Skoda Octavia Tdi for sale £550

[Lacquer Peel]

I think they're the same style of seats with all Tango'd dead cow on them.

[phil_lihp]

I find the seats absolutely fine - no comfort issues at all, in fact it's one of the reasons I like this car so much.  It's not quite up to Rover/Volvo standards (I'd like velour given the choice!) but it's absolutely fine to me and I am quite fussy with car seats.  I've not tried higher-spec models so can't say if Laurel & Hardy seats would be better or not.

[Lacquer Peel]

Jeez! I found mine back-breaking. They must suit some people.

[phil_lihp]

THRILLING UPDATE

 

Wiper stalk - inoperative

Wipers - squeaky

TRE - knackered

Brake pads - worn

Rear brake caliper - seized

Handbrake cables - knackered

Remote plips - dead

Door switches - intermittent

Coolant sensor - beepy

Turbo - leaky and overpressuring

 

Poor thing's having a hard life, it's now on almost 198,000 miles and they've been tough ones - lots of bad roads, steep hills and short journeys but the engine continues to run very well.  A glug of injector cleaner and an italian tuneup has restored the engine to full strength as it was noticeably down on power recently but as the list above shows, it is starting to gently unravel in certain areas.  

 

It's currently at the mechanics having a new rear caliper and handbrake cables so that the handbrake will work again, wiper stalk was resurrected by cleaning contacts and I've still got to change the NS track rod end and brake pads when I get time, the rest isn't much of a worry and nothing unusual on a VW of this age.  Only minor concern is the turbo which cut out a few days ago, I looked into it and turns out the pipes get clogged over time, first fix is a good thrashing and second fix is Mr Muscle down the pipes - fix number one seems to have sorted it for now, it's not done it since.

 

Still ace to drive, still looks smart enough when it's cleaned, still carries a lot of kit.  Still very happy with it.

 

She's still going.  198,700 miles, just had the handbrake repaired again after a bolt came off the mechanism and I fixed an ABS fault by cleaning corrosion off one of the green fuses on top of the battery.  New brake pads a couple of months back, coolant sensor beeping has fixed itself, has only done the overboost thing once since, on the same steep hill from cold so hardly a big deal.

 

In the end a brand new wiper stalk not only got the wipers working, but made them work faster - I guess the old one was drawing current away from them.  The wipers then stopped working again a few days later but this time because the spindle was so worn the motor turned without the mechanism.  Luckily my tame mechanic performed a quick fix with a washer and they've been fine ever since.  While it was in the garage last week the mechanic I use praised its general condition and reckoned it was in pretty good shape overall.  Not bad considering it cost me £350 nearly a year and 12,000 miles ago and has only really had routine maintenance and some small niggles fixed.

 

Remote plips have been tested by a key maker and are said to work but don't do anything for the car, apart from that it's pretty much OK.  I still need to replace the shagged TRE and it's had 3 punctures in 3 weeks but that's just bad roads and bad weather for you.  

 

I'll be saying goodbye in a couple of months when I change jobs, it'll be someone else's work steed after that but should easily see a few thousand more miles of country roads.

[phil_lihp]

GREY ALERT

 

An unexpected twist, I left my job last month and therefore waved goodbye to the Octavia, leaving it to be run ragged by the other technicians visiting clients.  However, due to an HMRC tax rule change, company cars are now being taxed at higher rates (based on their value when new), making this an unviable prospect for the firm to keep, so they offered it back to me at a bargain price I couldn't turn down.

 

So, it's mine again and it's here to stay.  It was immediately pressed into duty taking me and a mate to Heathrow airport, it then sat on someone's lawn for 2 weeks (JustPark contains a lot of people letting out driveways etc. for a lot less than proper airport parking) and then transported us back home again with zero complaint.

 

It's enjoying a well-earned semi-retirement now that it's no longer bombing up and down terrible roads all day every day loaded with toolboxes, cable reels and till rolls and I've just spent a rather tedious evening removing the signwriting (hair drier and an old RAC membership card followed by WD40 and card to get the glue off).  

 

Yes, it's boring but I'm getting rather attached to it, it's dependable, really nice to drive and very economical with a huge boot.  It's scruffy enough that I don't have to worry about it being scuffed or scratched but looks tidy enough to not be an embarrassment.

 

It still needs a new track rod end which is in a box waiting to be fitted, I'm gradually getting to lots of jobs that have been waiting for ages and this is moving closer to the top of the list.  The air con has stopped working again, the compressor is probably knackered but I'm still hoping it'll suddenly spring to life like it did last summer.  I'm also considering fitting a cheap remote central locking kit as the car's own system seems to have died, not helped by me having currently mislaid the spare key.

