I am contemplating purchasing a Karoq and would appreciate some advice. 

I have seen a 69 plate , 1.5 SE, 8k miles, £17,000 and also a

2.0 Diesel SEL, 2019, 39k miles, £15,800

Both are from dealers.

Opinions / advice where to search, greatly appreciated

thanks

This may depend on where you live. I switched to petrol partly because of the anti-dieselattitude that seems to prevail, and partly due to the issues that many owners of other brands have had with Adblue systems and DPFs blocking. Petrol is cheaper, but you get fewer miles per gallon. At current UK prices, if you have a petrol car that does 40mpg, a diesel car needs to be able to do ~48 mpg to break even. If you live on the continent, where diesel seem to be significantly cheaper, that may make diesel a lot more favourable. I drove diesels for many years and I prefered how they drove, but I haven't regretted going to petrol.

One thing you need to think about is the miles you'll do per year. If it's not many then the diesel will be a poor choice as it needs to be used to keep to happy to avoid DPF regens.

 

I have a friend with diesel Range Rover, mainly used for short commutes in town, and it's been a right PITA for them.

My BMW 330D needed de-coking due to my low mileage. It was better suited to Police chases....

 

I never regretted my switch to petrol, even though I had about 10 diesels in succession and I miss the pulling power occasionally, the 1.5 petrol is nippy enough for me.

 

The SE will not be as well specced as the SE L but that may not be a game changer.

As per others - if you want advice then say what your typical journeys are. Can't give advice based on no info. Is the gearbox manual or DSG?

 

If it's an older car then my advice would be to look relatively local. Check autotrader and other UK dealer prices to give you some negotiating power, but it'd be best buying local as you may need to return to the seller.

 

The other slight concern with that 1.5tsi SE is it's a 69 plate with 8000 miles. Such low mileage can produce more problems that an car that's been driven regularly. Unless it's been sitting around doing nothing for long periods of time ( which is bad for reliability ) then it's likely the car has lived a life of short journeys. Again, that's not good so make sure it's been serviced every year rather than on a variable service interval. Defo pay specific attention to the brakes. I would have expected a 4yr old 8000mile car with an electronic handbrake to have at least had it's rear discs and pads changed by now. If not it's likely they need doing soon.

 

The deisel may well have been a company car on  variable service programme. Different story if it's a relativey new car but my advice is that in general, if you have no need for a diesel then avoid buying a four year old one with 39,000 miles on the clock. Any savings you do make from mpg could easily be swallowed up by insurance. Get a quote for each car as I'd expect a 2.0tdi to command a noticible premium over a 1.5tsi. 

Edited 20 January, 20242 yr by kodiaqsportline

I'm a confirmed diesel driver and want the torque of diesel for towing. My 1.6 diesel karoq pulls my caravan fine, my daughter has a 1.5tsi seat leon, its nippy but needs the nuts revved off it, and wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding. It is also far poorer on fuel consumption,  by about 15mpg compared to her previous 1.6 td leon. She will be going back to diesel for her next one. So I say go for the diesel in the ops case, save a heap of money buying it and have better trim and equipment and a better drive.

Modern cars have so many in my opinion unnecesary bells and whistles that to ad another in the form of ADBlue only increases the chance of a failure at some point.

Whatever you decide remember that for car sales January-Februrary is probably the worst time of the year  for dealers to off load cars and meet their sales targets it is essentially a buyers market so  they are much more flexible, dont be afraid to push for a really good deal i.e extras such as paint protection new mats etc.

Regarding SE v SEL, to my mind not all the extra features on the latter are desirable, so the SE might actually suit suit better.  The lift out rear seats are probably more comfortable in the SEL as they are 25mm higher but because they are adjustable back & fore a solid rear parcel shelf is not then practical, only a roll top is provided, so more road noise gets through to the cabin, which I'd hate.  Also the larger wheels, lower profile tyres worsen the ride and increase road noise even more.  I didn't like the finish on the seats of the SEL I tried, much prefering the basic cloth of the standard SE seat, but that's a matter of choice.  However I do like the extra SEL brigtwork round the SEL side windows, the Sat Nav and I think it comes with a rear camera.

