one of the rear brake bulbs yesterday just a month before it's 5th birthday. Not a happy bunny and I shall be taking this up with Skoda UK!

In all seriousness though I've had no significant problems in 5 years of motoring. Faults/parts so far are:

Replacement EGR valve in second year due to engine management light coming on when it stuck open - done under warranty.

Slight boost leak due to tiny split in boost pipe - I'll get it fixed one day.

New wipers all round.

Replacement wing mirror indicator after a large stone broke the original.

One replacement windscreen - another large stone.

Lots of new tyres - I'm puncture prone!

Replacement cambelt.

I used to have occasional hesitant starting until I replaced the fuel filter a year early.

About once a year it won't start for some reason and just keeps labouring the starter motor until a minute or so later it grumbles into life. No-one can figure that one out but it's only done it a few times so hardly the end of the world and it does always start in the end. I used to have a Hyundai Elantra (P reg from new) and that wouldn't start too well if you parked it facing uphill

New pads on rear due to one side being slightly stuck on causing uneven wear.

Air con is still as chilly as the day I bought it and it's never been re-gassed. I don't use it much TBH but when I do it works well.

When I first bought it it tended to slurp a bit of oil (quite common with the 2.0 TDI) but nowadays I rarely have to top up at all.

I had it remapped at JBS about a year ago and it's even better (and faster than the day I bought it.

Would I have another one? Hell yeah.

Edited 7 August, 201015 yr by unclerichy

Look at it this way. Underneath the skin its usually VW stuff, so if you think VW is a pile of **** then you shouldn't buy a SKODA.

One day I'll shout at someone "Oi mate! Did you know that underneath your flash Audi is a Skoda"

Surely I'd have to be a lunatic to buy the Skoda 2.0TDI expecting to have to shell out for the bills for all the repairs I'm going to have, especially when, touch wood, I've had a reliable car with few bills.

Tell me these problems are few and far between and the Skoda 2.0TDI is the sensible choice to make, well, tell me that if it's the truth. I want to get a Skoda, but don't want to have an expensive and unreliable car

I've run lots of VAG cars: Two Seats, One Audi, about 5 VWs, as well as other cars, and if I'd had all the problems mentioned on the forums, I'd be a lot poorer and never have been out of the garage. My Fabia had no significant mechanical faults in 30k miles/2 years, my Ibiza the same in 6 years/60,000, the Audi the same in 4 years/50,000.

My current Leon PD140 DSG (so the same mechanical bits as an Octy) has so far been totally reliable for nearly 3 years and 25000.

As others have said, forums tend to aggregate problems together, because people are after help wit the problems.

Thanks for all your input, my search, for my New Skoda is back on, You've put my mind at ease somewhat, here's to my new Skoda when I get it, and may it be reliable for many years.

If you're looking at something a few years old, seriously consider getting a petrol - a 1.8 or 2.0 perhaps. Diesels are great when new, but are more expensive to repair when things go wrong - and one major repair can knock out a whole year's worth of the savings you made on fuel.

If you're looking at something a few years old, seriously consider getting a petrol - a 1.8 or 2.0 perhaps. Diesels are great when new, but are more expensive to repair when things go wrong - and one major repair can knock out a whole year's worth of the savings you made on fuel.

I always thought that diesels were the better long term bet, being the more robust engine, just looking at the amount of taxi's with stupendously high mileages for example, or is that view old fashioned due to the complex modern diesel engine

I always thought that diesels were the better long term bet, being the more robust engine, just looking at the amount of taxi's with stupendously high mileages for example, or is that view old fashioned due to the complex modern diesel engine

Modern diesels are more complex, partly because of the emissions requirements, and are generally noticeably more troubled than the old tractors. I have one of the 2.0 PD diesels and it is likely to be my last. Not because its given me any grief (fingers crossed!) and its a good car, but I will revert back to petrol for my next NEW car, especially as my annual mileage is now much lower than it used to be and petrol engine technology has now moved on.

If you are the worrying kind, and are buying second hand, then I would suggest you look for an Octavia 1.9 diesel, without DPF and ESP (others will probably disagree over ESP but I'm mindful of the ABS issues), and with a manual gearbox. Any car can go badly wrong, but that combination is likely to prove reliable, and is the configuration most taxis and polic cars use. As you say they can gon on to starship mileages.

Edited 8 August, 201015 yr by Minimoke