Hi Briskoda! This is my first post, glad to be here.

 

Here is my question: How much does a straight petrol Octavia Mk II estate cost to buy?

 

I'm on the hunt for a new car and I've always wanted an Octavia estate. However I've had a terrible time of late and I'm basically ready to give up on my dream for now. I need an estate for work, and I'm running out of time to buy, so I'm probably gonna buy another big estate and see if I can save up and buy an Octavia in the future. Over the past week or so I've looked at various cars including Octavia Mk II estates priced at £3k, £3.5k, £4.5k, and £5.5k, and they are all lemons! (ie bad buys, require significant repairs, your standard walk away stuff). I've had a read through the forum rules and I don't think there's any specific rule saying I can't name and shame the cars, but I understand that may be frowned upon; I just feel it would be helpful to forewarn others who might be in the market - I have a £200 AA pre-inspection report for one of them, in total I've spent several hundred pounds looking at crap cars :(

 

Is it just my luck? Am I looking at the wrong cars? Or do I need to save my pennies and try again later? I have very few hard lines: it must be an estate, it must be petrol, I'd love a Superb estate but I'm sure I don't have the money for that, it should be in decent mechanical condition, not to leggy ie less than say 150k miles and not about to need any massive repairs (you know the usual criteria for a used car). Little extras that I'd like are cruise control, climate control, parking sensors and heated seats, but I've looked at cars that don't have these. In an ideal world I'd keep looking but I need a car for work now, and I currently have no car because someone crashed into and wrote off my previous estate while it was parked :(

Edited 4 October, 20187 yr by WagonIsBest

Welcome.

Where in the country are you and how far are you prepared to go to buy a car?

Yes, this is part of the challenge, I'm in the central belt in Scotland, so the cars for sale up here cost more. Distance is no issue for the right car, I travelled over 200 miles to view one of the cars. I've been travelling long distances in search of a deal only to find it was a wasted journey. The challenge is trying to figure out if a car is worth it before making the trip. This is why I've ended up spending hundreds of pounds with nothing to show for it other than a sad face. If the car is straight, I don't care where it is.

I was searching for pretty much the same but diesel and for a lower budget, up to £1500, I started the search here in France because after 12 years with an ex UK RHD Octavia it was time to change, I see lots of these vehicles on the roads but people just hang on to them, Leboncoin here is the only major internet second hand site and everybody uses it, searching the whole of France over several weeks brought nothing but some leggy massively overpriced saloons and a couple of later estates for €20K and €30K respectively.

 

So I switched to a UK search and found that on Autotrader, Gumtree or E-bay with a narrow search of 100 miles around Gatwick I had the choice of 30-40 cars.

 

I  found very cloes to my UK house a 2006 1.9tdi Elegance estate, low mileage at 122K 2 owners from new, FSH in superb condition needing minor work for the MOT which I did not need for France anyway, a £30 alternator/PS pump/engine mounting bracket and it was sorted, it cost £750 and the new tyres and towbar were worth that alone, only thing it doesnt have on your list is heated seats.

 

Now all the other minor bits are sorted (a good excuse to learn VCDS) it drives like new and is returning an average of 64.4mpg mixed journeys, the same vehicle is valued at €5000 here in France but you just cant find one and if you did they would probably want double the book price.

 

I cant get over how cheap a good SH car is in the UK but I am told that the prices drop sharply once they are 8 or 10 years old as they are viewed as bangers even if low mileage, seeing how much the previous owner paid and my neighbour recently paying £8K for an identical but younger facelift model it would seem to be the case.

Yeah diesels seem to be getting cheaper, I think the writing is on the wall. There will be a tipping point soon where road tax, diesel fuel tax and city centre emissions regulations spell the end for a lot of diesels on the road at the moment.

 

There are loads of seemingly good deals in and around the M25 but I'm reluctant to make the trip down on a punt since every car I've looked at has been no good.

2 hours ago, WagonIsBest said:

Yes, this is part of the challenge, I'm in the central belt in Scotland, so the cars for sale up here cost more. Distance is no issue for the right car, I travelled over 200 miles to view one of the cars. I've been travelling long distances in search of a deal only to find it was a wasted journey. The challenge is trying to figure out if a car is worth it before making the trip. This is why I've ended up spending hundreds of pounds with nothing to show for it other than a sad face. If the car is straight, I don't care where it is.

