Hey! I'm new around here and looking to buy my first Skoda, which would be Skoda Octavia vRS 2011, didn't really like touring variants so going for a hatch.
My previous cars - 
1. Mitsubishi Lancer 2000 - sold because it was my first car and wanted an upgrade
2. Mazda 3 2005 - sold because rust got out of control
3. (Current) Honda Civic hatch 2007 - selling because I want something quicker and more sporty? SImply want an upgrade.

I was choosing between Golf GTI, Seat Leon FR/Cupra and Octavia vRS, since the best option for sale at the moment is Octavia, I'm looking into this one, I'm also located in Europe, Estonia.
So, to that exact car I'm looking at:

2011 vRS hatch
2.0 147 Kw

Automatic DSG 6gears(according to owner, it had a thorough repair in 2019 summer)
153k kilometers(around 90k miles)
Price is 8,2k EUR(Owner said that he could go a little bit lower)
Negative things about the car- 
1. It kinda is out of my budget, I can get the money for it with the help of family members, not a problem, BUT if it happens to have reliability issues that would be quite bad.
2. This car had 5 accidents, two of them with the current owner, nothing major, one of them he had front bumper replaced cause he tapped a car in front from behind, the latest one just had some painting done.

There's 3 more I don't know about, just know that one of them was worth below 500 EUR, one was 500-2000 and one is unknown, but the last accident before the current owner happened back in 2014.(For reference, two accidents that current owner had are worth 500-2000)


Any info on reliability, thinks to look for when I go checking the car, your experiences etc, anything will help! 

Welcome to the forum @Lance483 . I’m by no means an expert on that age of Octavia RS sedan, but a car that’s done 90000 km and had 5 recorded accidents at 8,2k sounds like one to get a big price reduction on, or avoid! I’d have thought you’d be in Octavia Mk3 RS at €8000. How many have you found in searches? 

4 minutes ago, Pilotguy said:

Welcome to the forum @Lance483 . I’m by no means an expert on that age of Octavia RS sedan, but a car that’s done 90000 km and had 5 recorded accidents at 8,2k sounds like one to get a big price reduction on, or avoid! I’d have thought you’d be in Octavia Mk3 RS at €8000. How many have you found in searches? 

Cheapest MK3(Or at least it looks like MK3, comparing googled pictures) is 2014 model for 12k, which is simply too expensive. It's also 153,000km(90k in miles).
I will probably offer like 7.5-7.7 if I actually see the car and it interests me. Positive thing about those accidents is that I know about two of them and I know they're pretty much nothing serious. Other 3 that I don't know of are in the same price category or lower. Since that's the only downside I found in this car so far, I'm still kinda interested.

Are you looking at petrol or diesel? Both are 2 litre engines.

11 minutes ago, Gav_G said:

Are you looking at petrol or diesel? Both are 2 litre engines.

Definitely petrol!

The most important thing to check on the TSI CCZA engine is that the timing chain tensioner has been updated. There's a big thread at the top of this section about failures that I suggest you have a brief look at.

Briefly, the tensioner can fail and the chain slips causing piston and valves to collide with repair bills up to thousands if you need a new engine.

 

Speak to the seller and find out if he knows if it has been done with the paperwork to back it up. If not then you need to allow for the cost of replacing the tensioner when you make an offer. I had my chain and tensioner replaced at a cost of £650.

My last car was actually a 2011 Octavia VRS TSI. Such a great car I bought another VRS but a MK3, as you can see. You might already know they do have great engines but there is one problem, the timing chain tensioner was known to let loose and bang goes your engine. Skoda cured this problem in the middle of 2012.  When I had mine as preventative maintenance around 50k miles, I had new timing chains and the the latest tensioner fitted. The motor ran perfect until I traded it in at 104k miles for the VRS I have now. Hopefully the tensioner has been changed already, might be worth checking. Cost in the UK to have it all done was around £650. 

1 hour ago, Gav_G said:

The most important thing to check on the TSI CCZA engine is that the timing chain tensioner has been updated. There's a big thread at the top of this section about failures that I suggest you have a brief look at.

Briefly, the tensioner can fail and the chain slips causing piston and valves to collide with repair bills up to thousands if you need a new engine.

 

Speak to the seller and find out if he knows if it has been done with the paperwork to back it up. If not then you need to allow for the cost of replacing the tensioner when you make an offer. I had my chain and tensioner replaced at a cost of £650.

Will definitely check it out! I asked the owner for all the paperwork on stuff done, if i won't see timing chain there, definitely going to ask about it! 

1 hour ago, roaddetective said:

My last car was actually a 2011 Octavia VRS TSI. Such a great car I bought another VRS but a MK3, as you can see. You might already know they do have great engines but there is one problem, the timing chain tensioner was known to let loose and bang goes your engine. Skoda cured this problem in the middle of 2012.  When I had mine as preventative maintenance around 50k miles, I had new timing chains and the the latest tensioner fitted. The motor ran perfect until I traded it in at 104k miles for the VRS I have now. Hopefully the tensioner has been changed already, might be worth checking. Cost in the UK to have it all done was around £650. 

Good to hear, i have not driven it myself yet, but hopefully I'll like it as much as you when i take it for a test drive. And yeah I know about the price, it's quite a bit, definitely gonna find out about the chain and the paperwork for it.

Current owner sent me some paperwork on stuff that's been done, pretty big repair of DSG(since guys who were servicing the vehicle broke mechatronics something something(worth 1.2k), they had to replace it for free), other than that total was 927 EUR, which is quite a bit. Quite hard to translate as a non car guy haha. Basically that car has been maintained and photos of the accidents show that those are nothing, some scratches here and there.

One thing I did not see is the timing chain and tensioner replacement, going to ask the owner if he's done it, and if not then

On 10/01/2021 at 22:45, Gav_G said:

you need to allow for the cost of replacing the tensioner when you make an offer

pretty much this!

Sorry for bumping this thread again, but i got some info! 

 

So, the owner told me that he was told by the previous owner that it has been changed before him, but there was no paperwork, if it really has been done then it was not at the official dealer. 

 

I will go and check the car in a couple of days, while the seller seems trustworthy, provided me with all the info, even the pictures of the accidents the car has had, I'm not sure about that, I'd probably try to ask for a decent price reduction and change chain tensioner along side with the chain itself.