Looking at 2020 Skoda superb 2litre tdi dsg auto and it’s done 86000miles – something is telling me that is too high a mileage to not be concerned about possible issues.  Am I right or wrong?

It’s too complex of an issue to say yes or no. Some wear is caused by age, some by mileage, some by both.  High motorway miles are easy, high town miles are not.  I once went in an 11 month old airport taxi with 140k miles on it, it was indistinguishable from a new car and had not needed any work besides servicing.

If the price is right, go for it. For the same price I would personally rather have a newer high milage car than an older lower mileage one.  But that may depend on how many miles you plan to do in it yourself.  Stuff like interior wear, UV degradation of plastics and rubber components etc should make the car feel newer.

I just bought a 2020 with 73k miles on it (although electric) and it feels pretty much brand new inside.  Maybe the shocks are a little less supple than the 20k one we had 6 months ago, but it’s hard to tell.

Roughly 24500 miles a year.. which doesn’t sound outrageous. 2000 miles a month. Which probably isn’t driving to the paper shop every morning

What’s the price?

I bought a 2013 VW Caddy in Highline trim back in late 2015 with 116,000 miles from a main dealer as it was used to deliver parts around their northern dealerships, full service history and I got it quite cheap (relatively) £6600, got it remapped and drove it till 2018 when I gave it to my brother and it’s still going strong at 172,000, still looks and drives perfectly.

I wouldn’t worry bout mileage, but get it checked out for possible dpf/egr issues by a VW specialist

The standard Skoda warranty is 3 years and 60k. That’s what they’re confident to support or feel is the minimum they can get away with offering.

It’s in Ireland so it’s way more expensive than uk

https://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/skoda/superb/fpa/3650595?SOURCE_ID=SOURCE_ID_AD_IN_VEHICLE_COMPARE

i do around 13-15000 miles a year

I regularly used to take cars over 100,000 miles in three years. Most were kept to about 120,000 miles, one to about 145,000.

Current Fiesta has taken 18 years to get to 120,000.

All have been regularly serviced and there has been no apparent drop in reliability and very few big bills. I would buy a 3 year old 85,000 mile car and be pretty confident that it would last until 130,000-150,000 so that 45,000+ miles

It’s in Ireland so it’s way more expensive than uk

Jeeziz, you’re not wrong!

But the milage wouldn’t worry me.

86000 is prime clutch territory for a manual, my SMax managed 92000 before the swap and cost £1200 to do.  Isn’t DSG a pair of clutches operated automatigically in some way? I would have a google and see what their typical lifespan is, and how big the bill is once you get there.

Jeeziz, you’re not wrong!

But the milage wouldn’t worry me.

aye we can thank VRT/VAT/Customs Duty for that.

The taxi driver we used to use had a diesel mondeo on c500k miles, mainly motorway work and driven at legal limits,  I m sure he said his last car went to 600k or so.

How much cheaper is it than something with 40/50k on the clock?

I’ve bought high mileage cars but the price has reflected that.

The mileage wouldn’t put me off too much but I would be thinking about bills I could be hit with in next few years of owning such as clutch, is it a timing belt engine that will need doing or chain that won’t, are tyres good or will you need 4 new ones soon etc. I just got rid of my 3 year old car as a new one with none of these costs over the next 3 years made better sense to me. That said a few years ago I bought my dad’s 4 year old company car, high motorway milage passat that never missed a beat for the 3 or 4 years (and about 130,000 miles in total) I had it after him. It’s a shame the high VRT costs don’t make it worth importing any more, I did it 4 times and used to save a fair bit but not really much of a saving anymore.

oh, and I would never drive a D plate in Cork 😉

I bought an A6 2.7TDi 6-speed manual at 3 years old with 100k on the clock. Didn’t cost me anything beyond servicing and tyres until the common rail split at 203k 6 years later. Even that was only about £800 to fix.

[the-muffin-man]

the-muffin-man

Full Member

How much cheaper is it than something with 40/50k on the clock?

I’ve bought high mileage cars but the price has reflected that.

about €4-6000 https://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/skoda/superb/fpa/3542110?journey=Search

andy I’ve imported 4 times and it worked out really well  the vat and customs is a killer

How much cheaper is it than something with 40/50k on the clock?

I’ve bought high mileage cars but the price has reflected that.

about €4-6000 https://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/skoda/superb/fpa/3542110?journey=Search

I used to put 30-odd thousand miles per year on cars.  When they were changed at 90-100,000 they were in excellent condition.  Over the years, I had Fords, Peugeots, Nissans, BMW, Rover etc.  Last two were a Freelander 2 which did 135,000 without missing a beat except an electrical fault caused by the towing hitch and a Nissan Navara with similar mileage and one split turbo pipe.  Both of those were autos.  The Nissan was on the original rear brake shoes, too!  Never had VW Group products though …..

86000 is prime clutch territory for a manual, my SMax managed 92000 before the swap

You must be terribly hard on clutches. Current van is 125,000 and it’s showing no signs of wear. Lad at work had a clutch and DMF done on a golf at well over 200k, and I’m pretty sure that was it’s first. 86,000 should be no problem unless it’s been a stop/start delivery car.

Do you have an MOT checker website in Ireland? Would be interesting to see the mileage splits

My 215k mile XC90, as well as my 206k mile V70 and my 167k mile Cayenne all say “hold my beer”.
Other crappy stolen from Pinkbike sayings are available.

