200k ovlov? Would miles put you off?

[Tamworthbay 15,073]

24 minutes ago, Lacquer Peel said:

 

 

I have an S70 TDI with the same engine and it takes a fair bit of effort to better 50MPG according to the fuel computer.

 

I gather they are very picky on fuel pump timing and there seem good and bad, from what I have read on the Ovlov forum some people manage galactic mpg and others are like yours. My fuel computer sits around 50mpg in town most of the time! Maybe worth getting the pump timing checked on yours perhaps? I put £40 at the beginning of November, have done about 250miles and still have a fair bit left.sounds like a bag of spanners most of the time though. I am a fairly gentle driver most of the time which obviously helps.

[Eyersey1234 1,339]

My supervisor at work bought a new V60 in 2014, it was a nice car when it worked but had to keep going back for warranty work to be done. He got rid about a year ago and bought an Audi S5, but that's been back about 5 times to get a rattle fixed and was rear ended by a dippy girl on her phone a few months ago. 

[Cavcraft 95,954]

59 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Oi, mine's just clocked 244,000 and still in fine fettle!

Remind me to never pick a fight with you. Two miles in a Passat is a job for a hardcore masochist, never mind 244,000.

[bunglebus 9,667]

Really? Everyone who ever rides in it says it's the smoothest, most comfortable car they've ever been in. I honestly don't know what I'd replace it with if I had too. Probably another one, but an estate.

[Lacquer Peel 16,372]

I gather they are very picky on fuel pump timing and there seem good and bad, from what I have read on the Ovlov forum some people manage galactic mpg and others are like yours. My fuel computer sits around 50mpg in town most of the time! Maybe worth getting the pump timing checked on yours perhaps? I put £40 at the beginning of November, have done about 250miles and still have a fair bit left.sounds like a bag of spanners most of the time though. I am a fairly gentle driver most of the time which obviously helps.

70mpg is fanciful sorry. They are efficient engines but not that efficient and fuel pump timing wouldn't make that much difference. How are you working the fuel consumption out?

[Tamworthbay 15,073]

9 hours ago, Lacquer Peel said:

9 hours ago, Tamworthbay said:

I gather they are very picky on fuel pump timing and there seem good and bad, from what I have read on the Ovlov forum some people manage galactic mpg and others are like yours. My fuel computer sits around 50mpg in town most of the time! Maybe worth getting the pump timing checked on yours perhaps? I put £40 at the beginning of November, have done about 250miles and still have a fair bit left.sounds like a bag of spanners most of the time though. I am a fairly gentle driver most of the time which obviously helps.

70mpg is fanciful sorry. They are efficient engines but not that efficient and fuel pump timing wouldn't make that much difference. How are you working the fuel consumption out?

As I always have divide gallons in by distance, I am not the only one getting these figures either. Feel free to drop by and I will brim the tank, go for a drive and repeat and work it out for yourself. No reason for me to lie about it is there? Last year we did Tamworth to Cornwall, drove all week, then drove home, all on tank of fuel. I am amazed as well but have had it well over a year now and getting 45mpg around town without fail, and 60mpg plus on mixed driving. If I could be arsed to stick to 50mph and coast on hills I am 100% sure it would be getting around 80mpg.

And take time to read on the Ovlov forum - fuel pump timing does really seem critical on these things.

[paulplom 6,772]

I got 58mpg from our 2006 v70 2.4d on a 800 mile trip to France. Fully loaded for a weeks camping trip. Could have done it on one tank as well. It was down to a quarter with 80 miles to go on the sat nav.

[w00dy 1,360]

I'd do it, but I'd want it for £1200 tops. I recently bought a 208k, 10 year old Golf and so far it seems great and I definitely subscribe to the idea that modern diesels are better when they're doing plenty of miles and you tend to get owners who spend money since they need it to work. On the other hand a DPF or DMF could cost more than the car so I'd want to pay only what I'd be ok with losing if it all went tits up.

[Bobthebeard 6,528]

Based on my extensive experience of high mileage cars.

Yes, No, possibly, sometimes. Never and yes.

Hope that helps. 

