Just sat here (in the house cos car is in bits in garage again) with a cuppa and thinking about how much the octavia has cost me in the last 20,000 miles.

I've not added it up, the receipts are up in the office in a folder. But it really has been one thing after another from the mileage reaching 160,000 to its current 180,000

It started with 160,000 service, cam belt, water pump etc. and I know that comes under general maintenance, but it was the start of this saga. (Something like £400) iirc

Then came drivers side ball joint, two track rod ends, and two tyres. (£250) ish

Again wear and tear/general maintenance, but still adds to the cost.

After that it was a rear abs sensor, and a puncture on one of my brand new tyres that was on the wall, so another new tyre. (Can't remember much change out of £100)

Then at just shy of 170,000 the turbo decided to let go at about 80mph on the A19. Resulting in total loss of power, and only just managing to limp it to the garage. Brand new genuine turbo etc fitted (£1000)

A couple of weeks of things going good, the weather decides to get warm. Try the air con for first time in a while and it's only blowing hot air, gets it checked out and it's going to cost (£250-£300) not had it done yet cos other things have intervened.

The next being I needed 4 brake discs and 4 sets of pads, again general maintenance and I knew I was needing them soon hence why air con repair was put on hold. (£250) ish iirc

Thought to myself after that little run, I was sure for a few months of trouble free motoring.

But oh no, not even close. 1 week later the clutch pedal stuck to the floor, only way to get it up was to hook foot under it or by using hands.

Quick trip to local skoda dealer for new master cylinder (£75) plus fitting (£30)

All was good again for 3 days then the clutch went completely, luckily I managed to get new clutch,flywheel and concentric slave done on warranty as it had only been in 10-11 months.

But still had to pay labour costs of removal and fitting (£150)

You would think after all that that nothing else could go wrong, well so did I for 3 weeks. Just creeping up on 180,000 miles now and the clutch started to behave strange again (see my thread about it)

So it went back in the garage on Friday, where it still is now, and it was determined that it was not the clutch but the gearbox that was knackered.

It's currently getting a rebuild, should be done today so now looking at a bill of £500 ish plus labour to re fit it.

So there we have a very expensive 6 months and 20,000 miles, at well over £3000.

I hadn't thought about the figure until I wrote this, feel even worse now lol

I genuinely wish I could go back to january when I was contemplating trading the car in for a newer Vrs and do it!

But on the other hand I do love my sport, and fingers crossed this is the last bill for a very long time.

Oh wait no it's not, 2 front tyres need changing again soon and the air con still needs sorting doh!!!!

Anything north of 150,000 miles and you are living on borrowed time.

 

Some are lucky, a lot aren't. To have the turbo, A/C compressor and gearbox fail so close together is extremely unlucky.

 

As with everything in life products and the components that make up those products have design lives.

 

Look on the brightside, the clutch is new and you don't have a DPF so hopefully you should be good for a little longer!

 

The question is do you trade it in now or look to get your monies worth out of the recent expenditure!?

 

You use it as a taxi right?

Yeah it is my taxi and I know what you are saying mate, and I was expecting some decent repair bills now as the miles racked up. Just not all one straight after the other, before I can even recover from the last.

Been having the same thoughts about getting rid, but now I've changed everything that should cause problems I should be in for a good stretch again.

I will be keeping it now until at least end of March next year, will see how it goes between now and then to if I keep it longer.

It's just very frustrating when I try my best to look after it, clean it, wax it, polish it all the time. I don't drive it hard/thrash it, get it serviced correctly when it needs it and use genuine skoda parts wherever possible etc, then it goes and stabs me in the back lol

It's par for the course when running a car with that kind of mileage. 

 

I had a similar experience a few years ago with my old Rover 75. It had one expensive failure after another and in the end I just lost confidence in the car. It became a bit soul destroying forking out for one thing or another every other month, so I ended up trading it in after a £1000 bill for slave cylinder/clutch. It may have become a good reliable car after that, but I'd had enough.

 

Hopefully yours will become reliable again for a while.  

Anything north of 150,000 miles and you are living on borrowed time.

Sorry but rubbish.

A lot of problems corm from the sealed for life mentality. Gearbox oil is a 50k ish mile item from the box maker and sealed for life in the car. That says a lot.

what would a new Octy have cost over the same miles? looks like cheap motoring to me

what would a new Octy have cost over the same miles? looks like cheap motoring to me

On 'the drip' do you mean I presume?

True.

 

Wouldn't have all this faffing though on the brighter side. 

what would a new Octy have cost over the same miles? looks like cheap motoring to me

By new, I mean 2-3yr old.

Not brand spanking new, let someone else take the initial hit on depreciation.

I would have thought about £260 per month x the last 6 months = £1560 in car payments

But I would have had probably no repair bills, and very light maintenance (1x set of front tyres and a service)

Plus I would have had no days lost working, something I haven't even factored in to that figure in original post.

Would definitely have been better off going by them calculations, but hindsight is a wonderful thing

Sorry but rubbish.

A lot of problems corm from the sealed for life mentality. Gearbox oil is a 50k ish mile item from the box maker and sealed for life in the car. That says a lot.

 

You may think it is rubbish but I can assure you all components have a design life.

