A) Are there any immediate concerns with such a car?
B) What should I look out for when buying a used Octavia, sitting around 150,000 to 200,000.
C) Petrol or Diesel
D) What size engine, 1.8 and above?
Any help for a first time buyer is much appreciated, and maybe even comments from those that have the car. or considered buying this one but chose something else!
Is there a service history of that car available, all the work and repairs done?
It has no warranty, so everything will be on you. The DSG would be my primary area of concern there. VAG's warranties all expire at 150k km, AFAIK. At least they do for Skoda.
It is due for MFK, from what I can see. Have the dealer do the MFK (which he thinks it will pass with only cleaning the engine compartment, if you go by the price).
Doesn't come with a tow-bar, so at least it hasn't spent 100k km towing a 2t trailer.
If you see it, make sure the tires are equally worn out, so you at least know its track is calibrated.
Do you drive a lot?
My main problem as someone who doesn't drive a lot and has been driving the same old car for 20+ years is that I don't really know, when driving another car and something feels "odd" or "different" with another car is it just "different" or an actual problem?
E.g. I can't stand the delay these cars have between pushing down the pedal and the car actually moving forward. How can people live with that?
You should definitely avoid a 1.8 or lower in an Octavia as these have the dry clutch DSG gearboxes, that are not good. I'm not sure if this 2.0 TDI has the dry or the wet clutch version.
Apart from that, buying such a car is about luck. It did a lot of KM in a relatively short time, which means that it was probably mainly driven on highways with a nice warm engine. I would definitely check the condition of brakes, DPF and tyres as they are key cost drivers.
A general search finds many newer cars with less mileage. Why particularly this car, or better, what are your must haves in a car? What will you use it for?
The car has literal rails in the roof to mount a HUGE box. There are at least 3 people giving away free ski boxes on tutti.ch https://www.tutti.ch/de/li/ganze-schweiz?q=dachbox&sp=1 More economical to use a roof box when there's a lot of thing to carry in a small car, instead of moving 300-500 kg of a larger car for the 3-4 times a year when lots of things need to be moved.
@OP: about the diesel engine, it's a Euro 6b standard. So, it's allowed to go into the low emission zones of urban areas for now. 5-6 years down the road, the car may not be able to enter low emission zones, maybe. Check the restrictions of the cities you visit https://urbanaccessregulations.eu/
Also, as rainer_d mentioned, the DSG transmission is a worrying point. This car could run perfectly on a manual or a bomb-proof torque converter auto, but.....VW wanted to be fancy and the DSG is just there waiting to cause issues. It shouldn't be hard to find a skoda octavia in manual, it's the best selling car in CH
PS. once I had an Opel Corsa(GM Chevy at home) with a huge roof box and 3 bike racks. Even with the tiny car I could carry more and larger stuff than useless SUVs. Of course, 90-100 km/h max.
It will be a definite struggle in the mountains with a huge roof box, +people in a Space star during the winter months, let alone the comfort during the long motorway driving OP is planning to do
How nice it would it be with a SUV with huge roof box, 3 bike racks and the capability of reaching over 120km/h + effortlessly... possibilities are endless
Yes, my comment was about your remark on the Opel corsa and SUVs being useless
OPs link is about Octavia. Its a much bigger car than a Corsa and quite nice for long drives. He's a first time buyer.. best to have all possibilities considered rather than buying a smaller car and then looking for something bigger in a few months
For example small features like having an arm rest in the middle of front seats will help... Corsas, space stars and most other smaller cars do not have them.
haha. well, cultural differences. If I understand well the locals, the Skoda Octavia combi is an spacious family car. With extended capabilities of pulling a trailer or mounting things on the roof.
So far, I have not driven a car where you can use the armrest while a proper steering wheel position and 2 hands on the wheel. To use the armrest, I need to drive with one hand which is a NO for highway driving. Only acceptable 1 hand driving is off-road with the lower range gears engaged, no input to gas pedal and holding a beer in the other hand
I'd buy up to five years older than the OPs suggestion and therefore look for lower milage. And probably a better car... as the depreciation will be "done" by then.
I know that people will disagree but I have driven the various VW group cars and yes, they are based on the same technology... but the drive and ride is worlds apart. I had an Octavia just like this one as a loaner from a garage... didnt like it at all, especially the diesel engine was just annoying. I know they are very popular because they work well... so companies buy them for the craftsmen driving all day to customers. But I would spend the same sort of money for something like this: same size and practicability, better car all around, petrol engine with the same level of power but more fun... and its most importantly not white.