I am considering buying an 07 reg 2.5 V6 TDI Elegance auto with 99000 on the clock. It looks lovely, drives very well, although it may be a bit smoky (or maybe that was because it had been stood for a bit?) The service book is complete, but without any details of work carried out. I have asked the seller to get more info on servicing details.

What should I look out for? What should I ask whether or not it has been done? (eg cambelt change)

I am happy with a high miler, as the price reflects this and the car should be good for a long time yet, and seems to make an excellent motorway cruiser.

I am considering buying an 07 reg 2.5 V6 TDI Elegance auto with 99000 on the clock. It looks lovely, drives very well, although it may be a bit smoky (or maybe that was because it had been stood for a bit?) The service book is complete, but without any details of work carried out. I have asked the seller to get more info on servicing details.

What should I look out for? What should I ask whether or not it has been done? (eg cambelt change)

I am happy with a high miler, as the price reflects this and the car should be good for a long time yet, and seems to make an excellent motorway cruiser.

Smoky on cold start? Maybe a bit lumpy too for a few seconds? Then you have failed glow plugs. It cost me dearly - £1600 to be precise. As they tend to get stuck in the head, so that wrote one head off for me, at only 75k miles. Expensive start to my ownership. But since then been a magic car to own and drive.

you would want to have the auto box oil and filter changed if never done before. Although not specified in the maintenance book (VAG stupidities) the dealer actually advised every 40k miles, while an independent VW garage advised 70-80k intervals. Otherwise the box will not live to high mileages. So I had mine done, this costs about £200 so not too bad, but beware must use genuine VAG auto fluid (£15 a litre - need 6), not regular Dextron.

Check CV boots - they don't last long on these cars - but again not a big deal, get someone to change them for £100 a pair with GKN replacement kit from GSF.

Make sure all the lights internally work, and the carpet is not wet.

@oh_superb.

Thanks for the tip about the gearbox. I may be buying this car because the gearbox on my BMW 530D has died, and therefore so has the car, but I did get 191000 miles from it first. Others have mentioned the wet carpet, will need to check that, although the car is being kept inside so may be difficult.

Do they still have glow plugs? I thought those went out when HDi engines came in.

Edited 9 October, 201114 yr by rlg

Up until 2 months ago I would have said, without hesitation, go for it. I have a 2007 model and it is a joy to drive smooth, quiet, comfortable with plenty of power and reasonable economy on a run. Mine has only done 36000 miles and I thought it was immune to a lot of the problems that others have reported for this model. However, 2 months ago, the car got harder and harder to start, was smokey on start-up and then just before going on holiday I got an "Emissions" warning, finally losing power. Due to the fact that I had to get it fixed for holiday I had no option but to put it into a Skoda Dealer. They took a week to finally diagnose and fix the problem, which was a failed VP44 High Pressure diesel pump. The bill was a staggering £2500 for the repair. This has somewhat taken the gloss off my opinion of the car! It is still lovely to drive though.

Incidentally, when I first had the starting problem I thought it was glow-plugs and so bought a set, but never installed them, so if you want a set at a very good price, let me know.

Always go to a Bosch agent for fuel system repairs. The VP44 is a really lousy pump but it can be rebuilt.

I hope Bosch sacked the guy who thought it was a good idea to put a load of electronics on a diesel engine, inside the fuel pump, running in fuel and connected by the most flimsy looking pieces of flexi printed circuit strip imaginable. I'm surprised they last as long as they actually do.

The 1.9 PD has no electronics on the engine other than transducers. Pity VAG ruined it on the later PD engines by fitting Siemens piezo injectors.

rotodiesel.

Hi

how much are u spending on it if not secret

i m not sure if i can run my one due to extra twins on there way so thinking of going 1.9 for better economy

but they are great engines and perfect cars

Ps...my one is elegance 02-reg in dark metallic blue. ............For sale

They took a week to finally diagnose and fix the problem, which was a failed VP44 High Pressure diesel pump. The bill was a staggering £2500 for the repair.

Sounds like a lot of money to me ...... think I'll try here if mine plays up

It was a lot of money to me! I did find the refurb place, but too late and, besides, I had to get the car fixed very quickly to enable us to drive down to Cornwall. I am afraid that this experience, together with others, such as the fear of leakage, general cost of parts (£100 for one reversing sensor -ridiculous), cost of servicing etc, has soured my 2 year relationship with the car and today it is going to be chopped in against a Ford Mondeo, so as I said before, the Skoda was a lovely car to drive, but I need a vehicle I can trust, and regrettably, that is not the Superb.

All true enough - but don't blame Skoda. They merely assemble these cars and make a very good job of it.

VAG design these cars with many defects, some dangerous such as water ingress rusting the servo body. Any reputable manufacturer would re-work cars which had been sold and re-design the offending details. VAG not only fail to re-work, but actually introduce re-badged "new" cars such as the Superb with the pre-existing dangerous faults.

There is absolutely no sign that VAG is improving in this respect - look at the poor sods with Teves Mk 60 brake controllers and Siemens piezo PD injectors.

The Mondeo is undoubtedly better value for the average user who expects the car to function as supplied without undertaking re-design or remedial action himself. If yours is a diesel, watch the fuel system.

rotodiesel.

As a matter of interest, how did the £2,500 bill break down? It sounds a colossal amount of money for what should have been a fairly straight forward replacement. Even if they fitted a brand new pump ( no idea how much it costs, but have heard rumours in the region of £1200), then that's still about £1300 for labour and general head scratching time.

It really annoys me when people charge me £100 per hour for scratching their heads. For £100 per hour, I really expect someone who doesn't have to scratch his head at all.

As a matter of interest, how did the £2,500 bill break down? It sounds a colossal amount of money for what should have been a fairly straight forward replacement. Even if they fitted a brand new pump ( no idea how much it costs, but have heard rumours in the region of £1200), then that's still about £1300 for labour and general head scratching time.

It really annoys me when people charge me £100 per hour for scratching their heads. For £100 per hour, I really expect someone who doesn't have to scratch his head at all.

Expect the pump to be £1000-1200, plus they are likely to have said while you are at it to change some belts and tensioners, obviously the front end has to come forward, bumper off, labour costs build up - not surprised it was £2500.

There are companies now repairing the EDC on the VP44 for between £100 and £300 and does not even require the pump to be removed, just the electronics.

I have decided to buy a lower mileage Mondeo instead now, too many concerns ove r a high mileage automatic here.

The list price for the pump was £1600. I could have bought a decent second hand car for that! The garage actually discounted the labour by nearly £1000 and the parts by about £300, as they were embarrassed at taking so long to find the fault, with a series of mis-diagnoses and false trails. Still, the Skoda is now somebody else's problem. It was still a great car to drive and the concept is excellent, but the execution flawed.

There are companies now repairing the EDC on the VP44 for between £100 and £300 and does not even require the pump to be removed, just the electronics.

There's a video on Youtube showing how to remove the EDC from the pump

I have decided to buy a lower mileage Mondeo instead now, too many concerns ove r a high mileage automatic here.

Mondeo? Diesel? They have plenty of engine issues - tread carefully. Petrol? Engines are good and last a long time.

Shame the trim rattles apart after 50k miles. The Superb is generally a much better built car. Mine still rattle free at 98k.