Hi to all, seems like a great forum

I've got £6000 to spend and am looking to get an octavia diesal estate as a family car/300 miles a week commuting workhorse. I've seen a 2004 black 130bhp laurin & klement with 98K on the clock (last serviced at 80K) and with a new cambelt for £5950 and I like the spec.

Do you think this will keep me going for 5-6 years at approx. 20k miles per year, if kept regularly serviced (what intervals should this be) ?

Alternatively for the same money I could get either 75k or 63k, 2002, Elegance, 110bhp, both with new cambelts.

I'm basically trying to weigh up whether a well kept older car (used by a doctor) with less mileage is a better buy than a newer company used car with higher mileage ?

Does it matter ? !

Reliability and economy is more important than performance for me.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated

for £6k I'd expect you'd be able to get a newer , lower mileage Elegance TDI than you've found so far.

I traded mine in 18 months ago for £5k which was an 83k mile 03 plate and it went on the forecourt for £6300.

You should be able to get an 04 plate car with 60k for your budget.

As an example look at this for £7k

You'd get this for £6.5k and that's an estate. A hatch would be at least £500 less and you'd save even more in a private sale.

2004 SKODA OCTAVIA 1.9 TDi Elegance - eBay Skoda, Cars, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 14-Oct-07 16:31:23 BST)

Great thanks for this - what are your thoughts though about getting the higher mileage car and it keeping me going for 5-6 years ? I like the spec and the metallic black ..!

Well mine at 83k was still running just fine , and plenty of people on here have had higher mileage ones.

Given the choice though , I'd probably go a lower mileage Elegance given the choice. The L&K only has Xenons and leather seats as extras and both of those I could easily live without.