Hey all,

 

Looking at a 2017 MKII Octavia 2.0 TDI with 150K miles on the clock. It's comfortably in my budget, but with the high mileage, and the fact I'm hoping to own the car 5 years and put another 125K miles on the clock, I'm a little concerned. Is it too tall an ask, or can I comfortably expect it to eat up the miles?

 

If I do go for it, what should I be looking out for?

Welcome to the forum.

 

What sort of service history and proof of that comes with the car?   Has the timing belt and water pump been replaced?

What are the tyres, brakes, windscreen looking like condition wise? 

150k's not high, but it all depends how it's been looked after. 

According to the dealer, 1 owner and "service history". Water pump and timing belt are on my list of things to check with the dealer. I had a quick sit in it today, but it was after work and I was too tired and not yet read up on what to look for with the model.

It will eat up the miles, I bought my MK1 Octavia dead cheap on its 3rd birthday with 188000 miles, I said if it gives me 3 years and then dies I will still be ahead of the game.

 

I abused it as a van for 13 years, overloaded the suspension frequently, towed massively overloaded trailers for thousands of miles, only really ever did oil and filter changes and brake pads, I could not kill the vehicle.

 

At 16 years old and 325000 miles it was still running like a Swiss watch, it was the electronics that ended up seeing it go to the scrapyard and me not realising that by investing in VCDS I could have easily found the problem which was almost certainly broken wiring in the door loop.

 

Your plan is a good one and I intend to repeat the experience with my Yeti, I'm already 3 years and 40K miles in, it had 79K to start with.

 

You should budget for a DMF change if it hasn't already been done.

Hello Dilan, Mk111 if the vehicle is 2017. Has this been a Taxi? - not a red flag, but a possible negotiation point. How is the overall condition?  

Yeah MKIII, spotted it immediately after but can't edit. I need to check on the Taxis possibility, condition seemed good when I had a quick look, other than the driver door handle feeling clunky, but I'll give it a more thorough look over.

Young ( < 5yr or younger ) high milers with full or near full service histories have always been my preferred option. Still something you'd be happy driving around in but cheaper to buy. Like you I intend to keep this one until it refuses to boot-up in the morning. 

My cam belt, water pump and idler were due to be changed when I bought it but that was a good negotiating tool to get the price down further.

Have added another 65k miles since with only bills for consumables..... so far.

On 17/03/2023 at 20:19, Dilanski said:

Hey all,

 

Looking at a 2017 MKII Octavia 2.0 TDI with 150K miles on the clock. It's comfortably in my budget, but with the high mileage, and the fact I'm hoping to own the car 5 years and put another 125K miles on the clock, I'm a little concerned. Is it too tall an ask, or can I comfortably expect it to eat up the miles?

 

If I do go for it, what should I be looking out for?

I like young, high-mileage cars, so if the car has been serviced well, and the price reflects the mileage and condition, then it might be a canny buy, especially as you intend to keep piling the miles on.

I also buy young second hand cars because of the price and life standard. 
 

One thing I would be concerned is the oil service intervals. The MK3 2.0 tdi has relatively weak oil rings and may have oil consumption due long service intervals.

 

The second thing is the DPF which will be for cleaning/replacing - if not already, then soon.

 

Not sure is it stick or auto: if stick, as mentioned already, have in mind that the DMF may need replacement; the DSG should be serviced 3x times for that mileage.

I personally wouldn't have concerns on a high mileage skoda ... but if its got a say over 150k .. I'd be looking for a full oil changes every 10-13k intervals... my 2017  skoda octavia 1.6 diesel is now on 237k with no engine work needed still has the same clutch since new .but for the last year I've started to use only shell v power diesal... no dpf issues.. 1st set of drop links at 210k. Alternator at 133k..new heater motor at 164k ...front struts have been done ..1 rear shocker.. front bonnet latch. Rear boot latch  and just routine servicing     runs like a train it does well I hope this give people some point were to go on a high mileage skoda .

With a TDI that has been doing 30,000 miles a year if it only had the oil changed every 8 months or so at 18,000 -20,000 miles that would not be unusual and not a concern to me.

 

With a TDI that has averaged 47,000 miles a year i would not expect it to have been getting oil and filter changes 3 or 4 times a year.

Unless maybe used as a taxi in a city rather than a motorway mile muncher. 

Apologies for not reporting back, I ended up buying a newer lower mileage model after I got more than expected for trade-in and the original vehicle had just sold.

 

I have a question and I figured here was better than a new thread. The stop-start system picking up the vehicle in front inching away has been annoying me to no end. By accident I noticed that while start stop is active I can put it into gear, thereby stopping it starting the engine when the vehicle in front moves, then I simply put it back into neutral and the system picks up where it left off. My questions are is there any potential damage from this, and does the vehicle provide a warning if the battery runs low from things like HVAC? I assumed that under normal operation of the stop start a low battery would restart the engine before it became a problem.

14 hours ago, Dilanski said:

Apologies for not reporting back, I ended up buying a newer lower mileage model after I got more than expected for trade-in and the original vehicle had just sold.

