Petrol vs Diesel for high mileage car?

JustinR1979

1.9 tdi Passat is all you need.
Apart from the engine being a cracker, the interior is nicer than the ford or Vaux.

OddballJamie

Is it this one?
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201411108888041

Apart from the recent service , has it had any before?

getmeouttahere

OddballJamie wrote: »

Is it this one?
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201411108888041

Apart from the recent service , has it had any before?

Yeah, that's the one. Not sure on the service history yet. I am waiting for the seller to get back to me. I've also seen one with about 80,000 miles on but it's double the price, so I'm just wondering whether the higher mileage is an issue on petrol cars.

motorguy

lazer wrote: »

With those miles I'd go for a deisal VW (make sure its a 1/9 engine and not a 2.0)

Hes maybe doing 12K a year?

why would you want to risk some old diesel? :eek:

getmeouttahere

JustinR1979 wrote: »

1.9 tdi Passat is all you need.
Apart from the engine being a cracker, the interior is nicer than the ford or Vaux.

See above where I've been advised against a diesel.

motorguy

getmeouttahere wrote: »

Yeah, that's the one. Not sure on the service history yet. I am waiting for the seller to get back to me. I've also seen one with about 80,000 miles on but it's double the price, so I'm just wondering whether the higher mileage is an issue on petrol cars.

Make sure the engine management light comes on on that car, then goes off again. (ie, noone has taken the bulb out)

They are prone to timing chain stretch and there is no tensioner on them. It will give errors of "cam sensor" but it'll be the chain.

Its a £600+ job to sort out.

Otherwise, looks like a cheap car. Too cheap almost.

JustinR1979

getmeouttahere wrote: »

See above where I've been advised against a diesel.

I do less miles than you and have a diesel.
Cost me £1600, tax is £175. Spent about a tenner in 2 years on repairs.
Any petrol that is as quick as this would be thirsty.
Any petrol that is as economical as this would be painfully slow.
Performance to mpg for under £2k, is hard to beat a 130 pd tdi.
I enjoy 230 lb/ft of torque and 50+ mpg.

getmeouttahere

motorguy wrote: »

Make sure the engine management light comes on on that car, then goes off again. (ie, noone has taken the bulb out)

They are prone to timing chain stretch and there is no tensioner on them. It will give errors of "cam sensor" but it'll be the chain.

Its a £600+ job to sort out.

Otherwise, looks like a cheap car. Too cheap almost.

Too cheap is what concerns me. I've been looking for a couple of weeks and there's nothing comparable at that price and I can't help feeling that if it were a genuinely good car, it would have been sold by now.

JustinR1979 wrote: »

I do less miles than you and have a diesel.
Cost me £1600, tax is £175. Spent about a tenner in 2 years on repairs.
Any petrol that is as quick as this would be thirsty.
Any petrol that is as economical as this would be painfully slow.
Performance to mpg for under £2k, is hard to beat a 130 pd tdi.
I enjoy 230 lb/ft of torque and 50+ mpg.

I shall definitely look into it but all this talk of diesel problems has me worried.

motorguy

JustinR1979 wrote: »

I do less miles than you and have a diesel.
Cost me £1600, tax is £175. Spent about a tenner in 2 years on repairs.
Any petrol that is as quick as this would be thirsty.
Any petrol that is as economical as this would be painfully slow.
Performance to mpg for under £2k, is hard to beat a 130 pd tdi.
I enjoy 230 lb/ft of torque and 50+ mpg.

Whilst they're going great they're super.

The problem is most get sold when theres big bills looming that are easily hid on a diesel.

Even with a non DPF and non DMF car like yours, theres still injectors, pumps, turbos, glow plugs, gearboxes give trouble on them, etc to worry about, PLUS your £1600 would have bought you a lower miles, younger, petrol car with less wear and tear on the suspension, engine components, etc.

Clearly you have a good one and thats great. Finding and buying a good one these days is incredibly tricky to do.

lazer

motorguy wrote: »

Hes maybe doing 12K a year?

why would you want to risk some old diesel? :eek:

If buying new it wouldn't make sense as the differential in price is too high to be worth while.
But second had diesel every time for any decent length of miles.


I've recently changed from a 7 year old petrol to the same car in diesel and my fuel cost had almost halved. Mileage from a full tank has increased from 320 to 550!
The petrol had 85,000 on it, and my diesel has 100,000 on it, but I have no doubt the diesel will last a lot longer than the petrol would have!