bit of a gamble, but it’s an ex private hire, 08 plate octavia 1.9TDI. had cambelt, clutch and flywheel done 2014.

looking for something to pop about in, no further than the occasional trip to glentress from glasgow.

worth a punt?

how longs a bit of string.

based on the limited info you give i can say it will be no more or no less reliable than any other make of vehicle how ever based on what i see of taxis round here it probably spent a long time idling (not accuring miles) and IME VAG parts are pricy compared to other”apparently lesser” marques IME

If it’s a private hire that’s done airport runs all its life then its a good deal. But if it’s been doing runs in the city boundary then it will probably drive like a bag of shit after 200k of potholes etc.

How long are you hoping to get out of it?

I probably would.
My Ibiza with the same (or very similar depending on output) engine in it is on 271k miles and runs fine.
Looking to get rid of it now we’ve bought my Wife a wagon for carrying our littlun’ about in. I’m using her 12 plate Ibiza & just giving my one an occasional run to keep the battery topped up. It starts first time & runs fine even when left on the drive for a few weeks between starts. Seems a shame to get rid really, but the expense of a third car is silly & it’s taking up space on the drive.

I probably would.

Worst comes to the worst it can’t be worth much less than that as scrap. Certainly little enough that if it lasts a year then it’s no worse than the depreciation on a newer/lower mileage car. After that you’re in ‘profit’.

how longs a bit of string.

based on the limited info you give i can say it will be no more or no less reliable than any other make of vehicle how ever based on what i see of taxis round here it probably spent a long time idling (not accuring miles) and IME VAG parts are pricy compared to other”apparently lesser” marques IME

yeah, just spotted it on gumtree, it’s local. would look to run for a year or two, if I get more I’d be very happy.

if it was 120-150k I’d be more comfortable, but starting off at 200k, i thought I’d ask what folks experience is of these.

course a test drive will tell me lots.

“Worst comes to the worst it can’t be worth much less than that as scrap”

tried scrapping a car recently .

chinas not consuming all the scrap (to turn into cheap raw material to export) thus the arse fell out of it. You might get 50 quid if you drive it in….

either that or £300 for 6 months fun in a toyota celica….

Difficult to see a problem with that for £400. It’s already had some pretty expensive work done that you won’t have to worry about for a while, about the only problem I can see with doing short runs is the turbo clogging up and going into limp mode. Mine used to do that because I was a lazy git and drove to work, a journey that takes me twelve minutes on foot. 🙄
Stopped doing that, and it’s been fine, especially since being forced to replace the battery, which was original in a 51 plate car.
Has made an enormous difference. It only has around 130k on it, but I average about 6k/year. Great car, very comfy with loads of space. I’m almost tempted to spend £270 on a heated screen for it, owned it for eleven years, shows no signs of dying yet.

It’ll be worth that broken on eBay. Silly to say no.

My Mercs about to tip over to 200k and it feels like it’d happily do it again.

£400 … you could buy a bike for that

Do it. Run it to “Moon Miles”

See what it drives like but also prod, poke open and close everything if you got to look at it – 200k isn’t an issue in itself but minicab use puts a lot of wear on a car that might bother you – the 200k Octavia mini cab I got a ride home in last week felt a lot, lot older than my 200k astra (or my 330k sprinter) – its not the driving, its everything else – the doors have been opened and closed more, seats got in and out of more and so on and so on. So on the octavia the doors had dropped and wouldn’t slam properly, seats were borked the whole thing creaked and rattled horribly. It felt like a very, very old car even though it was a comparative youngster compared to my 12 year old astra..