Hi folks,

I went to see a 57 plate Octy VRS from Evans Halshaw yesterday. It's currently up at 9994 and has electric windows all round, climate and pdc. It was in pretty decent condition body wise - a few scratches but nothing serious. Only done 27k and has a full service history.

All good I hear you say....nor comes my couple of issues!

1. The cambelt replacement issue. I've read on here that it needs replaced after 4 years which gives me 6 months before a big bill!

2. The stereo isn't the original and the replacement had no screen. It looks a little too cheap tbh. An eBay search suggests it would be approx 200 for a standard unit. Didn't get a test drive so don't know how the pdc works through the replacement unit.

I was planning on going back for a test drive and if all seems well offering 9500 and I'd want the warranty increased to a year. Do you think this sounds reasonable or would you go in even harder? The salesguy said the price is not negotiable as Evans halshaw have a scheme where they give the difference back if you find the same car cheaper elsewhere!

Thanks for any advice

Petrol I assume?

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS.BILL

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/195267-2008-skoda-octavia-vrs-tfsi-race-blue-fa57-vrs/

Yep, this is petrol.

A bit too pricey for me Bill but thanks anyway, sounds a cracking car. Good luck with the sale.

I've got one for sale if you fancy a bit more poke

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/192900-2007-octavia-vrs-black-magic-280bhp-9999/

If they can't/won't drop the price, ask them to do the cambelt change service before you buy it.

Hi folks,

I went to see a 57 plate Octy VRS from Evans Halshaw yesterday. It's currently up at 9994 and has electric windows all round, climate and pdc. It was in pretty decent condition body wise - a few scratches but nothing serious. Only done 27k and has a full service history.

All good I hear you say....nor comes my couple of issues!

1. The cambelt replacement issue. I've read on here that it needs replaced after 4 years which gives me 6 months before a big bill!

2. The stereo isn't the original and the replacement had no screen. It looks a little too cheap tbh. An eBay search suggests it would be approx 200 for a standard unit. Didn't get a test drive so don't know how the pdc works through the replacement unit.

I was planning on going back for a test drive and if all seems well offering 9500 and I'd want the warranty increased to a year. Do you think this sounds reasonable or would you go in even harder? The salesguy said the price is not negotiable as Evans halshaw have a scheme where they give the difference back if you find the same car cheaper elsewhere!

Thanks for any advice

I had the same dilemma. I recently bought a low mileage 57 plate (15K) and posed the issue of the cambelt change to the owner of my local dealership. He said he would be happy to leave it till its 5th birthday bearing in mind I am likely to put 35K to 40K miles on it by then. Before you all shout, I would trust the dealer to stand by his statement.

I paid a bit more than the asking price of the on you are interested so if you could get it for £9500 then I would think that a fair price assuming it has the 18" wheels and jumbobox. Worth doing some research to find one cheaper and get them to price match.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS.BILL

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/195267-2008-skoda-octavia-vrs-tfsi-race-blue-fa57-vrs/

Thanks for the mention Bill

if you negotiate hard enough you'll get discount, nothing is set in stone. 18 months ago, my father in law was after an audi a4 cab, after looking at lots of dogs we found one on a Evans Halshaw dealership in Mansfield, it was due a cambelt and after lots of haggling and them stating that bull statement of no price negotiation we left with the car and a £700 price reduction (there were a few other issues!) They just say that to discourage you haggling. Wander in, test drive if it's what you want offer them £9K, you may not get it for quite that but trust me, they won't let you walk out of the door. 2nd hand market is pretty poor at the moment, I know lots of people in the trade and they're all saying it's slow so there are deals to be had.

I would ask them to change the pump and belt for that price

I would ask them to change the pump and belt for that price

Yeah, they should agree to this, given its age. The majority of the cambelt cost to the punter is labour anyway, so all it will cost the dealer is time.

Similar (but potentially worse) situation happened to me. I bought a 2006 vRS that was just over 4yrs old at the time I bought it. Dealer said it would be serviced as part of the deal but they didn't do the cambelt. I had no idea it was needed to be done until I'd read around the forum for a while, and I went back to them a month later and told them it should've been done before I'd bought the car. After some tooing and froing they were eventually happy to sort it for me FOC, and I volunteered to pay the price of the water pump to get that done at the same time.

Thanks for the replies. The situation is no more tho as after I called up to say my peace (and to be fair the salesman seemed like he was willing to come to a deal), he called back 30 mins later to say the car had been sold by another salesman!

However, another 57 plate has come on the radar at a different dealer with 18" wheels, pdc and climate and also a year warranty for the same price. I've emailed them already asking the question regarding the belt and water pump!