Morning Folks!

I’m currently looking at getting a used Octavia for my commute to work over the winter months, it’ll be 50 miles each day and it’s a 4 on 4 off rotation so around 800 miles a month.

My budget is around £5k tops, which includes tax and insurance.

I’ve narrowed my choices down to a few, with the following spec;

2013 1.6 TDI elegance DSG estate @ 106k miles

2015 2.0 TDI VRS manual estate @ 165k miles

I appreciate this is quite the variety, with almost all of them being pre facelift. A lot of posts I’ve been able to see are from a few years back, and so maybe don’t provide the most accurate picture in 2025.

Any advice or guidance will be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Edited 21 October, 202521 Oct by Beville
Wrong gen

My personal view would be to go for a manual gearbox - lots of potentail problems with poorly mainatined DSG boxes.....

If diesel check for proper maintenance of the DPF and associated components. Try and get a good quality scan done for stored faults before you commit. I speak from personal experience....

There is no Maintenance / Service Regime for a DQ200 7 speed dry clutch DSG.

But a 2013-2015 should maybe have had Service Campaign '34H5 done since 2017.

Maybe best avoid, then there is the 1.6 TDI CR having the FIX done or not, Water Pump & Timing belt,

and not great reliability.

You want good servicing just the same with a 2.0TDI and water pump and cambelt done.