Thinking of buying a cheap (

Can only go off the number of private-hire cars that are Octy diesels and the report I had from one mechanic at Horner's who stated they were damned good - they had several they serviced that had done over 200k.

The private-hire firm I used to work for has around 30 out of a fleet of around 100 if that is also any indication.

In general - look at what the majority of taxi drivers are running, their livelihhod depends on their cars always being on the road, cheap to maintain etc (I say majority because you always get the odd plonkers who buy totally unsuitable / unrelaible motors)

But, as always, it is how they have been looked after / serviced etc............

There was another thread yesterday concerning someone swapping from a Fab vRS to an Octy vRS

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/octavia/fabia-vrs-octy-vrs/77935/

I posted some Octy diesels there - all from Autotrader, all less than 60k and around 5k

Lower mileage = (usually) fewer potential big bills on the horizon.

Generally high milers can be a good buy.

To do the miles, they've been mostly on the motorways at a steady speed rather than stop starting round town (and thus straining the engine).

So long as it's been serviced on schedule, and by a main dealer everytime, they can be pretty reliable. Not so sure about ex-taxi's myself, but old rep cars should be ok.

I had a 2005 1.9 TDi PD estate with DSG that had done 84,000 miles as a courtesy car and I wouldn't of belived it from the way it drove. It had the usual noises you get with a new one, creaking suspension, squeeking electric windows and creaking air vents, but apart from those things it drove superbly and the DSG gearbox was good to play with !!