[sierraman 13,383]

1 hour ago, w00dy said:

I'd do it, but I'd want it for £1200 tops. I recently bought a 208k, 10 year old Golf and so far it seems great and I definitely subscribe to the idea that modern diesels are better when they're doing plenty of miles and you tend to get owners who spend money since they need it to work. On the other hand a DPF or DMF could cost more than the car so I'd want to pay only what I'd be ok with losing if it all went tits up.

Exactly. At 208k it’s practically unsaleable to the masses so you want it cheap enough to throw away when/if it shit itself. There’s only 2 ways to run big complicated cars like this, leasing a new one or buying one at the other end of the chain then fragging it once it’s pissed it’s chips. 

[BorniteIdentity 19,515]

Here's what fascinates me @sierraman and @w00dy

Of what relevance is the cost of repair vs value of car?  ie - Why is it ok to to do a DMF/Clutch on a £1500 car and not on a £1200 car?  I understand "chuck it away buy another m9" and all that, but you know what the cost of a repair is - you don't know what the cost of a replacement+untold nasties is.  Plus you're actually throwing a £1200 car away for a £600 bill (that's the price of the parts) and someone's wages.  

I'm not being deliberately difficult or pejorative, and I know it's different strokes for different folks.  If I were the OP I'd fix my Passat - a car well known for clocking up ginormous miles (even by my standards).  My friend has two in his family on over 350k.  

Crack the fuck on, Bren.  It's worth what you're willing to pay for it - as long as he'll sell it for that.  You might find it prudent to spend a bit more thought - you can't always afford to buy the cheapest.

[w00dy 1,360]

@BorniteIdentity  I don't want to do a DMF on a £1500 car either. I'm of the mind that the £1.5k-5k modern area is generally not the best idea as you have no warranty and bills can be big, but you're committed. at 200k miles a car is very unsaleable so I think the most financially prudent way to do it is to buy  cheap but likely well-maintained given the use it's had and swap to another one when it throws you a big bill.  My golf was £650 so I could buy  a couple for the price of a DMF or DPF on it especially given that it would have some value as spares/repairs in either case.  Buy a DMF and then the DPF or a turbo goes and you're already in too deep for a dull modern.

 

Of course the procedure for anything interesting is to open my wallet and spend far more than any sane person would consider.

[sierraman 13,383]

Like you say it’s different strokes for different folks. I’m not a fan of chucking good money after bad at something, I prefer to buy something and get the better years out of it then fuck it off when the big bills arrive and let it be someone else’s problem. Out of curiosity I looked up a few of the cars I’ve owned, nearly all of them I’d not scrapped were on the slow boat to China for a sabbatical as a baked bean can six months after I’d sold them. 

Theres also this mentality of every used car out there being a sack of shit despite the shortcomings of the one you might already have. I’ve never actually replaced a car and it be worse than the one I sacked off. 

[BorniteIdentity 19,515]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

Like you say it’s different strokes for different folks. I’m not a fan of chucking good money after bad at something, I prefer to buy something and get the better years out of it then fuck it off when the big bills arrive and let it be someone else’s problem. Out of curiosity I looked up a few of the cars I’ve owned, nearly all of them I’d not scrapped were on the slow boat to China for a sabbatical as a baked bean can six months after I’d sold them. 

Theres also this mentality of every used car out there being a sack of shit despite the shortcomings of the one you might already have. I’ve never actually replaced a car and it be worse than the one I sacked off. 

Replacing a consumable isn’t chucking good money after bad. It’s replacing something that you knew, at the outset, would likely wear out. It’s the same as tyres!

I’d never try and re-educate anyone, it’s up to you how you spend your own money after all! But I’m just fascinated how a few quid is the difference between fixing something that can then last another 10 years - or it becoming a washer/dryer. 

[Bren 12,431]

I enquired as to the full reg of the car so I could check the MOT history. No reply. Then the item was no longer on ebay.

I like our passat - you know it will always start - plus it has the right amount of technology not to be overly complicated.

The reason I had thought of getting rid was that to do all the jobs  I would have to spend around £700 with me doing the suspension. After that it still has a potential gearbox issue.

I have realised the landscape of cheap cars has changed - most people selling a cheap car do so because of issues / potential expense. Many of the small traders near me have packed up - a lot of it will be because of people buying new - but a lot will be because good stock is hard to find - people do not look after their cars any more.

