The wife has finally managed to convince me to get rid of the tank 4×4 and buy something a little less sh1t more in keeping with our social status. Naturally my thoughts turned to the Octavia as it has a big boot for the dogs, nice seats, VW reliability (although that has taken a bit of a knock after my wife’s Golf fiasco recently), and cheapness.

I’ve seen an ’06 petrol vRS with 90k on the clock on autotrader for 8k and I rally need to know from the Octavia experts here whether it’s worth it, what to look out for, and how much I should try and convince them to take off during negotiations… It’s apparently got a full service history and has had a single [company] owner for it’s life, although it is due a service now apparently.

So what bits should I be looking at when I go see it? Anything I should especially look out for? Oh yes, and given that I only do about 10k a year, should I bother looking at the diesel versions of the vRS, or just go with the cheaper fuel option.

Cheers!

Firstly the price seems high as I recently bought a petrol 56 plate vRS with 20k for 9K and that was from a Skoda main dealer with a years warranty. I went for petrol as I prefer the flexibilty and wider rev range of the engine and I only do about 10k a year so the cost saving on a diesel wouldn’t be significant. The petrol version is a bit quicker aswell. It’s worth bearing in mind that the petrol vRS should be run on Super Unleaded. If your looking at 4 year old examples, the service interval for the cambelt and tensioners is 4 years/60k miles (which ever comes sooner). I got the garage to do this as part of the deal as its a circa £400 job.

The only horror stories I’ve heard are with the ESP and ABS which requires a new ECU at around £1500, so a warranty is probably a wise move. I’ve been very impressed with how it drives and the engine pulls strongly from idle and you can easily shift at around 2500 rpm if you are just keeping pace with the traffic. The best MPG I’ve seen is 37 on a motorway run sticking to 70, for general driving expect around 32 or significantly less if you like to boot it everywhere. When I was looking I noticed some of the earlier cars are fairly low spec and for me the following options were essential: 18″ wheels (look far nicer IMO), climate control (there are no heating vents in rear with the cars with aircon only), rear parking sensors, rear electric windows and cruise control.

“more in keeping with our social status”

eh? What does this mean?

I think it may be a bit tongue in cheek…

Petrol or diesel depends on what you want – with your low mileage, I’d err toward the petrol – pretty rapid. Diesel has nice mid range shove but like all four cylinder soot chuckers, it sounds horrible.

ah! I see.

That is absolutely stupid money I was able to buy the 06 petrol one below for £6700 in April 09 and that had 50k on the clock. A decent price for that one you are looking at would be around £5800 – £6000. As said unless you are doing more than 15k miles a year petrol makes more sense. It was a brilliant car but ate three dmf’s while I had it and the abs block went 3 weeks after I sold it.

Tounge in cheek indeed! Basically, the wife thinks I’m getting a little too old and responsible for driving around in a rusting, slow 4×4 that small children laugh at (but with which I am quite happy with thank you), and in some ways I can see her point.

The convincing came at the weekend when she slipped on the decking and broke her wrist. We had to take her car to A&E, even though it was full of stuff for the wedding we were about to leave for, and if we had been forced to take my car, it would have taken twice as long and would have jolted the crap out of her the whole way there, assuming it would have got above 60 without the ECU warning light going on.

The Octavia is a car that ticks all the boxes for me (fast, comfy, a little bit more luxury) and for her (does not look or smell like a skip on wheels, is not rusty) and will allow us to take dogs and luggage on holiday when needed, without the boys getting claustrophobic.

So you reckon this is a bit pricey? Hmmm. Time to do a bit more looking then. maybe it’s just the area that’s the problem. Not enough cars.

Diesel + a remap. I’ve got the Laurin Klement, because at the time I bought it I couldn’t find a VRS with all the extras (heated leather parking sensors etc). An ’05 plate It cost me £8K with 26K miles on it 2 years ago. Its 140 remaped to 180 and so its now more powerful than a standard VRS diesel, and probably faster than a petrol in the mid range. The VRS would get to 210.

I had some problems with it that were fixed in warranty, a air con sensor went and that took ages for the garage to diagnose and the cruise control broke.

In terms of fuel choice I thought that I’d get back the premium of the diesel in 3 years at 10K miles a year and planned to own a lot longer so it made sence to me to go for the diesel

I’m curious to know what your 4×4 is?

I like the sound of it….

£8k sounds ridiclous money for a car in that condition! With that kind of milage, you shouldn’t be paying any more than £6k… There’s cars out there for under £6k with less miles than that even!

