VAG TDI Saloon reccomendation? & Are Audi's expensive to maintain?

DeeJay-Mo

DeeJay-Mo

DeeJay-Mo

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the dirty souf
In the market for a used car. Prolly gonna go for either Audi, VW, Seat, or Skoda.
Reason being that there are a lot of garages around who know how to fix these cars.
At the moment I'm swinging towards either a Skoda Octavia, VW Passat or a Audi A4.
The Audi is winning at the moment but I'm a little worried that people are calling them expensive to maintain. Admittedly mostly on US boards. The Yankie Doodles have to import the parts all the way from Germany, but hey, that's no biggie for us right? Germany is only down the road. But should I actually be worried about the price of Audi Maintenance?

Also, please give me your Audi/Skoda/VW/Seat car recommendations and advice on any pitfalls I should look out for when choosing one of these motors. Keep it 1.9 or 2.5 TDI please. No Petrol or naturally aspirated Diesel. And definetely no common-rail diesel suggestions.

Thank you kindly.
 
Is this another one of those 'Spec me a posh, prestigious, fast, awesome car that costs 30p a year to tax, does 70mpg, takes £30 a corner tyres, never ever goes wrong and only costs 2 grand' moon on a stick threads?
 
I had a Mk4 golf tdi, NEVER will i buy a VAG group car again.
I bought it for 4k, spent 3k on it in a year then sold it for 1300.

Worst car i've ever driven, im sticking with vauxhall, at least i know they arent bigged up on reliability and the repairs are cheaper
 
Those mechanics the OP mentioned presumably know hour to fix the things because they get plenty of practice.
 
[TW]Fox;21194794 said:
Is this another one of those 'Spec me a posh, prestigious, fast, awesome car that costs 30p a year to tax, does 70mpg, takes £30 a corner tyres, never ever goes wrong and only costs 2 grand' moon on a stick threads?
Click to expand...

Haha, no I don't want the moon on a stick! Just a second hand diesel for >£2k that is gonna have reasonable maintenance costs please.

I know that the newer engines can do over 60mpg but apparently a 1.9TDI in a Passat or similar can do around 50mpg which is not bad. So I am fully aware that there is no such thing as a PERFECT car.

Just give me your suggestions of a decent VAG diesel that will be fairly reliable and won't cost the earth to maintain.

Budget: 2k.

Thanks :)
 
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If the budget is 2k forget the Audi, you will have a far better time finding something that's not a shed with the Skoda.
 
Steveocee said:
I had a Mk4 golf tdi, NEVER will i buy a VAG group car again.
I bought it for 4k, spent 3k on it in a year then sold it for 1300.

Worst car i've ever driven, im sticking with vauxhall, at least i know they arent bigged up on reliability and the repairs are cheaper
Click to expand...

Good to know. I was thinking about possible getting something a bit older. Like mid to late ninetees. I wonder if the mk3 golf era models are more reliable than the mk4?
 
[TW]Fox;21194883 said:
If the budget is 2k forget the Audi, you will have a far better time finding something that's not a shed with the Skoda.
Click to expand...

I am kind of drawn to the Skoda Octavia actually. It seems like a decent and robust vehicle. And not too fugly either.
 
(autotrader link) This Octavia has a few problems but is only a grand. I usually feel a bit nervous about motors that need fixing to get them up to par. Baring in mind that I have a mechanic friend who has offered to help me fix my new car if needed, would you touch this with a barge pole if you were me?
 
£2k on an Audi diesel?

It week be a knackered piece of **** that will need all sorts of work doing

Please fully star all swearing in future. Thank you.
 
Thanks for the advice, I will be avoiding Audi with this budget. Anyone got anything else to say about the Skoda Octavia?
 
I spent £1500 on an Octavia 1.9 TDI last year. Bailed when it became very apparent I was going to have to spend at least that again to get it up to a decent approximation of acceptable working order.

I would't buy a VAG TDI of that sort of age and budget again.

As for the OP - it's clear you've decided what you want. Just get the one you like the look of.
 