[sierraman 13,383]

I run old bangers from a fiscal perspective, I’m not a very sentimental person about a 18 year old Mondeo for example. It’s used as a workhorse. I maintain it well don’t get me wrong, it’s maintained to the manufacturers specifications and on the dot so to speak but when all is said and done it’s a chunk of metal. I’ll give a few examples of my point.

Bought a Mk2 back in May 2017, paid £400 for it, repairs were fairly minor, were talking new brakes at the back, pair of tyres, a few bits here and there to pass the test CV boot etc. Anyway, 18 months down the line it’s starting to judder like fuck from the clutch when it’s hot, a weird vibration when changing down into 2nd. Some people’s philosophy might have been to fit a new clutch, but equally the vibration could have been an issue with the box as well. So that’s £400 plus another gearbox. Taking stock of things at the time it was also starting to go at the end of the sills and it was pissing water in something chronic. So it had to go. Sold it on to a chap for £450. Purchased a much better example for £500 that has given much better service already, doesn’t piss water in and has no other issues. 

 

Before that example I had a mk3 Estate, started with the usual smoking like fuck at idle bollocks that old diesels do. Fault finding isn’t an especially easy task with these, even if it was a case of simply swapping an injector, they all wear equally so I figured I had hassle ahead with that also assuming the pump wasn’t causing the failure. Anything on modern diesels like that and you are talking big bucks and I’m not pricing my labour so for the man in the street faced with a £500 bill that may or may not sort the problem you can see why people bale out. Any road, ended up selling it on for more or less what I bought it for after 12 months of use so it was happy days. Needless to say it’s fucking bean tins now but luckily not on my watch. 

What im saying then is that it was easy to to prescriptive when cars were simple and you could with surety nail what was wrong with it and fix it. It’s not quite that simple, you could spend a lot of money and not get to the bottom of it on a modern diesel. 

[Bren 12,431]

6 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I run old bangers from a fiscal perspective, I’m not a very sentimental person about a 18 year old Mondeo for example. It’s used as a workhorse. I maintain it well don’t get me wrong, it’s maintained to the manufacturers specifications and on the dot so to speak but when all is said and done it’s a chunk of metal. I’ll give a few examples of my point.

Bought a Mk2 back in May 2017, paid £400 for it, repairs were fairly minor, were talking new brakes at the back, pair of tyres, a few bits here and there to pass the test CV boot etc. Anyway, 18 months down the line it’s starting to judder like fuck from the clutch when it’s hot, a weird vibration when changing down into 2nd. Some people’s philosophy might have been to fit a new clutch, but equally the vibration could have been an issue with the box as well. So that’s £400 plus another gearbox. Taking stock of things at the time it was also starting to go at the end of the sills and it was pissing water in something chronic. So it had to go. Sold it on to a chap for £450. Purchased a much better example for £500 that has given much better service already, doesn’t piss water in and has no other issues. 

 

Before that example I had a mk3 Estate, started with the usual smoking like fuck at idle bollocks that old diesels do. Fault finding isn’t an especially easy task with these, even if it was a case of simply swapping an injector, they all wear equally so I figured I had hassle ahead with that also assuming the pump wasn’t causing the failure. Anything on modern diesels like that and you are talking big bucks and I’m not pricing my labour so for the man in the street faced with a £500 bill that may or may not sort the problem you can see why people bale out. Any road, ended up selling it on for more or less what I bought it for after 12 months of use so it was happy days. Needless to say it’s fucking bean tins now but luckily not on my watch. 

What im saying then is that it was easy to to prescriptive when cars were simple and you could with surety nail what was wrong with it and fix it. It’s not quite that simple, you could spend a lot of money and not get to the bottom of it on a modern diesel. 

Exactly. Personally it's why I think it's going to get much harder running an old banger.

[sierraman 13,383]

It probably is if you aren’t prepared to chuck it when the going gets rough. You’ve got to bear in mind though the vast majority of people can’t DIY it so if you can it’s not such an issue. You can’t be sentimental on something like that, you sort of want to buy some when it hits that sweet spot of being worth fuck all but someone has just spent a bomb on. Then move it on when it’s had it’s day financially.