Advice on buying an early MK3 Octavia

[skidzpaul1]

Hi All

 

I'm shortly going to be looking to buy a secondhand MK3 Octavia to replace my trusty old 2006 VRS petrol estate. Looking at  either a 1.2, 1.4 (140BHP) or even an early 1.0 3 cylinder as I want to reduce tax, insurance and petrol costs. I don't do enough mileage to warrant a diesel and don't want DPF issues that may arise.

 

My main question is that am I right in what I've read that they have now reverted to belt - driven engines instead of the troublesome chains that the later MK2 Octavias used to suffer with. Although I've been out of the trade for 20 years now, I am an ex-mechanic and like to do all of my own maintenance if possible and would rather change a belt every now and again rather than rebuilding a head after chain failure.

 

Are there any other nasties on them?

 

One final thing, I live in a quite hilly area and would I find the 1.0 and 1.2 gutless on hills. I know they won't be as capable as the 2.0 I have currently have. I've driven a Seat with the 140bhp engine and that was fine, went really well.

 

Cheers Paul.

[sleeper77]

Modern small engines these days do a lot better than the older ones when accelerating up hills. 

 

I drove a Fabia Mk3 1.2 TSI (most likely the one with 110 bhp) as a loaner car while my Octavia was being repaired by the dealership. On the way back when driving up the uphill road that joins the motorway , I was very surprised how well it did, not far off my VRS. Also the acceleration throughout was very lively, no way was it a slouch. Compared to the Fabia Mk 2 I had with a 1.6 petrol engine, the 1.2 TSI Mk3 had much better acceleration. 

 

My advice is when you take the car on a test drive, tell the dealers you want to drive on roads with lots of hills as you live in a similar type of area. 

[skidzpaul1]

Thanks sleeper for that, much appreciated. When I've got my pennies together I think I will go for a 1.0TSI about a year old so it still gets the cheaper tax etc. I've been in a Seat Ateca with that engine and it was more than adequate for what I need.

[Auric Goldfinger]

16 hours ago, sleeper77 said:

Modern small engines these days do a lot better than the older ones when accelerating up hills. 

 

I drove a Fabia Mk3 1.2 TSI (most likely the one with 110 bhp) as a loaner car while my Octavia was being repaired by the dealership. On the way back when driving up the uphill road that joins the motorway , I was very surprised how well it did, not far off my VRS. Also the acceleration throughout was very lively, no way was it a slouch. Compared to the Fabia Mk 2 I had with a 1.6 petrol engine, the 1.2 TSI Mk3 had much better acceleration. 

 

My advice is when you take the car on a test drive, tell the dealers you want to drive on roads with lots of hills as you live in a similar type of area. 

 

The wife has the very same car with that engine, it's a hoot to drive and it likes to be driven. If you accelerate through the gears it goes very well, feels planted and can hold it's own on the Motorway. On many trips you can easily get 50+ MPG.