I'm thinking of changing my Octavia hatchback for a Superb Estate. Probably a 2.0 diesel from Motorpoint.   There is a choice of 2015 models around 26 months old  18-23k miles.

 

What servicing should they have had?  I'm presuming 2 services  if on fixed based on time and 1 if on variable.  How can I check if fixed/variable?   As Motorpoint  annoyingly hide reg numbers on their website is there an easy way of confirming from Skoda that a car is serviced up to date and the remaining warranty is still valid once I get the reg number.

 

My Octy has always been fixed so I'm not familiar with what warnings  a variable sefviced car would show on the dashboard if any.

 

Anything in particular worth looking for on a test drive?

Edited 25 February, 20188 yr by irc

Fixed is every year or 10K miles, variable is UP TO 20K or 2 years, so potentially a lower mileage (18K miles) may not have been serviced if it is under 2 years old)

 

Quote the reg to a Škoda dealer to find out what servicing has been carried out, the info when the next service is due is also in the maxidox, it won’t of course tell you the service history though.

 

 

The varible countdown is set at 2 years or 18k miles on the cars system.

 

if you go into settings, service, it will tell you when its due.

 

The 30 day reminder countdown triggers at 23 months and counts down from 30 days and also displays in how many miles its due.

3 hours ago, irc said:

There is a choice of 2015 models around 26 months old  18-23k miles.

 

What servicing should they have had?

 

Fixed servicing is for cars doing under 11,000 miles a year. the car you have looked at appear to have done between 8300 and 10600 miles a year thus should be on fixed servicing.

 

If they were incorrectly put on variable servicing its not unknown for services to flag up annually due to the type of use the cars get.

 

IMHO buying a diesel that has done that kind of mileage is asking for trouble. Low mileage diesels and DPF's are not compatible and the DPF is not covered under warranty.

 

If you are happy with your TSi get another. The 150 PS version is fine in the Superb, no DPF worries and still great mpg.

30 minutes ago, skidpan said:

 

Fixed servicing is for cars doing under 11,000 miles a year. the car you have looked at appear to have done between 8300 and 10600 miles a year thus should be on fixed servicing.

 

If they were incorrectly put on variable servicing its not unknown for services to flag up annually due to the type of use the cars get.

 

IMHO buying a diesel that has done that kind of mileage is asking for trouble. Low mileage diesels and DPF's are not compatible and the DPF is not covered under warranty.

 

If you are happy with your TSi get another. The 150 PS version is fine in the Superb, no DPF worries and still great mpg.

 

Thanks for all replies. 

 

Appreciate the DPF issue. Is the 2.0 Superb prone to DPF problems?  All else equal I would go for a Tsi 150BHP but the nearest second hand 2015 or newer is 361 miles from me.

 

Though I'm not needing to change immediately - can wait until a closer one comes up.

DPFs will cause issues if you are doing lots of low mileage journeys, providing you are giving it a decent run (15 miles or so) you should not have any issues, that said SWMBOs Yeti is coming up to 4 years old and has done 36K miles with most journey of around 7 miles and there have been no DPF issues.

2 hours ago, Gizmo said:

DPFs will cause issues if you are doing lots of low mileage journeys, providing you are giving it a decent run (15 miles or so) you should not have any issues, that said SWMBOs Yeti is coming up to 4 years old and has done 36K miles with most journey of around 7 miles and there have been no DPF issues.

 

My typical usage is 3 days mixed short journeys and 2 days of a 20 mile each way commute with a 10 mile fast motorway section.  Along with longer trips 100 mile+ every month or so.

11 hours ago, irc said:

 

My typical usage is 3 days mixed short journeys and 2 days of a 20 mile each way commute with a 10 mile fast motorway section.  Along with longer trips 100 mile+ every month or so.

 

Sounds very similar to the useage my wife had in our last diesel and we had no DPF issues. But that was a 2010 car and since then as emission rules have tightened DPF's have had to work harder but its also fair to say manufacturers have improved DPF implementation as well.

 

The wife learned to spot when a regen was happening and if possible drive a few extra miles to give it chance to finish. As far as I am aware all manufacturers systems only allow a certain number of interrupted regens before lighting the dash up.

 

It all depends how lucky you are feeling. But if you are in no hurry I would wait for another TSi to crop up.

^^^ +1. I had a 150TDI for 18 months. Only did 12000 miles in that time. Never had an issue. The current crop of engine systems to euro 6 is far superior to earlier versions.

On the S3 a regen is triggered about every 450 miles if one has not been successfully completed between those times;  regens will auto restart the next time you drive if it hadn't completed when you switch off.

So with that in mind you probably would never need to do anything special. You could take a preventive drive, every month or so, to get the engine fully warmed. Then drive a further 20 minutes or so at 1700-2000 engine rpm and you won't have a problem based on my experience. More than likely you will never have a problem even if you dont do the long drive. The failsafe is that even if the dpf does start to get overloaded then you get an early warning anyway. Then you MUST take that drive mentioned above before things get critical. I never saw that warning light in my 18 months of ownership 

 

In my experience the petrol engine car is a much better car than the diesel so I wouldn't buy another diesel but not because of the emissions control.

hth