It’s up there with, easy fix or just needs a re-gas.

Done a lot of miles… should that be a worry? How well do diesels last?

Well, I bought my Octavia fifteen years ago with 82k on the clock. For much of that time it did an average of about 5k/year, but for the last three years it’s been doing about 10k, 155 miles/week for work. It’s showing nearly 156k now, and I’ll be getting rid of it soon, just because it’ll need money spent on the ABS/TRC system to go through the MOT in October, and the car is worth nothing after someone hit the front wing, it was valued at £900 about a year ago, and I kept the car and accepted £680 from the insurance.
It’s never been serviced. Still pulls like a train. 1.9 TDi, 110bhp. Diesels are very simple, they’re compression/ignition engines, burn oil, so lube issues are less of an issue.
Its replacement is a 1.0 petrol that delivers 125bhp – less than a year old with just over 3k on the clock, it will get a regular service! Smaller, lighter car, about 50/mile consumption, apparently, but I’ve had 60/per from the Octy on long runs.

It’s never been serviced

No oil or filter changes in 70k+ miles, that’s impressive, and I thought I was pushing it only changing oil every 30k.

Well, I bought my Octavia fifteen years ago

So old diesel technology.

Don’t confuse This with modern diesel technology

And be prepared to be disappointed with having to actually take care of your new car.

My Passat is 9 years old and on 102k miles now. I’d like to get another 50k out of it. I do get it serviced in line with every time it beeps at me as I cant stand the warning beeps and lights on the dash. Dives me mad, i know I’m a sucker for the recommended service interval but i cant take the beep every time you turn it on outside of the service intervals. Its like the car calling me out as a cheap ass.

Volvo V70 here, 2004 year 190k miles, 2.4non turbo petrol.
I do the oil every 5k miles, major service every 10k. Genuine Volvo parts or OEM (Lemforder/Mahle etc). Wants for nothing.

Coming up for a £2.5k ish midlife makeover in a few weeks – new steering rack, 2nd set of wishbones & other front end bits plus a bit of body shop stuff and a leather repair job on the driver’s seat.

Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s not worth spending on.

Annual trip to Perpignan

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Got Avensis estate this morning. Just been through the papers and adding together what he paid a year ago plus a couple of repairs, I paid half that. Self-employed and keen to get some readies, I gave him the asking. Everyone happy but there are certainly bargains to be had.

That Saab is cool… But aren’t they in the £500+ VED bracket? Not sure I could handle paying a third of a car’s cost just to tax it for the year. Does mean there’s some bargains out there in that bracket though.

Avensis is definitely in the bargain bucket uncool category, would be top of my list for what you want.

Dunno how far back “old tech” goes, pre DPF? Neither of my PSA 2.0s (both 2009) have ever had a DPF issue barring when the rubber diff sensor plumbing burnt out in the Mondeo, cost all of fifteen quid for some silicone hose and fine since. As noted above though we do the miles, distance and clear runs to keep them happy. EGRs have been mostly fine (unlike my old Civic which used to gum up the turbo vanes with soot because it was over sized for the engine), the C8 needed a new one when I got it which was £80 and a couple of awkward hours thanks to the bodywork rather than anything else. The old one has been kept and I’ll clean it up and fling it back on if I need to replace it again as it’s just soot buildup that causes it to stick if you catch it early enough (otherwise you’ll probably burn out the valve seat).

Finally no DPF doesn’t necessarily translate to no expense, Citroen/Peugeot loved Eolys additive for a while which came with a lot of software and hardware issues meaning eventual resets and refills which either need proprietary hardware or extremely toxic chemicals, both of which are expensive in themselves.

As a marker, FSH, some MOT, 240 tax, 42mpg, 2007, no rust, 72k, £1850. At least the aircon is very cool.

We have an avensis for work and it’s the most boringly competent tool I think I’ve ever used for anything. Not as big inside as it probably should be considering its bulk but otherwise it’s really pretty great, as long as you never want it to do anything interesting.