 

I reckon I did well with my odd ball specced SE Tech I got from new, but you might have difficulty finding one - fixed rear seat and solid boot cover as I now prefer - I don't often have passengers in the back so that's OK, higher profile tyres that are cheaper to replace and more comfy, but additional to the standard SE it does have a Sat Nav and I had a rear camera fitted, which I'm glad of.  The other SE Tech feature I really value is the Adaptive Cruise Control or ACC, the SEL doesn't actually come with that as standard, but I find it makes long distance motorway driving more relaxing but not in a bad way, as I seem to remain more alert using it on such long runs.

 

Likely not a consideration for you, but I'm also very pleased with the 1.0 3 cyl engine in my car, it is really quiet and not audible at all on motorways and it also  performs surprisingly well, long distance journeys are no problem whatsoever.  It has the very nice DSG auto gearbox too, I wouldn't consider a manual car these days.  I got the car a few months before Covid came along, so have only been doing around 6,000miles PA, down from the 13,000 I used to do when I was younger and travelled abroad.  I thought I was beginning to have trouble with the ACC cruise control (see my recent message), but now think that it's functioning properly.  The engine and car all round has been trouble free in the 4.5 years from new - regularly serviced.

hi,

thank you for all the great advice, it really is appreciated.

Do you think the prices are about right for that age Karoq's ?

Do you think the dealers would have much to negotiate on those prices?

Would anyone have an idea on the depreciation after 3 years assuming under 10k miles per year?

They are both manual 

Generally, it will be used for short town runs

Thanks

 

Have a look at dealers prices on Autotrader for the same year/mileage cars that will tell you if the cars you are looking at are reasonably priced. Also you can look at older cars to estimate the depreciation. My experience is that you can at certain times of the year when sales are low negotiate  things like mats, paint protection, mud flaps etc. to close a sale as these cost the dealer considerably less than you would pay. Best of luck.

2 hours ago, papillon555 said:

hi,

thank you for all the great advice, it really is appreciated.

Do you think the prices are about right for that age Karoq's ?

Do you think the dealers would have much to negotiate on those prices?

Would anyone have an idea on the depreciation after 3 years assuming under 10k miles per year?

They are both manual 

Generally, it will be used for short town runs

Thanks

 

 

If it's short town runs then anyone with common sense would advice you to forget all about diesel, especially on that age of car.

 

Car prices are all over the place and none of us know what condition those cars are in. You can easily check if the prices are compeditive or not by looking at autotrader or Skoda's used car website - remeber those are the sticker prices tho.

 

What I suggest you do is put the details of the car you're interested in into a car auction site like WeBuyAnyCars.com ( there are others - WBAC.com in my experience give the lowest price ) and get a price for it.  That's what the car is worth.  It should be no more that about £3000 less than a main dealer's forecourt sticker price. If it is then my advice would be to walk away.

 

Depreciation after 3yr? That's a difficult one because the car was launched in 2017 which is only only 2 year earlier.  The way I'd work it out is look on autotrader for a similar 2017 car, add 20k to the mileage of the car you're interested in buying, and then get a price for the 2017 car from the same auction site.    The value of a 2019 car less the value of a 2017 car should give you about as accurate a 2yr depreciation figure as get from anyone.

