Buying used - some concerns

[bigggwilly]

I'm getting very close to pulling the trigger on a used Diesel Skoda Fabia Estate (2010-2014), but after a test drive I started questioning my decision.

 

I drove a Greenline TDI and a 105 Elegance TDI in the past week. I thought both were great, and I'm almost certain that a Fabia is a car for me - BUT, on the 105 TDI test drive, after about 1.5 hours of enjoyable driving, I got the dreaded flashing glow plug light and significant loss of power. Thankfully I was close to the dealer so I just brought it back and went on my way. After doing a bunch of research, it seems like the EGR cooler is prone to failure, AND the VAG Diesel software updates seem to make it worse. I'm located in Copenhagen, and in Denmark the software fix will be mandatory for all effected vehicles. If I bought a diesel, would I just be dumping money down a hole trying to sort out a poorly implemented software update? Obviously buying a gas car is an option as well, but I like the power characteristics of modern diesel engines.

Is there any difference in reliability between the 1.2 TDI (Greenline) and the 1.6 TDI 105? 

What about sound insulation, is there a difference between the Greenline and Elegance?

What about buying high mileage (approx 100 000 miles or 160 000 km)? Is there anything unique to the Fabia, or things I should be pay special attention to?

Thanks for any and all advice!

[ElectricalVRS]

Why not a petrol one? They are quite reliable and don't failure very often (e.g. Monte Carlo 1.2 TSI). Do a market research, I don't think the Diesel will stand out any much longer or expect some high drop in value.

Munich for example, is already debating for banning Diesel cars out of the city.

[bigggwilly]

I think that's the realisation I'm coming to. It seems the 86hp 1.2 TSI can be remapped to 130 or so hp. I suppose I should test drive one first!

[m8t]

What about a Fabia 1.9tdi. They are much less prone to problems. They were made up to 2010.

[pearce_jj]

It's an incredible feat of VWs marketing department that no one has noticed, until recently, the noise, smell, and very high used maintenance costs of diesel.

 

Ultimately they seem likely be banned in many places, for good reason based on a lot of what has been written recently. Residuals may then also be a problem; it's almost cringeworthy to see Skoda launching their new models with Diesel still at the heart of the range.

 

VW in the UK currently have nearly £7k off the Golf GTD, I guess we can draw our own conclusions from that.

[laney456]

I've got a 1.2 TSi Fabia Monte for sale in Sale section... if I don't get a buyer soon it'll be traded in ☹️

[Rooted]

^^^ 

Would it be so good that worth importing to Denmark?