I am thinking about going to take a look at a Superb 2.0 TSI 280PS (4x4) SE L Executive with 42,000 miles. It's a 2016 car.

The car looks like it's in excellent condition, but I have a feeling the Haldex and DSG service probably hasn't been done recently.

They want nearly £14k for it. What sort of money would I be looking to get knocked off that price, especially if the Haldex and DSG will need servicing, and what else should I be looking out for?

I did a check on the servicestamp website, and it said No Manufacturer Service Records Found which seems to be a red flag to me? It has the full MOT history though which all passed with only 1 minor advisory.

Definite red flag on no history. Bit odd that there’s absolutely no history but is that place from Skoda HQ? If not, approach them.

Gearbox should be serviced at 40k miles so it’s due if it hasn’t been done. Haldex is every 2 years now but it use to be 3 so it should have had 3 services. However the exceptionally limited mileage (if genuine but assume you’ve checked that on the MOT history) should have mitigated running on poor servicing to some extent.

My gut feel is they’re pricing it on mileage. If you ask too many questions on servicing etc they won’t bother wasting their time as they know they’ll get that a lot (if not already) and they’ll flip it to auction to be sold as seen.

DSG service you’re looking at a few hundred. Each Haldex is about 150 so if nothing’s been done you want to factor in at least 600 for those. If it were me, it’d be an oil change straight away, and possibly brake fluid, air con, plugs. You’re looking at best part of £1k just for peace of mind. Then you want to be looking at the state of the brakes, cabin filter (easy miss if minimum maintenance has been carried out) and look at the air filter too; again that will give you an idea of whether it’s not been touched in a while.

Low mileage can be great but it can also mean very short trips, not running the car up to temp often, and prolonged periods of sitting around. So it basically comes down to how the owner cared for it. It’s worth a look, but keep your eyes open, radar switched on and ignore pretty much everything the salesman tells you.

Edited 24 March24 Mar by travs
Reworded a little

Someone else snapped it up, unfortunately 🥲

Meh - then it wasn't meant to be. Could have been a dog, could have been a gem. Either way, tomorrow's another day.

I don’t think you missed out. The fact you’re posting on here about your hesitation says it all!

As above, that car has covered around 4,000 miles a year. That’s not great, as it points to frequent short trips - all of which put strain on mechanical components.

If you get the feeling the car hasn’t had DSG or Haldex work done recently, it’s only another reason to avoid.

Plenty more fish in the sea!