I've been looking at the petrol VRS.

 

I normally buy cars around 60-70k miles, my budget isn't really stretching to that.

 

Should I have any worry over a 90-100k mile car? I'll only be doing around 3k miles a year in it so on paper it makes sense to get a 90k car as in 3 years it will still be just the right side of 100... It will also be a lot cheaper to buy, now..

 

Obviously I'll make sure the timing belt and water pump is sorted, but what other bills could it throw up and how much would it sort to fix?

 

Only things I'll be doing is putting some Eibachs on it, all season tyres, rubber mats (it'll be a dog carrier) and probably map it.. It'll probably never go over 50mph as that's my default speed. So it should have an easy life.

 

Thanks

Don't know much about the engine in the mark 2, but I purposely bought a higher mileage (115k) mark 1 vRS recently, mainly because it had a stack of receipts for work done (meaning I wouldn't have to do it) and it looked and drove superbly (far better than some of the lower mileage stuff I looked at).  High mileage cars spend their time on motorways cruising at 3000 rpm, low mileage cars do lots of short runs on a cold engine (no good for the turbo), bumping up the kerb outside the shops, traversing speed humps constantly wearing out suspension components prematurely.  A low mileage life is far harder on a car than a high mileage life, yet low mileage commands a price premium.  I always buy my cars with at least 100k on them with full service history, engines these days last for 200k plus without problem if they're serviced regularly.  The odds are that if they were going to have problems, they've normally had them fixed by 100k, rather than them being in the future for you on a 60k car.

 

The highest mileage car I ever bought was a 165k Renault 19 diesel back in 1998 (it was four years old).  I put another 15k on (in six months) and all it needed was an alternator (£70) and a battery (£50).  I sold it for what I paid for it and it lasted another 6 years according to the DVLA.  Buy 'em high and buy 'em right, you'll save yourself money if you take care!

If you focus on the type of journey the car has done, its service history, proof of maintenance (receipts, recall paperwork, stamps in book etc) and most importantly the buyer (buy the buyer, as the saying goes) the mileage shouldn't be a concern. These cars will do way over the mileage you're looking at without trouble.

 

The type of journey is an important consideration IMO, as 90k motorway miles won't stress it a great deal, but 90k miles in a city, with the stop-start traffic that comes along with it, will lead to much greater wear and tear of the gearbox, clutch, suspension etc.

 

And buy the buyer... sounds a stupid comment, but if you suspect a lack of mechanical sympathy (e.g. the sort of person who wouldn't appreciate the idea of correctly letting the car warm up/down) then be very careful.

And buy the buyer... sounds a stupid comment, but if you suspect a lack of mechanical sympathy (e.g. the sort of person who wouldn't appreciate the idea of correctly letting the car warm up/down) then be very careful.

 

Very true - I let my car fully warm up before using the turbo unless absolutely necessary (so it's not running on cold oil) and I let my car come into the street on tickover in neutral and let it tickover for a minute or so before switching it off (thus letting the turbo slow down and stop spinning whilst still having an oil feed to it - quickest way to kill a turbo is to turn the engine off whilst at high revs, as the turbo will continue spinning on a dry bearing with no oil supply).

 

If an owner drives it sensibly and only opens it up for you to see the acceleration somewhere safe, like a national speed limit dual carriageway, he's probably a sensible owner.  If he boots it from cold past a school in a built up area he's obviously a prat and you should run a mile.

 

Nice cars come from nice people!

My vRS is on 107, 000 miles. I purchased it on 96,000 over other versions with less mileage. The reason being:

1) Despite the higher mileage, the body work was in great condition. Others had dents and chips all over!

2) The service history was the best with no more than 9,000 miles between services. Others had little history or service intervals of 15,000 miles.

3) Interior has had an easy life. Still immaculate.

4) It's red :P

As has been said; higher mileage doesn't always mean worse condition.

I bought my 2006 MK2 Octy vRS TFSi on 96k about 16 months ago... It had a full service history, originally a lease car then used everyday for a 50 mile round trip A Road commute by its 2nd owners. Interior is immaculate and has factory fitted xenons, nav, jumbo box, climate control, maxidot and cruise control and 18 inch optional alloys which was incredibly rare on a early MK2..

 

Was sold to me for a bargain price due to a key mark down the whole drivers side (previous owner was a deputy head at a secondary school and was done in the school car park!) and also that it had a slight hesitation between 2000-3000 revs.

 

I didn't really notice the hesitation until a few months into my ownership and it turned out to be the inlet valves coked up... which I got sorted with help from a local VAG specialist. I think all the TFSI's are going to see this issue due to the fuel not passing over the intake valves due to the direct injection of the fuel into the cylinders. Thats about a £300 job at VAG independant specialist and its quite labour intensive as its a manual cleaning process.. Luckily he let me use his spare ramp all day and he did the strip down/rebuild and I did the labour intensive bit saving £££'s...

 

Apart from that, its been fantastic and is now on 106k with its paintwork sorted out.. I have used it on 2 full tracks days at Castle Combe with no issues either..

Here's me moaning mine has just hit 45k in 5 years. That's a lot for me. I live 3 miles from work on a dual carriage way so what you say about cold cars low miles is very true. Harder life indeed. Although I do service mine every year and change oil every 6 months so it's looked after.

I wouldn't be out of buying a high mile car however mine will be getting traded in next march

Indeed nice cars from nice people.

Mine has just gone through 76k and although some odds and sods are needing replaced (second rear hub due to rusty abs ring) the engine feels absolutely spot on. No noticeable change from new.

 

I'm sure the car will need some TLC as it gets older but it feels like it has many more miles left in it.

Don't get hooked up on the mileage, 100K is nothing to worry about.

 

Buy on condition and history, forget about the mileage.

 

I have driven my Audi with just short of 200K miles fault free for 2 years, and it still drives great.