DeeJay-Mo said:
In the market for a used car. Prolly gonna go for either Audi, VW, Seat, or Skoda.
Reason being that there are a lot of garages around who know how to fix these cars.
At the moment I'm swinging towards either a Skoda Octavia, VW Passat or a Audi A4.
The Audi is winning at the moment but I'm a little worried that people are calling them expensive to maintain. Admittedly mostly on US boards. The Yankie Doodles have to import the parts all the way from Germany, but hey, that's no biggie for us right? Germany is only down the road. But should I actually be worried about the price of Audi Maintenance?

Also, please give me your Audi/Skoda/VW/Seat car recommendations and advice on any pitfalls I should look out for when choosing one of these motors. Keep it 1.9 or 2.5 TDI please. No Petrol or naturally aspirated Diesel. And definetely no common-rail diesel suggestions.

Thank you kindly.
Click to expand...

What's interesting is the three vehicles you're looking at:

Skoda Octavia
Audi A4
VW Passat

These three vehicles are not all on the same platform - the Audi and VW are both larger and in a "class" above the Skoda.
Really you are either looking for:

Audi A4
VW Passat
Skoda Superb

or

Audi A3
VW Golf
Skoda Octavia

You really should be clear in your own mind just how big a vehicle you want before comparing ones of different sizes.
 
Uriel said:
I spent £1500 on an Octavia 1.9 TDI last year. Bailed when it became very apparent I was going to have to spend at least that again to get it up to a decent approximation of acceptable working order.

I would't buy a VAG TDI of that sort of age and budget again.

As for the OP - it's clear you've decided what you want. Just get the one you like the look of.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that. Out of interest, what were some of the things that needed doing on your Octavia?
 
stoofa said:
What's interesting is the three vehicles you're looking at:

Skoda Octavia
Audi A4
VW Passat

These three vehicles are not all on the same platform - the Audi and VW are both larger and in a "class" above the Skoda.
Really you are either looking for:

Audi A4
VW Passat
Skoda Superb

or

Audi A3
VW Golf
Skoda Octavia

You really should be clear in your own mind just how big a vehicle you want before comparing ones of different sizes.
Click to expand...

Definetely more into the Passat sized cars. I haven't seen much in the way of Superb's in that kind of price range. TBH I hadn't appreciated that the Octavia was that much smaller than a Audi A4. I guess it is more like a Jetta or a Bora than a Passat.

Put it this way. I'm looking for a Saloon. The smallest I would go for is a Octavia, and the largest would be an A6. Anything within that range will be fine, as long as it has 4 doors, and a TDI (non-common-rail) engine. What I really want to know is which car will be the cheapest to fix when things go wrong, as they are bound to do from time to time with and older car.

So any opinions on the Octavia or suggestions on what is a cheap car to repair?
 
Not trying to be pedantic here but the Octavia is a hatchback. Wasn't going to say anything but you've specifically mentioned saloon and 4 doors a few times...
 
Steveocee said:
I had a Mk4 golf tdi, NEVER will i buy a VAG group car again.
I bought it for 4k, spent 3k on it in a year then sold it for 1300.

Worst car i've ever driven, im sticking with vauxhall, at least i know they arent bigged up on reliability and the repairs are cheaper
Click to expand...

Interesting to see how peoples experience with different marques influence their opinion.

I would say the exact opposite. Our MK3 Astra was hateful. Our Leon has been great VFM.
 
DeeJay-Mo said:
Sorry to hear that. Out of interest, what were some of the things that needed doing on your Octavia?
Click to expand...

Well, I thought I'd done most things right. It was a private sale and I'd taken 2 test drives, checked everything I could mechanically and had a local VAG independent take a look at it before buying.

Within a couple of days, a noise that the mechanic mentioned had got much louder. It returned put to be the aircon compressor lunching itself. My first longer trip had it inconsistently going into limp mode uphill at motorway speeds. That turned out to be sticking variable geometry turbo vanes. Within a month our two, what had seemed like a very tight car had developed all sorts of squeaks and rattles (fairly minor suff - wheel bearing, brake callipers, suspension components) and the gearbox and clutch were starting to misbehave. Add that on to relatively expensive servicing I'd had done (including cambelt, water pump, brake fluid change as well as the regular stuff) and I was starting to hate the sight of the thing.

If it had been from a dealer with warranty, I'd probably still be running it. One of my colleagues bought a very similar Octavia from a dealer and he had the same turbo problem as me. He got a new turbo paid for by the dealer and loves the car.

I'd planned a maintenance and repair budget but not a large enough one.
 
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