86000 is prime clutch territory for a manual, my SMax managed 92000 before the swap and cost £1200 to do.

My Smax is on 125k and clutch feels as rough as it did when I bought it at 70k.

Got our 2013 2.0 tid (150 ps) Octavia at around three years old with a bit under 70k on it. It’s not far off 175k now and still seems to be fairly happy. Only things it’s needed other than service and tyres in that time are a timing belt (got the water pump done at the same time, just in case), clutch master cylinder (put a new clutch plate in at the same time) and one damper unit. Would happily pick up a superb on similar mileage, like the one you’ve found, if this one died.

86000 is prime clutch territory for a manual,

all depends on how its driven. 10 miles round town probably does as many gear changes as 1000 miles on the motorway, and more importantly (from a wear pespective) 1 mile around a city is probably as many start-from-stationary-with-clutch-slips as 1000 miles on the motorway. You can’t tell from the milage which of these a car has done. I had a mondeo do 190,000 miles on its first clutch, and a zafira that needed on after 70,000 miles. Guess which one had been an uber in London

Bought my caravelle 2.0tdi at 3 years old and 160k – comprehensive service history showed one month it was serviced twice!
almost 10 years on I’ve put the same again on it and it’s never missed a beat.
in my case the previous (corporate) owner was a cruise company who had a fleet of them to ferry holidaymakers from their homes to Southampton so i was confident the miles were sedate motorway miles

20,000 motorway miles in a year is nothing for a diesel car. I was doing that in my Passat with no issues other than the usual wear and tear items like brake pads, discs and tyres. This is in Scotland, who love the salt and grit in the winter.

I bought my 2006 bmw in 2009 with 83k on the clock. It’s just gone through 200k.
The clutch still had life in at 180something, but the dmf had karked itself so I had it changed while they were in there.
At 100k I’d be budgeting for dampers and bushes though, to keep the handling nice and tight.

I was going to say 2-3 miles, but I’ve drunk a bottle or so of wine and thought it said child.

I have that engine in my Octavia. 2014 car and now on 145k.

Other than normal wear and tear the only BIG bill was a new DMF and clutch whilst they were at it. That was at 120k and cost around £1000.

Skoda have just upped the cambelt change interval to something like 140k with no time limit. So you’ve got a few more miles before you need to worry about that aspect.

Mine is a manual but I think the DSG gearbox should have an oil change every 40k, so make sure that’s been done at least twice.

Cambelt? Or if it’s a chain, the tensioners. Google what goes  wrong that particular  motor. Sounds good if you plan to keep it. Selling will always mean doubtful mileage wary buyers like yourself.

If the driving has been mainly long runs I wouldn’t have many concerns.

@RustyNissanPrairie:

you can hold this guys beer!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266524255424?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=ec3RA9T0SHK&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=bgKuGy1yT1i&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I’m looking at auto Vito’s and came across this one. The price is ambitious given the mileage and, like most contributors above, I’m quite comfortable with high mileage.

Just got word that the service history shows no DSG oil change or service carried out so far…

Hmm well some have a dry clutch and some wet. I think the dry clutch ones might have a longer service interval because it’s basically just gearbox oil. Early wet clutch models like mine were 40k.

How much cheaper is it than something with 40/50k on the clock?

I’ve bought high mileage cars but the price has reflected that.

+1

Just got word that the service history shows no DSG oil change or service carried out so far

Not that uncommon with lease and company cars as between the car probably passing through three or four pairs of hands between the person who actually drove it and the garage now selling it*, and data protection it’s either lost or easier to just bin the history than redact their personal info.

* “owner”, the company if its a company car, the lease company, the driver who collected it, the auction house, the driver that delivered it, the dealer it’s at now.

122,000 miles on our 2.0L Passat 2015 and I think it’s just at the point of needing a clutch, DMF and clutch master cylinder. DPF has 40% life remaining still (you can check with an app) and it’s needed a new rear caliper as one was seized (£400 plus another £400 to replace the pads and discs).

I used to do around 60,000 miles a year in a variety of pickups and not one of them had a problem as it was mostly motorway miles so very few gear changes and hours of steady throttle, all were north of 300,000 miles when I handed them back.

I once bought an old but low mileage Honda Accord that shat itself after 4 months.

Mileage isn’t always the problem, more usage.

It could even be a clocked taxi that has done 3 times the mileage

Cars registered in Ireland have their first MOT at 4 years old and 3 in the UK so no use for spotting a clocked car at that age. I think some enhanced online checks get the service records which should have mileages recorded. I wouldn’t buy any car without dropping £5 on an online check

My Octavia had 82k on it when I bought it, at four years old. It had 162,000on it when I gave it away at nineteen years old, but it probably needed the turbo replaced.
It really could have done with a service, as it had never had one while I had it, just whatever needed doing for each MOT. It went to Poland, then, IIRC Romainia or Lithuania, somewhere in that neck of the woods, where I’m sure they had lots of cheap shares to keep it going.

The standard Skoda warranty is 3 years and 60k. That’s what they’re confident to support or feel is the minimum they can get away with offering.

Warranty is just a finance issue, each manufacturer sets theirs at a point they think the market and the customers they’re aiming at desire and then work out the likely cost (to them) they can stomach.

Over the years manufacturers wanting market share come in with longer warranties (and hope they can afford them later down the line).

As for the OP, I’ve run 160k after 4 years with no issues yet we’ve also had cars that had expensive bills (not consumables) in less than 100k.  All cars are serviced at least to manufacturers requirements.