 

Window regulators are tested to ensure they last for a certain amount of opening and closing. If during testing they regularly exceed the target life then cost is taken out.

 

This same principle is applied to every single component.

 

No major manufacturer puts more cost in than is absolutely neccessary. They need to last as long as it takes to meet user expectations.

 

That's not to say certain elements of the car won't last longer, potentially much longer but I stand by my comment that after approximately 150,000 miles major failures are far more likely, as most components will be nearing or exceeding their design life.

You may think it is rubbish but I can assure you all components have a design life.

 

Window regulators are tested to ensure they last for a certain amount of opening and closing. If during testing they regularly exceed the target life then cost is taken out.

 

This same principle is applied to every single component.

 

No major manufacturer puts more cost in than is absolutely neccessary. They need to last as long as it takes to meet user expectations.

 

That's not to say certain elements of the car won't last longer, potentially much longer but I stand by my comment that after approximately 150,000 miles major failures are far more likely, as most components will be nearing or exceeding their design life.

I'm not saying things don't have a design life. They certainly do, but this takes in maintenance too.

I would expect failures of some parts yes but the borrowed time makes it sound like the car will go bang and that cars all die there. My old cars, the many taxi's and other high milers out there prove that isn't the case.

I object to the borrowed time, not the design life. Many cars go well over 150k miles with no issues due to maintenance beyond the very minimum required.

Agreed, and I don't dispute that there are many, many examples of owners who have driven cars well beyond 150,000 miles without suffering significant failures.

 

Remember also that there are also plenty of incidents of premature failures too.

 

However, the OP's example in this thread is not untypical in my experience. A vehicle owned from new, maintained above and beyond the standards set by the manufacturer yet as the mileage increases to up and around the typical design life things start to go wrong.

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Given the ratio of the repair costs to the car's value it is likely that he would have been better chopping it in after the first failure. Ever since then he has been living on borrowed time and as we've seen it has been one failure after another.

 

For what it is worth I need to ensure my Superb lasts at least another 4 years. It's on 45,000 miles now and I cover 30,000 miles per year.

 

I'm very sure that during the last 18 months of my ownership I'll be living on borrowed time

I once replaced a 115 TDI passat as it had reached the magic 100K mark and with that milleage impending doom awaited.

 

How right I was.... I traded it in for a Laguna :clap:

 

18 mth old demonstrator, 7K miles, 2.2DCI Dynamique sport tourer, charcoal metallic. Very nice motor.

 

By the time it was 4 years old and at 55K miles it had required £6500 worth of repair work, excluding general maintenance.

 

4K under warranty, the rest from under the bed.

 

Culminating in a Basil moment.

 

Not too bad to get 170K relatively trouble free then! But it's a horrible feeling to spend everything in the bank on endless repairs. Disheartening. Feeling your pain :(

MTF - Mean time to failure

 

A part might be designed to last 4yr/40k miles

 

Some will break in 2 weeks / 2 miles, some will last 20yr / 2 million miles. 4yr is just the average.

 

It's just luck where you are on the bell curve.

 

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/the-reliability-bell-curve-what-does-more-reliability-actually-mean/

 

Agreed, and I don't dispute that there are many, many examples of owners who have driven cars well beyond 150,000 miles without suffering significant failures.

 

Remember also that there are also plenty of incidents of premature failures too.

 

However, the OP's example in this thread is not untypical in my experience. A vehicle owned from new, maintained above and beyond the standards set by the manufacturer yet as the mileage increases to up and around the typical design life things start to go wrong.

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Given the ratio of the repair costs to the car's value it is likely that he would have been better chopping it in after the first failure. Ever since then he has been living on borrowed time and as we've seen it has been one failure after another.

 

For what it is worth I need to ensure my Superb lasts at least another 4 years. It's on 45,000 miles now and I cover 30,000 miles per year.

 

I'm very sure that during the last 18 months of my ownership I'll be living on borrowed time

I think there is a lot of wisdom in this view point. There is definitely a time to get out with a car. With Renault anytime before the warranty runs out is good!

20,000 miles in 6 months???  Jeez that's something like 3 years or so for me!

MTF - Mean time to failure

A part might be designed to last 4yr/40k miles

Some will break in 2 weeks / 2 miles, some will last 20yr / 2 million miles. 4yr is just the average.

It's just luck where you are on the bell curve.

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/the-reliability-bell-curve-what-does-more-reliability-actually-mean/

If a part is designed to last 4yrs / 40k miles, but doesn't fail during that time, why would its chance of failing then reduce from that point onwards?

If a part is designed to last 4yrs / 40k miles, but doesn't fail during that time, why would its chance of failing then reduce from that point onwards?

It does not, the Y axis is the proportion of the sample population failing not the chance of failure. The chance of a specific part breaking will only ever increase over time and with use, it's not like nuts and bolts can heal....

If a part is designed to last 4yrs / 40k miles, but doesn't fail during that time, why would its chance of failing then reduce from that point onwards?

 

Zillio has it right but the graph labelling is misleading.

 

It is trying to show that most will fail around the designed MTF but a small number will go early or last longer.

Zillio has it right but the graph labelling is misleading.

It is trying to show that most will fail around the designed MTF but a small number will go early or last longer.

That's what I thought. The graph is labelled incorrectly.