The Petrol Vs Diesel debate… Well…

The petrol you will average around 30mpg as long as you’re not caning it everywhere. The diesel around 45mpg. So at current fuel prices, that’s about 12pence per mile fuel in the diesel, and about 18pence per mile roughly in the petrol. Based on your annual milage estimation of 10,000 you’re looking at the Petrol costing an additional £600 per year in fuel over the diesel…

Both are good engines, the petrol perhaps slightly nicer to drive, but the diesel is very very strong, and very good for an oil burner. Pure performance terms, the diesel is a tiny bit slower, not much, but the diesel will have more mid range shove than the petrol (though again not by much as the petrol is turbocharged too).

It’s hard to recommend either the petrol or the diesel outright to you based on your situation… How long are you going to keep the car? It’s really a case of how much more is the diesel than the petrol, Vs the length of time you’re going to keep it… Diesels of the same vintage and condition can often fetch £1500-2000 more, and if this is the case, and you will keep it for 3 years or less, the the petrol will cost you less in the long run. If you’re gonna keep it for a long time, and/or it’s only £1k or less price premium, the diesel will save you money in the long run.

For the record, if it was me buying it I’ve have no choice but to go for the diesel, but then I do 25k+ miles per year (a mix of work and leisure), so a petrol would cost me about £1500 per year extra, just in fuel!!!

Incidentally, both can be “remapped” with good results. The diesel goes to about 200bhp and the petrol to about 260bhp straight off, both with improved economy. They’re serious Q cars (hence why popular with the cops), and a well driven Octavia vRS will be a hard car to keep up with.

Oh, and as for the Octavia itself… Great cars… Definitely get one over the competition!

This link might not work but there’s one for £6795 (06 reg) with 32k on the clock on Autotrader. A THIRD the mileage and much less money…!
Blue vRS

Zedsded.

Trust me, you would not want it… W reg Vx Frontera with 215k on the clock. It’s not the 3.2 litre V6 either, just the 2.2 Dti, which may be why it gets about 35 mpg rather than 25.

mboy.

I tend to keep cars until they die (like my old Rover 620SLDi and the Polo Coupe, RIP both of you) and have had the Frontera for something like three, maybe four years now. I just have this horrible feeling that next month’s MoT will be painful for both me and it.

My original plan was to go for the diesel, but I’ve only done about 20k miles in the time I have had the Frontera, so it barely seems worth it even though it would be my first choice. Add to that that petrol is cheaper than heavy oil and I wondered just how much cheaper heavy oil would be when servicing (something that I try to do to the more modern cars I have owned) is taken into account.

**edited to thank Surf Mat for the link. Nice car, but I really want an estate.

If you keep cars until they die, then get the Diesel, it will save you money in the long run. If you’re gonna keep it 2 years or less, then the petrol is likely to be a cheaper proposal. It’s around the 2-3 years kind of area that it’s a grey prospect, and you really need to weigh it up.

As far as the petrol is cheaper than diesel argument goes, it’s like 2-3p per litre cheaper… Hardly massive! You might be able to fill an Octavia up for about £2 less per fill up on petrol than diesel, but the petrol will go for about 400 miles on a tank and the diesel 600! Hardly worth the 3p a litre saving is it…

Oh, and as far as finding an estate is concerned, good luck, they are out there but much easier to find a good hatchback than an estate… Should say though that as far as hatchbacks go, the Octavia is bloody massive!

If you do relatively short journeys then get the petrol. Diesels take ages to warm up and if it has a Diesel Particulate filter (DPF) you will have problems with the regeneration and it clogging and going into limp mode. I got a 58 petrol for that reason as I do 4 miles to work and back everyday. I came from a 150bhp diesel Cupra and enjoy the ability to rev the car, diesels are great on the motorway but get off them and the petrol is better for overtaking as you don’t run out of gears halfway through.

Bear in mind as well about the aforementioned Teves ESP/ABS issue. It is a serious problem that could cost a lot of money to fix as Skoda don’t seem to acknowledge the problem. Honest John recommends chopping this off the asking price as whilst it’s not a dead cert it’s not a one in a million chance either.

Estates do fetch a premium for most models.

Last and current car were estates and both were harder to find and for a bit more money.

Not had any issues with my diesels (current and last one) taking ages to warm up or any DPF issues. Unless that’s just a VAG group engine issue?

Don’t forget that some prefer the delivery of a diesel – it makes for easier, lazier driving and that extra torque is very handy for overtaking.

0-60, 0-100 times are almost always worse for diesels but in gear times like 50-70 are always pretty good.

Diesel for better real world drivability, if you like seeing 50mpg and not filling up the tank as often as a consequence.