 

I have a question and I figured here was better than a new thread. The stop-start system picking up the vehicle in front inching away has been annoying me to no end. By accident I noticed that while start stop is active I can put it into gear, thereby stopping it starting the engine when the vehicle in front moves, then I simply put it back into neutral and the system picks up where it left off. My questions are is there any potential damage from this, and does the vehicle provide a warning if the battery runs low from things like HVAC? I assumed that under normal operation of the stop start a low battery would restart the engine before it became a problem.

 

Just turn it off (the S/S) 

To your questions - ECU monitors the battery, oil, coolant temperature, DPF regeneration status and so on, and if anything doesn't meet the requirements - it does deactivate the S/S. E.g. if DPF is regenerating or the battery is low, start-stop system will be automatically deactivated.

So no worries - nowadays, the cars are smarter than us..

34 minutes ago, fr1nklyn said:

 

Just turn it off (the S/S) 

To your questions - ECU monitors the battery, oil, coolant temperature, DPF regeneration status and so on, and if anything doesn't meet the requirements - it does deactivate the S/S. E.g. if DPF is regenerating or the battery is low, start-stop system will be automatically deactivated.

So no worries - nowadays, the cars are smarter than us..

It's I want the improved economy of the SS, but it picking up the vehicle in front moving the distance of a gnats ballsack hair as a reason to restart the engine is frustrating. And I'd rather not turn off the system and manually mess about with the ignition as A) I don't get the benefit of the car deciding if it's optimal to turn off the engine and Manually messing with the ignition is a worse flow than messing with the gearstick.

Surprised that the S/S is linked to the distance/proximity sensors. My Superb isn't ( DSG ), neither was my previous Merc C200 manual.

 

Re-activation of the Start is totally dependant on what my feet are doing to the pedals - brake or accelerator for the DSG or the clutch pedal for the manual.

3 hours ago, Dilanski said:

It's I want the improved economy of the SS, but it picking up the vehicle in front moving the distance of a gnats ballsack hair as a reason to restart the engine is frustrating. And I'd rather not turn off the system and manually mess about with the ignition as A) I don't get the benefit of the car deciding if it's optimal to turn off the engine and Manually messing with the ignition is a worse flow than messing with the gearstick.

I hate my stop/start system as it seems to be malicious in its operation. It doesn't work when I think it should, and works when I don't want it to.

I switch it off when I remember to and I'm not far off getting one of those switches that persists the setting rather than resetting to default.

2 hours ago, EnterName said:

I hate my stop/start system as it seems to be malicious in its operation. It doesn't work when I think it should, and works when I don't want it to.

I switch it off when I remember to and I'm not far off getting one of those switches that persists the setting rather than resetting to default.

I’m feeling exactly the same.. Not to mention the feeling when I want to join quickly in the roundabout and car shuts the engine just before I want to make it really quick..

 

Not to mention what stress it makes on the Flywheel when it starts and stops the engine 20 times while being in a traffic jam.

 

@EnterNameYou don’t need to by one of those shady switches.. just unplug it from the battery 😃 https://youtu.be/DafjVxuTjFk 

(there are no errors on the dash or anything - car just mentions for a second that S/S system is deactivated on when you start the car)

 

On 26/06/2023 at 19:57, fr1nklyn said:

@EnterNameYou don’t need to by one of those shady switches.. just unplug it from the battery 😃 https://youtu.be/DafjVxuTjFk 

(there are no errors on the dash or anything - car just mentions for a second that S/S system is deactivated on when you start the car)

I'm cautious about doing this as there may be other issues caused as a knock-on effect.

I doubt I'll do anything about it other than moan, bu tit does annoy me. I wish it didn't re-enable it when I switch mode from Drive to Eco. I shouldn't need to keep telling it to switch off.

3 hours ago, EnterName said:

I'm cautious about doing this as there may be other issues caused as a knock-on effect.

I doubt I'll do anything about it other than moan, bu tit does annoy me. I wish it didn't re-enable it when I switch mode from Drive to Eco. I shouldn't need to keep telling it to switch off.

Yeah, I agree with you. It would be much easier if the button state was remembered for a driving mod and also when car is restarted.

22 hours ago, fr1nklyn said:

Yeah, I agree with you. It would be much easier if the button state was remembered for a driving mod and also when car is restarted.

That's where one of those shady switches would come in handy. 😉

3 hours ago, EnterName said:

That's where one of those shady switches would come in handy. 😉

 

I don't fancy those third party devices, honestly speaking.

 

Built-in hardware/module errors are handled for sure, so either removing the S/S cable from battery or setting the battery voltage limit below 12V via VCDS, should be less harmful(if harmful at all) to the car. Whereas errors triggered by a third party devices aren't handled for sure and therefore hide unknown surprises

(talking as a test engineer in similar field)

My experience is just as irritating as above. Imagine my surprise when i realised that, by simply moving the steering wheel by a degree or two, it caused the engine to start, presumably because it was sensing a need for power.