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

Back to the op - I actually disagree with a lot of what's been written in here, the PD engine in 110/115/130 form is still a very decent performer, economical and as reliable if not more reliable than the competition.

I would personally buy a passat, consider the Octavia (based on the golf but it's plenty big) and ignore the A4. Look for something that's had a cambelt & waterpump recently, be prepared to refresh some of the suspension and you're good to go. Easy to go into scare stories about turbos, waterpumps, gearboxes etc etc but the VAG parts are relatively cheap plus there are literally hundreds of them being broken all over the country. As the OP has access to a mechanic who will presumably charge mates rates I don't see any massive expense if he picks the car carefully.


German motors are also (generally) easy to work on - so if you want to learn a bit more about how the car works and do jobs yourself it's a good place to start.
 
red eye said:
poor maintenance is the blame not the car. always look for evidence of work done, service book or recites with reg
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I disagree. I've seen so many of these cars have the same problems (especially sticky turbo and air con compressor failure. Mechanics I know tell me they see the same problems on every VAG tdi at some point, even well looked after examples with fsh.

The trick is buy just after they've had a new clutch, DNF and turbo. All should be good for a good few miles and years once those things have been done.

I'm not saying you can't minimise potential bills by getting a good, well looked after example, but best to either make sure the major nasties have already been taken care of, or budget for them.
 
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Thanks for all the replies. I went to look at a 2000 Skoda today. Unfortunately it was a bit haggered so I passed. I also looked at a 03 Passat, which was way more complicated in the engine area. My mechanic mate said that the mk3 Golf based Skoda, was dead simple and we could probably keep it going perpetually, or at least until it dies from rust! This was promising for the car model in general. Alas that particular specimen was past her best. :(

Still optimistic, however. I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled for something pre-millennium that is in incredible nick. So if you see any late nineties TDI VAGs for sale, that have been used by an old granny, to do her shopping once a week, never missed a service and kept in her garage since '1999, then let me know!
 
red eye said:
I'd buy it after having a look at in person and see what work needs doing. it might need ony a shock,starter and some bodywork but on the other hand it might need a lot more
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Worth a butchers innit.

rodenal said:
...the PD engine in 110/115/130 form is still a very decent performer, economical and as reliable if not more reliable than the competition.

I would personally buy a passat, consider the Octavia (based on the golf but it's plenty big) and ignore the A4. Look for something that's had a cambelt & waterpump recently, be prepared to refresh some of the suspension and you're good to go...
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Thanks for the advice. I think this is what I'm gonna do. :)
 
red eye said:
the audi, vw, seat and skoda are owned by V.A.G vw audi group so they all have the same pros and cons as they as they are the same car underneath. although the labour is different for each marque but you can maintain your car at skoda labour. but an independent using ome* parts will be cheaper then dealer using genuine parts

* ome is exactly the same spec and from the same manufacture as genuine but with out the designer box and much cheaper;)
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This is the kind of info I'm looking for. Thanks. :)
 
Sometimes I find that genuine VAG parts from our local dealer can be cheaper than the oem's I can get hold of. I always check the prices from main dealers before buying parts for friends and familys cars as if the main dealer prices are similar surely it's worth buying manufacturer parts over cheap immitation rubbish?
 
red eye said:
naa easer to say vw audi group when dealing with customers, else it would be vag and aag and that would confuse customers, although now its more like vw, audi, seat, skoda lambo bently bugatti group
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Or just say Volkswagen Group... Or just say the name of the car you're referring to? :confused:
 
Having done ~200k+ miles in three different passats. I would be very surprised if you got close to 50mpg average. I would expect it to end up in the low to mid 40's (Current one is at 41.51mpg over the last 14666 miles. I am generally hitting 640 miles per tank at that)
 
[TW]Fox;21198593 said:
No they won't - VAG only recently moved to CommonRail (Well, in the last few years).
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Fox, what is wrong with common rail diesels?

I take it my mothers 57 A4 2.0 diesel is common rail? I've been thinking about getting one myself (although hers is the 140 auto)
 
EddScott said:
Fox, what is wrong with common rail diesels?

I take it my mothers 57 A4 2.0 diesel is common rail? I've been thinking about getting one myself (although hers is the 140 auto)
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It's not, CR TDI is from ~2008-2009 onwards. CR brought DPFs to more engines (before was only on the PD170), is a lot quieter, better emissions but honestly it's the same MPG or extremely close to from my motorway experience of the two.

The injector setup was made more complex and more expensive (although the PD injector design wasn't perfect by any standard) but is supposed to last longer. Aside from that there were some other nice things, the water/oil pump design was made a lot better, belt lasts longer, ABS doesn't fail half as much :) The CRTDI 140/170 are the same block just different turbo/injectors/intake/ecu/clutch etc...
 
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