It’s a pretty high mileage but could easily have a load of life left. It depends how old it is, what’s been fixed/replaced and probably most importantly how much he wants for it.

My 2.0 diesel Audi A3 was about that mileage and still almost perfect. My wife’s Ford Grand C-Max 1.6d was falling apart at that point. I think the difference was that the Ford was heavier and driven on lots of short runs whereas my car did most of its miles on a 55 mile each way commute. Driving 110 miles a day cured me of rushing, smooth driving and an auto box helped.

Depends a bit on price. I dont think I’d want to spend more than 5k on something with that kind of miles, it might go on a lot longer but might also have a really expensive failure around the corner. That kind of use is beyond the design life of pretty much every component so anything might go

It’s a lot if the car is only 2 years old but isn’t if it’s 12 years old….😉

Have a look at this. Obviously the Audi you’re looking at isn’t up to that mileage yet.

We have a 10 year old Octavia 2 ltr Diesel with 148,000 miles on it. Other than normal servicing, brakes and tyres it’s had two new front shocks and a clutch and DMF as it started making odd noises about 20,000 miles ago. Oh also had water pump and cambelt done at 70,000 when we bought it as the water pump failed. Common issue and that was covered by the dealer who we bought it from.

We plan to keep it until we get a bill that’s worth more than the car itself. Oh and I also do my own servicing now as the cost from the local VAG indie was getting a bit silly for simple stuff like brakes, oil and filter changes.

I sold my Octavia (same engine) to a fellow STWer..it had 125000 miles in it, and I would confidently have said it’ll do another 75k with regular oil changes etc…

The car itself was feeling it, but only a wee bit as it was looked after, but the engine would do it no issues…

DrP

Am running long term;

Volvo V70 207k miles
Cayenne 167k miles
Berlingo 113k miles
^ all 18 – 20years old

In bits having a refresh;
Volvo Xc90 215k miles

Looking after for my sister in law;
Toyota IQ 180k miles

The OP’s mileage is nothing for the engine. The problem areas nowadays is with the stuff bolted to diesels to keep them clean, dual mass flywheels, and not very well protected subframes that rot.
It also depends on how it’s got to 148k miles?
Is it 15year old that’s dropped the kids at school everyday, or a 3 year old repmobile that’s been sat on a motorway for most of those miles?

I have a Golf with that engine on 284K, the car is beginning to get rattles but other than that it’s fine. One driver from new, frequently serviced.

My rattle was when it was at idle. The mileage was something around 120k. The clutch was fine but whilst they had it open I figured I may as well just pay for the cost of a new clutch to future proof it, as labour wasn’t any extra.

Basically as others have said.

My Octavia VRS TDI is 13 years old and on 150K. The important thing is the service history and condition. Mine still drives nice and I’ll keep it for as long as is economically viable.

I did have a big bill (nearly £2K) for when the HP fuel pump let go. This can happen without warning on a 2.0TDI VAG engine at any mileage unfortunately but I don’t think it’s all that common. It’ll likely need a DMF at some point as it is a bit lumpy and rattly on idle on cold start. I’ll get a quote and go from there.

I have a 22 year old Nissan Primera on 150k – been a great car, loathed to get rid, but the day it is no longer reliable then it may be time to go. It’s the bike hauler.  All depends upon how well the car has been looked after. There is nothing to say a five year old car may fail next day, or a ten year old one.  A trusted/known person may be better than a randomly ‘patched up’ car on line.

It depends on you aswell, not just the car. Are you:

A) gonna do all the maintenance yourself, got a garage or drive and you’ll think nothing of chaing bits and bobs and you’ll be checking the car over and doing preventative maintenance, sending it to mots knowing the car is good and treating a new warning light as a chance to play with your diagnostic machine

B) just want to out fuel in it, and if something doesnt work your stuck and an afternoon and £100 down before you even know what the fault is never mind what your gonna get reamed for as a distress purchase.

That makes a huge difference as to whether a miley old estate car is a sound sensible choice or not.

GF has the same engine in an A3. 160k ish. Still running strong despite abuse. Needs a new glow plug currently

I had it in my A1. 130k engine still good, clutch went.

Suspension, AC top up, all sort of ancillary things are either about to go or have been fixed already. If it’s owned by a fastidious car nut hopefully the latter.

at 10 years old the satnav is getting a bit crap. 2-300 for a CarPlay retrofit would be well worth it in my mind. (Pull it out and resell if you scrap the car)

milage on the engine is fine.

on the rest of the car thats a different issue. Audis are full of bushes. Ive just replaced my upper and lower arms (on a 65k A4) and it cost a grand. its a very expensive car to maintain. Nice though

Out Skoda 2.0 diesel is bang on 148k

turbo went at 60k, clutch replaced at 90k, timing belt replaced at 110k. So apart from wear and tear and suspension components I’m hoping to avoid any big ticket spend for at least another 50k

I took a 2009 Honda Civic to about 225,000 miles and we only got rid when it became apparent that it needed another DMF, although a big factor was also that most of the laquer and some of the paint was coming off the bonnet apparently its a 3 colour red or something that was particularly expensive to spray.

Anyway, I think at those sort of mileages, clutches and flywheels/engine issues are no more likely than that a much lower mileage car, so much depends on the previous driving style (and I mean holding it on the bite point/lots of short journeys vs giving being heavy with the right foot every now and then!) and the fact that it may well be on its 3rd clutch and a flywheel or two when its at 150-200k.

More likely is just general maintenance, most notably bushings/shocks etc, I had worked through a lot of stuff on the Honda but more as preventative maintenance and to sharpen it up rather than as it was falling apart or failing MOTs.

And on that note, of course, first thing you should be doing nowadays is checking the MOT history online, recently been car shopping and I’ve seen some shocking examples where the advisory list just gets longer every year and it fails every year at which point only the major faults are fixed.  When I see that I assume that its not seen an oil change for yonks let alone a basic service.  Also steered away from a few cars that had previous fails/advisories for serious corrosion at structural suspension points and in one case around seat belt anchor points.  Welding before each MOT is one area that I feel is a losing battle!