 

It doesn't matter how many questions you ask a seller / dealer, it's luck of the draw.  I drove 400 mile round trip to look at a Scout a few years back, chatted to the dealer for a good 30 mins and got all info I needed.  The last thing he said was 'I promise you won't be disappointed'.  Drove 200 miles there and within 3 minutes of looking at the car it was evident one whole side of the car had been painted .... and very badly.

 

Fuming was an understatement - I've experienced many other incidents as well.

 

Whilst this generalisation isn't true for all, most my experiences have been they can tell you anything to get you down to the car to have a look and if you don't buy .... no skin off their nose.  Most cars I've brought I've ended up looking at many before finding the right one.

Edited 4 October, 20187 yr by ScoutCJB

@ScoutCJB: JUST a thought; if you find a car that you want to take a closer look at you could ask if there's a local Brisky who would be willing to go see it/take pictures/ask the seller questions. It wouldn't guarantee you a good one but it might help save you a long drive to look at a lemon like the repaint job above.

 

Not everyone has the time or skills to do such but it doesn't hurt to ask ...

 

Regards Mike

Edited 5 October, 20187 yr by StickyMicky

WagonisBest.

maybe  place a 'Wanted' ad in BRISKODA'  if there are no cars advertised in the 'Cars for sale' section that suits what you are after.

normally a "clear" and "honest" person who sells a car, should normally accept if buyer wishes to get the car and inspected in an intependent or his own garage prior the purschace.

If not , then all comes in mind is suspicion...

26 minutes ago, StickyMicky said:

@ScoutCJB: JUST a thought; if you find a car that you want to take a closer look at you could ask if there's a local Brisky who would be willing to go see it/take pictures/ask the seller questions. It wouldn't guarantee you a good one but it might help save you a long drive to look at a lemon like the repaint job above.

 

Not everyone has the time or skills to do such but it doesn't hurt to ask ...

 

Regards Mike

 

Perfectly relevant point but it was in my Pre - Briskoda days.

 

I once went o have a look at a TT for a pal of mine that as described as mint at a sales forecourt - when I saw the overspray on the front window surround I walked away - it did save my mate a return trip from Birmingham to Middlesborough though.  Which I had taken a picture - it was unbelievable.

Edited 5 October, 20187 yr by ScoutCJB

59 minutes ago, AkisVH said:

normally a "clear" and "honest" person who sells a car, should normally accept if buyer wishes to get the car and inspected in an intependent or his own garage prior the purschace.

If not , then all comes in mind is suspicion...

 

Yeah that's crossed my mind, but it feels like a big hassle. I'd be calling a used car dealer from probably hundreds of miles away, asking them to take it to a garage for inspection, or asking that a garage come to inspect the car. I'd need to try and find a garage nearby that would be able to do a good job, dunno how much that would cost, dunno if the dealer would even be prepared to go through the hassle. Chances are they'd have a 'friendly' garage they like who will sign off on the car regardless. It's impossible for me to tell if the garage looking at the car has any sort of relationship with the dealer. If the cost of the inspection is more than the cost of petrol or train tickets then I'm cheaper going to look at it myself, but I'm getting really fed up with travelling to look at lemons.

 

I went to look at a car recently (not an Octavia as it happens), it had sailed through the last 3 MoTs with no advisories (I looked online). Got a lift an hour down the road to look at the car, complete shed, horrible rust, crumbly metal falling off around the brakes, CV boots split. So if I'd asked that the car be inspected by whatever garage is putting those MoTs on the car then I'd be wasting my time and money, and if I believed the garage and simply turned up for a test drive and collection I could be buying a death trap. I'm fairly happy with the service from the AA, but I can't spend £200 on each car I fancy buying (it cost me a bit less than that cos I'm a member).

 

Should I be thinking £6k, £7k or more for a straight car, or is it just a case of weeding out the rubbish? At that point you're getting into tidy looking Superb estate money.

I see your problem, there is a much better selection in the South of England

 

Realistically £3k-£5k might not get you what you want, or to be more precise is only finding clunkers

 

If you can get nearer £7k (which might be a big ask) then can find mk3 versions 4-5 years old, maybe a bit older if you want to keep below 80k miles

I do not know your circumstances, but if the extra £2k gets you a car 4 years younger, effectively is only £500 per year for potentially 4 years extra life

However, once again seems to be considerably more for sale in the south

 

 

10 hours ago, ScoutCJB said:

 

It doesn't matter how many questions you ask a seller / dealer, it's luck of the draw.

