Advice on next car, please help

DUTR

chrisw wrote: »

42mpg is very poor for the 2 litre TDI, particularly on a longish journey like that. I had a 06 Passat with the same engine which never dropped below 45mpg no matter how hard it was thrashed. I would expect mid 50s mpg on normal driving for that journey.

I'm just quoting real life figures, I had loan of an Audi A3 1.4 TDI, and that averaged about 45mpg over the two weeks, was hardly anything to sing and dance about. The other reason I suspect diesel is far from the claimed economy figures is that the drivers of those type complain the most about fuel costs, it should hardly be noticable for a tank of fuel.
BTW we were not thrashing it, just cruising along the M6 at usual motorway speeds.

Mo_L

Firstly thanks guys for all the help, much appreciated !

@ Forgotmyname

This will be her first, and shes young so insurance will be astronomical either way its cut. So to alleviate the cost of buying another car, I'm just going to give her mine and help her out with insurance.

@ Tigerprint

Yeah I've looked at A3's too but the insurance on them is something that turns me away

@ BlueC

You've said exactly the same thing my friend said yesterday, very valid point. To find a decent MK5 diesel with full service history, mileage around the 70-90k mark on a 05-06 plate I'm looking at around the 4.5-5k mark. This then opens up another argument, how high is high on diesel mileage, some say the diesel engines only breaking in at 100k and its perfectly whilst some swear of it even if it has been maintained.

@ Dutr

Damn those figures really aren't anything to write home about. But again I've heard opposing figures, I guess its always going to be.

In an surprising turn of events one of my friends that deals an buys second hand cars auctions etc bought a black 3dr 1.6FSI MK5 Golf 05 plate petrol, full VW Dealer service history, tax'd, MOT due in May (offered to me at mates rate). I drove it the other day and it is smooth. body work and interior is immaculate, sounds great right? Here comes the potential sinker...112K on the clock..the mileage is far too high, surely its on its last legs even if it has been well maintained right?

DUTR

Mo_L wrote: »

Firstly thanks guys for all the help, much appreciated !

@ Forgotmyname

This will be her first, and shes young so insurance will be astronomical either way its cut. So to alleviate the cost of buying another car, I'm just going to give her mine and help her out with insurance.

@ Tigerprint

Yeah I've looked at A3's too but the insurance on them is something that turns me away

@ BlueC

You've said exactly the same thing my friend said yesterday, very valid point. To find a decent MK5 diesel with full service history, mileage around the 70-90k mark on a 05-06 plate I'm looking at around the 4.5-5k mark. This then opens up another argument, how high is high on diesel mileage, some say the diesel engines only breaking in at 100k and its perfectly whilst some swear of it even if it has been maintained.

@ Dutr

Damn those figures really aren't anything to write home about. But again I've heard opposing figures, I guess its always going to be.

In an surprising turn of events one of my friends that deals an buys second hand cars auctions etc bought a black 3dr 1.6FSI MK5 Golf 05 plate petrol, full VW Dealer service history, tax'd, MOT due in May (offered to me at mates rate). I drove it the other day and it is smooth. body work and interior is immaculate, sounds great right? Here comes the potential sinker...112K on the clock..the mileage is far too high, surely its on its last legs even if it has been well maintained right?

This is my car, taken today it has just under 70k on the clock and is a 2005 model.



I have had VWs for the last 25 years, and the Corrado, I drove up to 144k and it still drove nicely, the MK2 Golf I sold to my bro and that was about 112k and he took it up to 187k before it was written off until then that still drove nicely.
The car you looked at, check the mates rates are correct

112k is only 14k per annum, doddle and unless it were a taxi, it would be hard pushed to attain those miles on other than mainly long runs motorway etc, have a look at the previous mot's and reciepts to see what work has been completed on the car, but other than the bulbs here and there, and servicing disposables,cam belt (make sure that has been changed recently) then you should be good to go.

steve-L

Strider590 wrote: »

That's not really true of diesels less than say 8-10 years of age. They're not what they used to be, the newer diesels are very fragile indeed.

Oh damn, mine has 180,000 miles on it, I guess noone told the car?

getmore4less

Strider590 wrote: »

That's not really true of diesels less than say 8-10 years of age. They're not what they used to be, the newer diesels are very fragile indeed.

Tell that to all the taxi drivers in 1.9/2.0 TDI skoda.

get a 1.9 TDI octavia manual no DPF 50-60mpg on your runs.

Mo_L

@ DUTR Niceee GTI ! Yeah I'll be going through the service book to see whats been replaced etc. Well aparantly the 1.6 FSI doesn't have a cam belt it has instead a chain, now this again is conflicting as plenty of people online have discovered that VW has said that but its turned out to be the opposite and to further aid the conflicting confusion some have said there is no need to replace the chain. On my corsa I had to replace the chain so again *shrug*..as far as mates rates go, he's offered to me for £2600 otherwise he's selling for £3k quick sale. Lookin around online if I put in an extra 1k or so I can get the same golf with 60-80k but not with the VW service history...

Johnmcl7

chrisw wrote: »

42mpg is very poor for the 2 litre TDI, particularly on a longish journey like that. I had a 06 Passat with the same engine which never dropped below 45mpg no matter how hard it was thrashed. I would expect mid 50s mpg on normal driving for that journey.

Agreed, I have the VW 2.0 TDI PD170 and if it was only returning 42mpg it would be going back to the garage to find the fault as even driving mine hard on a decent journey it usually manages around 55mpg.

I'd agree with the advice to get a car with the VW 1.9 TDI engine particularly if the 130bhp is available, I had two cars with the 1.9 TDI engine and prefer it over the 2.0 TDI PD engine.

John

TradePro

Whilst calculating costs on VW's (in particular TDi's), don't forget to factor in 'OMPG' (oil MPG) - in my experience (and by VW's admission) the engines can use a litre per 600m (1000km). Cost-wise, this can equate to a loss of over 10mpg.

Also, proper cars have timing chains.

staffie1

DUTR wrote: »

This is my car, taken today it has just under 70k on the clock and is a 2005 model.



QUOTE]
Nice motor.

owen_money

I had a VW Passat TDI, it used about 1 litre every 20,000, I have had other 3 diesels, Honda x 2 and Citroen and didn't burn any oil. A colleague of mine had a Alfa and it used more oil than diesel! I run a diesel and do about 25k pa but its a company car and as its a 2.2 litre I claim 18p in fuel so make about £180 per month on expenses