I bought a peugeot 205 deisel with 115,000 miles on the clock and apart from one episode with a leaking brake pipe gave faultless service until I sold it with 178,000 miles on the clock. It was still running great then. The oil was changed every 3000 miles without fail.
I would make sure that any 1.9 litre VAG diesel (Volkswagen Audi Group, so Skoda, Seat, Ford Galaxy are included) has had injectors changed at around 75-80,000 miles. As the injectors wear, the spray pattern changes to an oval and it sprays the sides of the cylinder bore causing premature wear.
High mileage is certainly not a problem if the miles have been done up and down our motorway network, but I certainly wouldn't want a high mileage taxi. As an example I used to ride Police motorcycles for the Met: bikes from the Driving School which had seen plenty of hard use in 3rd, 4th & 5th gears were fine at high miles, but bikes from my central London garage used mainly in 1st, 2nd & 3rd gears were shot to bits at 60K.
Quote: Originally posted by jeepster on 02/11/2007
Beware! To me high mileage diesel (that's high for it's age), means ex taxi!
thousands of high mile diesels are ex fleet / lease cars . check the service history and /or previous owner on the V5 log book. 1 company owner with full service history is ideal , mine was a Lex vehicle replaced at 80k at 4 years old.many lease companies replace at 2 to 4 years old and if you can get a full print out of all servicing done as many do then all the better.
i had a bmw 318I that had done167000 and i never had any problems with it
then i brought a escort with 49000 on it and had nothing but trouble with it sold that and got a passat TDI estate with a 115000 on it and its now done 133000 with no problems what so ever touch wood still going strong
Hi, I have a 1995 Landrover Discovery 300 TDI. 130K on the clock, returns approx. 30.mpg. cost me £260 in repairs ( brakes, tyres, service etc. ) in the last 2 years, I know it's an "M" reg but to me that dos'nt matter, it's great to drive and when going onto a field pulling the van, i know it will do what i want, it starts off the button every time, and pulls like a steam train, I was told by a landrover mechanic the oil should be changed every 6000K, if done, i should have no trouble, and i have'nt. had any trouble with it, everyone to their own choice. but i can highly reccomend them.
I think the point is being missed here on a couple of posts-older diesels are cheap to repair & easy to diy-the problem with modern cars is that while the engines & gearboxes should last the life of the car(200k miles+)the problem is the huge cost of of repairs to the bits bolted onto & screwed into the engine nowadays-in the 70s you could do a Cortina clutch in 2 hrs-now main dealers know its only them who can carry out repairs because only they have the software, they have a monopoly so their hourly rates are thru the roof-If you try & save money & get the repair done cheaper at a small garage they may botch it-if you you do average mileage you know you can buy a 3yr old car off a main dealers forecourt with 30k miles on it & you should(possibly) get 4 yrs reasonably trouble free use out of it-buy the same 3 yr old car with 120k miles it will be without warranty & maybe £3k cheaper, it could go wrong just as your going on yer hols & your main dealer will be booked up for a week---just the chance you take-
I wouldn't say because a garage is bigger that you get impeccable service. A lot of work is given over to apprentices. With smaller garages you usually get a mechanic who has done many years in the trade and has pride in his work because if he doesn't it comes back to him personally. Also main dealers just bolt on complete replacements of oe parts at monstrous prices, whereas the garage I go to gets similar parts at much cheaper prices.
I think the best policy is to find a good small garage and keep it to yourself as the problem is usually that they have so much work on.
I wasnt saying main dealers give immpeccable service-as you say the reverse can be true--but if a repairs goes wrong at least you have comeback & genuine parts will have been used--go to small garage & no comeback-as you say the trick is to find a good one you trust--large or small--for instance Citroens get sl*gged but Ive no complaints with my Citroen dealer in Colchester, their whole setup is excellent & I would get another Citroen just because of them---
I used to work for a firm which made oe parts for Jaguar, vauxhall, nissan, land rover. They also made aftermarket parts for almost every vehicle. They didn't make oe equipment for Ford but have supplied ford for aftermarket spares, but had to grind the company logo off the castings so that people buying from ford dealers didn'r realise they were paying something that could have been bought at halfords cheaper.
Higher mileage wouldn't put me off.
I'd sooner buy a 120k 4yr old than a 15k 4yr old.
90% of engine wear takes place in the first 5 mins from cold. It depends on type of driving that it has done. An engine that has sat at optimum temperature on a motorway for 8 hrs a day will wear less than a school run run-about that hardly gets up to temperature on each journey.
The diesel Avensis incidentally has a lower towing capacity than the petrol (1300kg for the D4D vs 1400kg for the VVTi).
Not sure about the rest but given the choice of all the modern diesels I'd go for the 130bhp TDCi Mondeo. It really is a fantastic engine. The VAG diesels are also very good but tend to be that little bit more expensive to buy.
We have a local taxi firm with a TDCi Mondeo that has done 280k on the same engine.
I wasnt saying main dealers give immpeccable service-as you say the reverse can be true--but if a repairs goes wrong at least you have comeback & genuine parts will have been used--go to small garage & no comeback-as you say the trick is to find a good one you trust--large or small--for instance Citroens get sl*gged but Ive no complaints with my Citroen dealer in Colchester, their whole setup is excellent & I would get another Citroen just because of them---
I copied this and sent it to Mr Tolley, I recon he'll be chuffed.lol
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"If I let go of what I am, I can become what I might be".
Credit where credits due Jeeps-I suppose its company policy but Ive never met a garage before where everybody is so damn nice to you--
The best garage I ever went to was in the New Forest about 35 years ago. It wasn't far from where there is a Ford, near to the Bulmer Lawn Hotel. Probably gone now, but they were so good they let me sit in the owners office in his chair and read his paper! They had signs everywhere proclaiming the rights of the customer!
The best one around here that I know of is Eaves at Stoke by Nayland, another family run business!
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"If I let go of what I am, I can become what I might be".
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Topic: What about HIGH MILEAGE
