Hi folks, used to be active on here a few years ago but fell out of love with the motoring forums - sorry!

 

I’m thinking of buying a 3ish year old VRS diesel. We don’t do silly miles any more but still want something economical and with a bit o’ shove. Probably looking at a remap too.

 

Any pointers on what to look for please? Faults? Desirable spec/options? Opinions on remaps?

 

Thanks in advance. 

Seriously think about whether the sort of miles you drive will be suitable for a diesel with DPF - if you don't regularly do longish drives then a petrol may be a better choice.

Thanks Dave. When we do use the car this’ll be replacing, it’s often longer journeys. And the mileage could go up again next year.

 

We have 3 other cars, including my work motor, which is diesel. The other two, petrol Pandas, get used for local/supermarket runs.

 

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I have a diesel and do 6 miles to work each day and do have long commutes etc. Never had any issue with the DPF as the mk3 manage it better than older models.

As you are looking at 3 years old then the timing belt and water pump won't need doing. However the pumps have been known to fail as there is a sticky on this forum you should read. If you go DSG make sure it has been serviced at 40,000 miles.

I enjoy mine and sometimes wish I had gone with the petrol 245. But then I dont when I get 600 miles + to a tank on very long commutes.

The FL diesel have the smaller 312mm brakes where as the PFL came with 340mm brakes. Either way they will stop as my mk2 VRS had std 312mm brakes and coped just fine with 280bhp!

Personally I would look for one with the winter pack, (heated front screen and seats) Canton Sound System, park pilot and Cruise control. Some come with ACC but I have had it on older cars and never used it. 

You can activate features such as auto high beam,m and other features via VCDS or OBDELEVEN. I have the latter and it is worth its weight in gold.

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DCC, leather, winter pack, spare wheel and black pack plus would be my must haves. Nice-to-haves would be sunroof, electric seats, ACC and rear camera, (but that can be retrofitted anyway.) 4x4 is an option on the TDi vRS too. 

 

Mine was a 4x4 estate with pano roof, leather, winter pack, black pack plus, spare wheel. DCC wasn't an option on early 2016 when I ordered mine, but became available later in 2016. I added rear camera, mud flaps, OEM rubber floor mats etc. It also had 312mm front discs but was a pre FL. 

 

As for faults, I had water pump, cambelt and tensioner replaced under warranty, and 3 wheel bearings in total! (But I was running spacers 😉 )

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I would concentrate on the must haves and go from there. I bought my 67 plate VRS TDI 2 months ago. My min spec were meteor grey, manual, black pack plus,  pan roof & spare wheel. At the time I could find one or two of those things and then mine came up (2 hrs away). Originally I wanted an estate but I went to see the car and it looked great in the flesh. I bought it from skoda and they retrofitted the spare wheel. The car came with 2 years warranty and 2 years servicing. 

 

Don't get too hung up on ticking evey spec box, just find a good car that has your min spec - anything else is a bonus.

 

Also, I do less than 10k pa and have never had an issue with diesels. I buy them for practicality and mid-range torque. I personally  find them quicker day to day than petrol cars and I quite like hitting 50mpg just going to the shops.

I'm selling a 2016 VRS diesel 4x4 and when buying was desperate for heated seats, having had them in all my vans over the last 10yrs, my VRS hasn't got them and tbh I don't miss them now, there's not really anything that I feel I miss or it lacks apart from ground clearance for what I would really use it for (hence why its for sale - going for a Yeti as a lot of my work travel is on country roads and farm tracks etc which the VRS is not really suitable for). I do really like that adaptove turning headlights, they are fantastic and the dsg is so easy to drive with, smooth when you want it and rapid when you need it, the 4x4 system is brilliant, loads of grip, you can take quite a few liberties pulling out of junctions etc.