Edited 21 January, 20242 yr by kodiaqsportline

On 20/01/2024 at 15:56, croquemonsieur said:

Regarding SE v SEL, to my mind not all the extra features on the latter are desirable, so the SE might actually suit suit better.  The lift out rear seats are probably more comfortable in the SEL as they are 25mm higher but because they are adjustable back & fore a solid rear parcel shelf is not then practical, only a roll top is provided, so more road noise gets through to the cabin, which I'd hate.  Also the larger wheels, lower profile tyres worsen the ride and increase road noise even more.  I didn't like the finish on the seats of the SEL I tried, much prefering the basic cloth of the standard SE seat, but that's a matter of choice.  However I do like the extra SEL brigtwork round the SEL side windows, the Sat Nav and I think it comes with a rear camera.

 

I reckon I did well with my odd ball specced SE Tech I got from new, but you might have difficulty finding one - fixed rear seat and solid boot cover as I now prefer - I don't often have passengers in the back so that's OK, higher profile tyres that are cheaper to replace and more comfy, but additional to the standard SE it does have a Sat Nav and I had a rear camera fitted, which I'm glad of.  The other SE Tech feature I really value is the Adaptive Cruise Control or ACC, the SEL doesn't actually come with that as standard, but I find it makes long distance motorway driving more relaxing but not in a bad way, as I seem to remain more alert using it on such long runs.

 

Likely not a consideration for you, but I'm also very pleased with the 1.0 3 cyl engine in my car, it is really quiet and not audible at all on motorways and it also  performs surprisingly well, long distance journeys are no problem whatsoever.  It has the very nice DSG auto gearbox too, I wouldn't consider a manual car these days.  I got the car a few months before Covid came along, so have only been doing around 6,000miles PA, down from the 13,000 I used to do when I was younger and travelled abroad.  I thought I was beginning to have trouble with the ACC cruise control (see my recent message), but now think that it's functioning properly.  The engine and car all round has been trouble free in the 4.5 years from new - regularly serviced.

Hi. I'm looking to buy a Karoq with 1l engine but manual. Would you say it will be ok on long journeys with a full load and 4 people in? Many thanks. Ps. 1.5 is out of my price range. 

I bought a 1.0 litre Karoq SE Drive manual mid January having traded in a 1.0 litre Octavia.  The 1.0 litre engine is fine on both round town and longer distance journeys.  Fuel consumption will be better than the 1.5 litre and insurance is cheaper too.

Recent threads are some people having problems again with the 1.5tsi, so the 1.0tsi might be a safer bet anyway.

 

Whether it will "cope" depends on your expectations. Of course it will go up and down hills with a full load. Just may take a little bit more planning to overtake going uphill with a load on board. You'll soon adapt.

Sorry as coming to this chat 'late in the day'.

Which car did you go for ?

I'm in similar current position. Looking a 5 year old Karoq 1.5 petrol with only 7,000 miles and am nervous about low use and potential impacts of short journeys on engine/ moving parts reliability?

It's been serviced by Skoda.

If you got the low milage petrol car, has it been OK?

Thanks

Edited 20 March, 20251 yr by Fred-Flintstone
Typo

Check the service history to make sure oil and filter changes were annually. Low mileage petrol is less likely to have problems than low mileage diesel. Although Skoda say different af 5 years old I’d be looking to change the cambelt as a precaution.

Thankyou Thames trader

That is welcomed and helpful advice 👍

Edited 20 March, 20251 yr by Fred-Flintstone
Typo

A further point, in my experience. cars such as the one your considering are usually a very good choice but in the first few months of ownership with regular use a few minor issues might be identified that once sorted don’t reoccur. I’d add to my previous list getting antifreeze and brake fluid replaced, the aircon might need recharging. Something else to look out for is brake discs specifically the rears. I’ve seen many posts on both Skoda and VW forums regarding rusty and pitted brake discs at less than 4 yrs or 20k miles. I suspect low usage, gentle braking and parked outside are a major factor in the cause of premature disc replacements. Having said that I’ve not had to replace discs on either my 108,000 mile 2013 VW, or our 19,000 mile 2015 Fabia which is garaged. My 2023 Karoq which replaced the VW has so far been fine. Finding a good independent garage for servicing is worthwhile.