 

Yup. Each dealer I've called has said the car is great, won't disappoint, definitely worth investing the time and money travelling from Scotland. The last one I was interested in seemed like it would be the car I was looking for, HOORAY! They said someone else was interested in the car (I just missed out on a Volvo V70 the other day that was purchased before I could get along to look at it) so I put down a deposit and planned to set off early the next day to drive down to kick the tires etc. I told the very nice guy at the used car dealer I wanted the car stored outside overnight if possible, so when I arrived at opening time I could do a natural light inspection and cold start etc (I also looked at another Octavia with serious water ingress). I got a call back from the guy an hour later to say the car was a bit smokey and they'd brought it into their workshop and I spoke to their workshop manager, who assured me it wasn't a big problem, probably a clip that had come lose or a nick in a pipe or something, they said I could still come and look at it or they could fix it first. I told them to fix all the mechanical problems and get it to where they think it should be, then I would come and inspect. The guy called back the next day to return my deposit, they recon it's an uneconomical repair, could be £5k, they had a similar issue with an Audi. I'd been open about my situation and the frustration of the miles covered and money spent looking at lemons, the guy said he could tell I was a "discerning buying who knows what he's looking for" so said he didn't think I would want to buy the car. Fair enough, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe everything is as it seems. As of this morning a couple of days later the car is still advertised on their web site and other places, with no change to the price or description, maybe they haven't got around to updating the web site. The conspiracy theory part of my brain wonders if they were hoping someone would come down and tick the tyres in their indoor showroom, not look past the specs, maybe take it for a quick drive and buy it. Or perhaps they didn't even bother to check it over (I was told it was bought at auction a week ago), they took the photos, put it up for sale at close to the book price, and figured they'd roll the dice and let potential buyers tell them about any faults, and rely on a 3rd party warranty for anything not spotted prior to purchase.

There are a lot of other factors to take on board -  where the car is for sale (values differ in different areas), quality of garage (some are more expensive than others), mileage, previous owners, condition etc, etc.

Unless I missed it then I dont think you've stated mileage / spec so as an example my Diesel Oct 2 Scout with 2 prev owners, full history, 75K and the options I wanted cost me just over 6K used in September 2016.

 

2 years down the line I would like to think i could get the same car /spec and at a cheaper rate.

So weed out the rubbish or try and find more cash to increase your options.

 

 

13 hours ago, WagonIsBest said:

Yeah diesels seem to be getting cheaper, I think the writing is on the wall. There will be a tipping point soon where road tax, diesel fuel tax and city centre emissions regulations spell the end for a lot of diesels on the road at the moment.

 

 

 

Certainly the price of diesel fuel has risen here in France so that with the current exchange rate its close to the UK price but where we are lucky is that there is no annual road tax that they can tinker with to kill the demand, we pay a similar amount on registering a second hand vehicle in our name, its a once only charge and hence you can divide it by the number of years you keep the vehicle.

 

My Octavia 1 was 3 years old when I registered it in 2005 and it cost me €170 which was probably £130 then, that worked out to £10 a year!

 

The new acquisition being over 10 years old the cost is reduced by 50%, I have it on temporary import plates at the moment but when the carte grise is issued it will be around €100, I am hoping for a further 10 years with this vehicle.

 

Our MOT tests (contrôle technique) are every 2 years which I think the UK is considering and basic insurance can be very cheap, all together it means the fixed costs of owning a vehicle can be very very low, conversely if you regularly trade up it can cost dearly with the bonus/malus ecotaxes hence why there are so few second hand Octavia Estates for sale.

 

I think this vehicle will give me a further 10 years, its far lower mileage than its predecessor that gave me 13 years and 325000 miles which I would still be driving now had I bought VCDS earlier but I am stoked with the new one, assuming it lasts 10 years my fixed annual costs will be carte grise €100 / 10, contrôle technique €60 / 2 and insurance €115 = €155 or £140.

 

If I include the depreciation of the vehicle less scrap value (I got £100 from the breakers for the MK1) then its about £200 a year.

 

What are the minimum fixed costs of having a vehicle in the UK these days?