 

On the way to the airport last month, my friend pointed out that we'd missed an important milestone a couple of miles back.  That was a few hundred miles ago now, so have this instead.

 

 

As of today, after a quick wipe off to get rid of the signwriting scrapings, she's looking a bit naked and plain again, a good wash and polish is needed to get rid of the little scratches and marks but it still looks pretty smart.

 

 

 

 

Stupid question time: what is this behind the starter motor?

 

 

It has a big arm on top which turns and also goes up and down, there's also a little tiny black lever on it which can be set either up or down and it has two large sprung cables attached to it.  Something to do with the air con?

[Dave_Q]

Gear change linkage - up and down is the equivalent of side to side on the gearstick, turning is forward and back on the stick.

 

The 2 cables connect to the gear lever in the car.

[phil_lihp]

Cheers, I did wonder, given its location, it just doesn't look like anything I'd expect a gear linkage to resemble!

[groovylee]

cool!  it's still going!

 

never before have I been so excited to see a skoda octavia still running on the road.

 

Legend

 

[Lacquer Peel]

These seem like good cars unless I buy them (two Octavias, two failed heads)

[SiC]

What happened to the Astra? (Not that I want it back )

[phil_lihp]

He's still got it and it's still working fine as far as I know, it's now wearing the darker headlights off a slightly newer Mk4 and last I saw the interior was a tip but he likes it and I don't think it's going anywhere for a while.  

[phil_lihp]

These seem like good cars unless I buy them (two Octavias, two failed heads)

 

Touch wood, it's been very reliable aside from a few little niggles (broken window regulator, handbrake and wipers, nothing that stopped it being used).  It is starting to use oil now, I had to top it up for the first time ever, but the garage who serviced it back in October said there is a little bit of oil leaking in the turbo so that's hardly surprising.  I'll just keep looking after it until it goes pop, it still pulls very well and doesn't smoke, to be honest apart from the baggy suspension it doesn't really feel like it's done 200k.

[SiC]

He's still got it and it's still working fine as far as I know, it's now wearing the darker headlights off a slightly newer Mk4 and last I saw the interior was a tip but he likes it and I don't think it's going anywhere for a while.

That's good he getting enjoyment out of it! It really wasn't our favourite car we ever had. Incredibly bland thing. Went alright for a 1.6, probably seems a hot hatch to a young guy...

I hope he kept the original lights though, they had no yellowing on them at all. Tbh we used it a fair bit for tip runs anyway, so nothing different there

[phil_lihp]

Yes, he's kept them, I believe a friend of his was breaking a late Mk4 and they were freebies, not sure I would have bothered but whatever keeps him happy!

[Split_Pin]

Good to see the Octavia is still serving you well. Despite a million people probably telling us to the contrary, it's hard not to get attached to something which just keeps doing what you ask of it!

[phil_lihp]

THRILLING UPDATE

 

It's just this weekend gone to 202,000 miles and continues to run like clockwork.  It's just come back from being away for a month performing house moving duties for my sister as her i10 has all the load carrying capacity of a crisp packet and she managed to put about 1,000 miles on it (and much crap inside it) with absolutely no issues.  Her only complaint was 'it's too big' (well. yes, that was the whole reason for using it) and it's hard to find in car parks.  That I can concur with, it does rather tend to disappear in crowded areas.  Probably an ideal car for robbing a bank, no-one would remember what you were driving.

 

It's still returning about 54mpg on average according to the computer. using very little oil and no coolant or other fluids.  How very boring.

 

With all this in mind, it's really high time I got rid of it.  It never breaks down, is dirt cheap to run and can carry enormous quantities of crap/people - basically it's the perfect car if you look at it like that, which I find to be totally unacceptable nonsense and I won't have it.  I don't pay for Autoaid to sit around doing nothing.

 

That said, I'm not quite ready to let go just yet, it's been the most reliable and hard-working car I've ever had and I have got a little bit attached to it, which is unusual for me, but the suspension is tired, baggy and generally past its best; it bottoms out on rough country lanes quite easily and the undertray is taking a beating, plus the rear O/S strut has started making odd clonking noises.  With that in mind, it's probably going to need a bit of loving for its MOT in October.  All that, plus the air con doesn't work as the compressor is knackered and the remote central locking is dead so only works off the key - first world problems though eh?  I'll get my tame mechanic to give it a once-over at some point soon prior to deciding if it should stay or go.  

 

Trouble is, I don't know what on earth I could replace it with, it's just about ideal for everything and totally dependable.