UPDATE!!!

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On Friday just gone I collected the car, engine fully repaired, new brakes/discs and full service for £1500. It's early days but so far so good!

 

I had the car shipped from the Skoda dealer (where I first had it taken by the AA, following the breakdown) to my local garage, after the mechanic there told me he'd take a look at the engine for £350 (significantly less than the Skoda dealer who quoted £800 for same).

 

Local mechanic told me a cylinder valve spring had broken - he's now replaced them all with VW parts, he says the car is fine in all other respects.

 

I've reported the original seller to ebay for suspected shill bidding and giving fake feedback on the sale of the car, who have stated "Rest assured that necessary action has been taken on this seller's account".

 

Hopefully this will be the end of the matter.

 

My lessons from this are to be more careful if purchasing on ebay - root around sellers past listings and look for the the same bidders bidding on items, maybe contact past buyers to see how their purchase panned out. Always stay within ebay when making the purchase. Consider getting an AA check on the vehicle or equivalent (may not have helped in my case but might have spotted the poor condition of the brakes). Finally, get a second opinion if a repair quote is very high, expecially if it's from an official dealer.

 

Anway thanks all for your help and feedback in this matter - happy motoring all!

 

 

things were looking quite bad for a while so I suppose £1500 was a lot less that the prospect of £3900+£800 ……..shame on SKODA dealers