550+ miles for me between fill ups.

I like my diesel VRs . not massively quick but entertaininly quick IMO.

My Vrs Estate petrol has run on Standard unleaded since new and its now covered 117K miles, does not need Super unless remapped and even then the knock sensor will just retard the ignition and you will lose a little power.

Bazzer

Still interested….

Hi Willard. If there are no cars in your area. Go to the local Skoda test drive one and decide if you like it. Then be prepared to travel. Catching a train/plane and a day of your time sounds like you could save ‘000s or get a much lower mileage car. It would probably be the most you have ever saved for a day’s effort in years. I did with my last car.

BTW I was waiting to see who would point out to posters that dogs don’t really like it in car boots 🙂 Obviously not reading your OP

As above £8k is waaay too much for that car.
I bought my 55 plate petrol estate for £7k with 90k on the clock, but that was in Oct 08 – so only a 2.5 year at that point (was a bit of a bargain really).

Only serious bit of bother I have had with it is injectors failing on cylinders 2 and 4, causing an intermittent misfire. Ended up just getting all of them done – bout £600 in total I think.

Other than that, an airbag fault due to dodgy connector under the passenger’s seat – common fault fixed with a bit of electrical contact cleaner.

Other than that – great car. Swallows loads of stuff, and quick enough for me. Good looking in an understated way.

Also you don’t need to use super unleaded.

2nd hand prices on the VRSs are sky hi. I have a 57 TDI. Make sure that you check for –

delaminating windscreens (mainly cosmetic but have seen some that have been really bad),
uneven wear on tyres particulary on the back,
DPF software update should have been done recharging and limp mode not an issue
water in the spare wheel well (its either a dodgy door seal or the washer pipe has popped off, if its the later check for corrosion on the lock)

Check out what kind of servicing it has been on an what oil has been used.

Check out Briskoda.net for all things Skoda.

Cheers for all the comments guys. I’m off to browse another forum for a bit to see what they say, but I’m going to make sure all the bits of info in here come with me if/when I find something I like.

Zedsded… Just for you, have a look at what I have put the car through in it’s life.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jameseyb/319469616/in/set-1380267/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jameseyb/3667967811/in/set-72157594367982617/

hehe!

It’s just what I’m looking for. When you getting rid?

get a diesel, get it remapped!

It’ll go when I get a replacement! Soon though if my wife’s talk is to be believed.

Whereabouts in the country are you? I’m Cambridge way.

Beware remaps – yes they release more power but very few see real gains in mpg and cars are made to fine tolerences. You often end up with a very torque steery tyre shredder that eats gearboxes.

A few mates have had their 335ds done to 350bhp/510lbs-ft for about £500. Yes they are very quick, yes one was eating tyres in less than 4k miles, yes that’s a LOT of strain on the drivetrain, yes it does void any warranty.

Just be careful. No plans to get my soot chucker done. Nearly 300bhp is plenty… 😉

I’m just outside Glasgow but my work takes me all over. In London fairly regular.

Diesel doesn’t seem to take long to warm up for me. If I leave work it’s warm 3 miles later. Short trips would have to be VERY short for that to be an issue I think.

Diesels do need open road though from time to time, more so than petrols. But I doubt that’ll be a problem for someone who’s buying a vRS. Usually only a granny/grandad issue.

Based on your annual milage estimation of 10,000 you’re looking at the Petrol costing an additional £600 per year in fuel over the diesel

Ahh, but it’s not just the fuel cost, is it?

We’ve just bought a 2007 Octavia Scout TDI 4×4 from a main dealer for 9.5K (picked it up earlier), and believe me they are more difficult to get hold of than rocking horse poo, so I’d say your VRS is overpriced as although they are in demand there are loads more of them about.

One thing to check for is the alloys – the lacquer is prone to delaminating. That was the case with the car we bought, but we split the cost of the refurb with the dealer and they look good as new now.

Like others above I was referred by folk on here to briskoda.net and can’t fault it for advice.

I think servicing costs are about the same PP.

Servicing costs and intervals should be about the same for either petrol or diesel. It was only really true that diesels cost more to service on older diesels, when they typically had 6000 mile service intervals at the time when most petrols already had 10000 mile intervals.

In fact, diesel stands the chance of being cheaper, no spark plugs to replace (and the glow plugs last a lot longer) after all!

Except that the injectors need replacing, which is expensive. Although that could be 100k miles.

But yes, no plugs, no HT leads etc.

