Heyoooo,

 

So my partner and I bought a 2013 Skoda Fabia VRS, 18 months ago and while we love the car the trips to the mechanic haven’t been awesome. We’ve had the common oil issue which was about $1200(AUD) and then the timing chain issue $1775(AUD) in addition to some standard tyres and other stuff.

 

The car has only done 87,000km and one mechanic said that it’s nearly done and we should ditch it.(admittedly he is a Subaru guy so probably a bit biased), however $3,000 worth of work for other than perishable items over 18 months is a bit ****.

 

what we’re curious about is, how many kms should the engine be good for and ultimately should we ?

 

a) ditch it, it’s a lemon

 

b) keep it we’ve seen the worst of it

 

c) $3,000 worth of work over 18 months is about the servicing costs of this car, get over it. 

 

We also get that, no one can guarantee nothing will go wrong with it, just curious about other people’s experiences. 

Edited 5 July, 20196 yr by Jimmybourne

Its a 6 year old car, most cars have these one time "problems", where some expensive things needs to be fixed. It is unlikely you need to spend that much from now on all the time if you take care of the car. This is the thing you have to take account when buying a car that has done low km, most likely previous owner hasn't reached a point where theses things need changing.  Fabia engines can to triple what your car has done. 

 

Thing to obviously consider is if you are not using the car a lot, that the low km suggests, the price may seem much because you are not getting your moneys worth from the car. Personally i would only replace it if the km stays low but the repair costs keep going up, at this point unless you want a project car, its not worth having.

 

My 2012 1.2tsi Monte has done 130000 km and purrs like a kitten, only thing actually broken, this year the ignition coil pack ended its life and that is all.

Most of the stuff done yearly other then the regular service are small things.

 

 

@mixmax, remember here that this is no ordinary engined Fabia - it is a twincharger engined Fabia, so maybe a bit more prone to needing that level of cash thrown at its engine - though maybe if these 2 shots of cash have updated it, its bad times might be behind it, at least for the engine?

 

Edit:- OP, maybe you could change the title of this posting to reflect that it is a 1.4 Twincharger engine.

Edited 5 July, 20196 yr by rum4mo

Just to add to what the other two have said, if you've spent all that cash and fixed the usual problems with the twincharger then I don't see the point of getting rid of it. At the age of 6 years old, youve probably replaced the water pump & if not that will be due soon. That'll set you back a few hundred £'s (dunno about AUD labour rates etc).

 

One area that I'd be careful of is the gearbox as those repairs can get extremely pricey. Do you know if yours required the software update "34f7"?

 

Overall I'd keep it after putting that much into it as it seems the worst has already came. If you get another used car, whos to say that doesnt need other costly repairs. Atleast with your right now, has those repairs done.

Out of curiosity, what was done to fix the "oil issue"?

 

Also, the water pump is about $1000 for parts and labour. Mine went at under 50,000km, and I'm now at 82,000 (hoping it's not required again before 100,000).

Thanks for everyones input, all some good notes and a common support for keeping it.

 

 

16 hours ago, jamie6210 said:

At the age of 6 years old, youve probably replaced the water pump & if not that will be due soon. That'll set you back a few hundred £'s (dunno about AUD labour rates etc).

 

We haven't done the water pump and are unsure if the previous owners did. I'll have a look into that, thank you! 

 

16 hours ago, jamie6210 said:

One area that I'd be careful of is the gearbox as those repairs can get extremely pricey. Do you know if yours required the software update "34f7"?

 

Yes I've heard many nightmares around the DSG gearbox, just looked up a few links it appears it hasn't had or needed the software update, but i'll harass Skoda when the car is next in their. Is there a time when these generally go? Ie 50,000km, 100,000km 125,000km? or just when the wind blows the wrong way?

 

14 hours ago, OzFabia said:

Out of curiosity, what was done to fix the "oil issue"?

 

After an oil consumption test where it was found to use 1.15l/1000km, which is actually better than the tests we had done, they replaced the oil squirters, breather and intake and carried out engine control unit update.