Hello all, 

looking for advice on what to watch out for when buying a used petrol 230 VRS saloon, 50,000miles 2016 car finished in white.

any tips greatly appreciated!

 

thanks

All sorts of usual used car advice blah blah blah.

Don't get sucked into full dealer service history stuff. Just because it was serviced at a dealer does not mean all necessary tasks were carried out. @tootwill be along shortly with the useful table of service intervals. A car that age and mileage should have had plugs, brake fluid and dsg as a minimum along side regular oil changes.

My favourite thing to check is the tyres. Good points: all the same, half decent, plenty tread. Check for kerb rash too.

Bad points: odd tyres, cheap tyres, kerb rash.

Good tyres generally point to a car that was looked after.

It is good to see a record of what was actually done, and not just Oil & filter changes and look sees and reports. 

Look at what you might have to spend to have done that might not be up to date.

Are all 4 tyres and the spare OK, the brakes, the windscreen and all functions functioning. 

 

Oil & Inspection and Extended Scope, or Interim & Major services are not that much if the extras were not also done. 

Some of these (amongst many others) might have some useful pointers:

 

 

 

 

 

Gaz

 

Probably in links above but waterpump is a main issue, especially for leaking. This is harder to diagnose for a drive and inspection unless you can get to the waterpump it's impossible to see. 

 

Creaks lock to lock, most symptoms point to front topmounts. Rear toe adjustment is often seized as the bolts were not greased from factory. This can lead to tyre wear. If you get a helicopter or thrumming sound at 40mph+ it may be badly worn tyres on rear which can flatspot (see photo from mine before I changed them)

 

Octavia's display alot of road noise which is normal but this sometimes masks other sounds.

 

Thanks very much for the info! 
great to get the advice!