I’ve currently got a 57 plate diesel as a work lease car, been great, goes like the clappers etc etc and mechanically great after 50k. Servicing has been around 17k intervals, only had the DPF ‘clog’ once, when on hols this summer in Cornwall but 15 mins revving it high sorted it. It’s not been bad on tyres either 20k for the first set of fronts then those and the second went due to pothole damage on the sidewall, still on the original rears. My commute to the office is less than 6 miles and usually get around 36mpg and 44 ish on motorway runs. Towed a trailer for hols regularly. Would definitely recommend it. Found it a little short in the back for the kid re leg room though and boot is narrow compared to Passats etc.

sorry car way overpriced, must have added the price of all the extras to the car im assuming, skoda have recently done a vat free offer this made a new vrs just below 17k, there were 2nd hand cars on the forecourt at higher prices ,4 months ago i got a new vrs cr tdi estate(after a six month wait offer was so succesfull) and it is fantastic, everyone who drives it is stunned with it.i would look over on briskoda and check out the owners comments and possibly find one for sale

I think servicing costs are about the same PP.

Hmm. Not just servicing either though, is it?

And the diesel WILL cost more to service, even if it’s not much

Diesel car will wear tyres faster (weight, torque)

And I’ll wager there’s a difference in the insurance.

And if it DOES break down, you’ll be facing financial ruin for a diesel!

And the biggie? Purchase price. You’ll pay more to buy a diesel, and it will then loose more in deppreciation.

Just Google it. There’s loads of info out there. I worked it out when we bought our current car. Compared to the DTi Vectra we had before it, there was no measureable difference at the time for 10-12k a year. Yes, since then the difference in petrol/diesel prices has narrowed, so doing the same sums would show a slight saving for diesel now, but notheing to worry about.

The advantages of diesel cars are greatly exaggerated!

(And at the end of the day, when you start it up in the morning, it’s still a sodding diesel it still has an all-or-nothing powerband, it still rattles like a skeleton having a wnak in a biscuit tin, and it still handles like it’s got a cow strapped to the bonnet because of the extra weight….. Which has gotta be worth a few quid to avoid……..)

Hmm. Not just servicing either though, is it?

And the diesel WILL cost more to service, even if it’s not much PROOF PLEASE My local dealer charges the same for petrol or diesel cars

Diesel car will wear tyres faster (weight, torque) DIESELS WEIGH about 30kg more than their petrol equivalents. As for the torque, that makes them go faster. My 150bhp diesel Astra got 20k from it’s front tyres with a lot of torque. My Golf with half the torque ate tyres every 12k miles with less weight

And I’ll wager there’s a difference in the insurance. Yes it’s cheaper – by a lot. My 150bhp Astra was group 11. My 150bhp Golf GTi was group 15. My 335d is grp 18, a 335i is grp 20

And if it DOES break down, you’ll be facing financial ruin for a diesel! Oh and are petrols free if they break down? No they are not. A lot of diesels are much more robust that their petrol equivalents

And the biggie? Purchase price. You’ll pay more to buy a diesel, and it will then loose more in deppreciation. You usually pay a bit more BECAUSE THEY ARE IN MUCH HIGHER DEMAND. Resale value therefore is higher. You also can’t spell “lose” or “depreciation.”

Just Google it. There’s loads of info out there. I worked it out when we bought our current car. Compared to the DTi Vectra we had before it, there was no measureable difference at the time for 10-12k a year. Yes, since then the difference in petrol/diesel prices has narrowed, so doing the same sums would show a slight saving for diesel now, but notheing to worry about.

The advantages of diesel cars are greatly exaggerated!

(And at the end of the day, when you start it up in the morning, it’s still a sodding diesel it still has an all-or-nothing powerband, it still rattles like a skeleton having a wnak in a biscuit tin, and it still handles like it’s got a cow strapped to the bonnet because of the extra weight….. Which has gotta be worth a few quid to avoid……..) Total and utter bo77ocks. Compare like for like and you’ll find you are talking utter cack. Yes four pots sound bad but 6 pots often sound great. Extra weight? See above. Oh yes and the easiest direct equivalent – 335d vs 335i – the 335d lapped quicker than a manual 335i around Bruntingthorpe when tested by Performance Car mag. The 335d is extremely reliable, the 335i blows it’s HPFP very regularly. DOH

Oh dear, someone really is talking a lot of moo cows dung aren’t they?

i don’t know is this is true or effects the VRs, but i have no reason to doubt, was chatting to the local skoda dealer about trading my octavia in and how much i would get. They told me the VAG have screwed up and the lead-time is currently 5months on a new car.

it’s still a sodding diesel it still has an all-or-nothing powerband

If you don’t know how to drive it.