Time to replace the car, with an Octavia vRS?

GeX

GeX

GeX

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Baby on the way, the boot isn't really big enough on the Clio we have at the moment.

With a rough budget of £5k, requirements are "bit of poke", "rear doors", "AC" and "useful boot".

Does something like https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201806067240732 seem sensible?

We only need one car, and currently have a 2002 1.2 16v Clio so anything really is an upgrade from that! It was bought as it cheap to insure / run as my wife's first car, and it's just refused to break ever since.

Any suggestions on what else to consider or avoid in this price range?
 
I used to own one and it was a nice car (well built interior etc) but extremely unreliable. At 80k it needed an engine rebuild which is when I dumped it in part exchange. The others on the forums shared a lot of my issues including excessive oil usage. That one also seems rather overpriced to me. Ford did make a mondeo with the 2.5t from the focus St. Not sure if that fares any better in reliability but I doubt it could be worse than that octavia
 
mccarf said:
I used to own one and it was a nice car (well built interior etc) but extremely unreliable. At 80k it needed an engine rebuild which is when I dumped it in part exchange. The others on the forums shared a lot of my issues including excessive oil usage. That one also seems rather overpriced to me. Ford did make a mondeo with the 2.5t from the focus St. Not sure if that fares any better in reliability but I doubt it could be worse than that octavia
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I have an 08 2.5T mondeo. Apart from a seriously shoddy job from a garage to replace the aux belts which then caused a catastrophic engine failure (aux belt snapped and went through the cam belt destroying it) its been rebuilt and fine ever since. Done over 20k in it now. Few months ago had a £500 bill for suspension issues but half that was the required tool to do it and labour. That's the only real work needed.

Boot is enormous and its quick enough for my needs even with the family in it. 2yrs left on the loan and then I'll probably get rid of it towards something else.
 
Just to provide some counter balance on the vRS, my Leon FR uses the identical engine. There are known weak areas, but they are all cheap enough to repair (and if you're handy with a spanner, you can do them all yourself - I did). I replaced most of the weak spots as preventative maintenance.

Mine is sitting at 120k miles and still pulls strong. A remap is very cheap to achieve some good power gains too, although i still run mine at stock.

I dont get excessive oil usage and I've only had one "breakdown" but it didn't leave me stranded, it just had a very erractic idle until the part was replaced.
 
Really struggle to fault my vRS. Had to replace the PCV which causes the erratic idle as mentioned above but this is cheap and easy to do. Uses a bit of oil but not so much i'm topping it up weekly or anything daft. Mine is pushing 115k now and the engine doesn't feel tired at all. It's deceptively large inside too.

All i'd say is I paid under £3k for mine on 80k, £5k seems slightly steep even though it's a year newer.

These engines are what power the Golf GTI, Leon FR/Cupra, A3 and a few others of the era - they can be niggly but the idea that they're likely to need an engine rebuild is a bit OTT.
 
Dis86 said:
^^ can get yourself a newer BMW 320d for that money. More efficient. More comfortable. Quicker.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201807238704010?radius=1500&advertising-location=at_cars&keywords=efficient dynamics&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&sort=price-asc&make=BMW&postcode=mk22lq&page=1
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What a miserable spec car that is - you'd have to be absolutely desperate to own a BMW to go for that.

It's an ED too so it's detuned for economy and not quicker than a vRS Octavia. I doubt its more comfortable either with those seats.
 
On my second vrs. Took the first one (09 plate) to 90k miles from new and didn't have anything expensive go. Bought a new one in 2016, 30k miles, only problem so far is the kids breaking a seat buckle by sticking crap in it.
 
Liquid_Entity said:
I have an 08 2.5T mondeo. Apart from a seriously shoddy job from a garage to replace the aux belts which then caused a catastrophic engine failure (aux belt snapped and went through the cam belt destroying it) its been rebuilt and fine ever since. Done over 20k in it now. Few months ago had a £500 bill for suspension issues but half that was the required tool to do it and labour. That's the only real work needed.

Boot is enormous and its quick enough for my needs even with the family in it. 2yrs left on the loan and then I'll probably get rid of it towards something else.
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I have a 57 Mondeo 2.5T and love it. I don't think it's possible to better for the price, I paid £6k for mine at 47k miles in 2014. Now done 98k miles.

The only issue they really have is unfortunately a big one - cylinder liners on the 2.5T are prone to cracking meaning engine rebuild. That said, I got mine done for less than £2k by somebody who specialises on that engine.
 
EvilRob said:
I have a 57 Mondeo 2.5T and love it. I don't think it's possible to better for the price, I paid £6k for mine at 47k miles in 2014. Now done 98k miles.

The only issue they really have is unfortunately a big one - cylinder liners on the 2.5T are prone to cracking meaning engine rebuild. That said, I got mine done for less than £2k by somebody who specialises on that engine.
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Didn't you have a thread about that engine issue. I think i posted on it, or was that someone else.

Mine was also rebuilt although not specialist. Hasn't missed a trick since the failure. That reminds me I need to get it serviced next month.
 
Liquid_Entity said:
Didn't you have a thread about that engine issue. I think i posted on it, or was that someone else.

Mine was also rebuilt although not specialist. Hasn't missed a trick since the failure. That reminds me I need to get it serviced next month.
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Yep, good memory :) Here

Nearly two years ago now and been going strong since. I debated junking it at the time, but in the end it was well worth the outlay.
 
EvilRob said:
I have a 57 Mondeo 2.5T and love it. I don't think it's possible to better for the price, I paid £6k for mine at 47k miles in 2014. Now done 98k miles.

The only issue they really have is unfortunately a big one - cylinder liners on the 2.5T are prone to cracking meaning engine rebuild. That said, I got mine done for less than £2k by somebody who specialises on that engine.
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There is a mod you can get done for around £700 to prevent it. Also makes it safe to run around the same power as the Focus RS (which already had the cylinders reinforced in a similar way) :)

I never had an issues with the 2.5 in my Focus ST. It's still on the road and just about to top 100k miles.
 
Nasher said:
There is a mod you can get done for around £700 to prevent it. Also makes it safe to run around the same power as the Focus RS :)

I never had an issues with the 2.5 in my Focus ST. It's still on the road and just about to top 100k miles.
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True. It also became clear during the rebuild that mine had been extremely poorly maintained prior to my purchase.
 
EvilRob said:
Yep, good memory :) Here

Nearly two years ago now and been going strong since. I debated junking it at the time, but in the end it was well worth the outlay.
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Yeah I wanted to fight the garage that messed mine up but they really pushed it back saying this and that but they definitely caused the issue. They misfitter the aux belt, drove it 20 miles before the belt snapped frayed and bits of it went through the cam belt. They said it was purely cam belt failure but it was fine and the noise before car died were from that belt. Anyway I didn't have the energy to fight them because I'd just moved house, had a baby so the drama was too much. Managed to get a grand off the bill so mine was £1400. Annoying as only bought the car 2 months prior for £4k effectively adding that to the price of the car.

Still like you say not had a sausage wrong with engine since.
 
[TW]Fox said:
What a miserable spec car that is - you'd have to be absolutely desperate to own a BMW to go for that.

It's an ED too so it's detuned for economy and not quicker than a vRS Octavia. I doubt its more comfortable either with those seats.
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And yet still a better option for the Mazda 3 (which is what I was saying it's quicker than)!
 
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