Trade in against used car/Buy new/Hire

J

Jolly Man

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Hi guys,

Would really appreciate some advice currently driving a skoda octavia but it is giving me a lot of trouble and no longer have faith in it have spent about €1,500 in the last two months to put it right and its still not playing ball.
Would probably get €4,000 trade in! The thing is i am due a company car start of next year but i can no longer wait to get rid of the current one what would be the best most value for money way to go about getting this sorted?
Is it trade in against a used car thats more reliable? Trade in against a new car and sell next year or is there long term hire deals out there. Also just a note that i currently drive about 1,000 miles a week.

Any advice appreciated.
 
There's no point in buying new and selling in 6 months as you'll lose about 20% off the value as soon as you drive it out of the garage. To be honest your best bet is to sell privately if you can and then spend around €6k/€7k on an old , or other reliable car that will get you through the next few months.

Trading in you'll probably lose a fair amount as well, and not a lot of garages will take a trade-in if you're only spending small.

You could also sell your car and use the €4k to hire for the 6 months. Not sure exactly how much it will cost you but I'm sure it will be less than €4k, and besides, if you are using it for work then you are probably claiming mileage which at 1,000 miles per week will more than cover the running costs.
 
I would not like to sell the car privately when it is going so bad, but i think a trade in against a diesel is probably best unfortunately we do not get to claim all those miles we do.!!!
 
To either sell or trade in a car that's not going properly will mean a financial disaster.

What is the problem with it? Do you trust your garage/mechanic?
 
Umm trust is one way of putting it! My uncle is a main dealer! First car he sold me the engine blew, this is the second basically whats happening is while driving the accelerator pedal goes down by itself and starts going a little faster, but when it comes to stopping then after that and when you touch the clutch to down gear it will race up to 6 and 7 on the rev counter and the only way of stopping this is to turn off the key and if you do the car fails to start for 10 to 15 minutes after that! I took it to another mechanic a few weeks ago and he found a hole in one of the air feed pipes into the engine i replaced this, had it with the uncle before that to solve the problem cost me €900 but it happened again the following day!
 
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This happened me with the car I have at the moment. In my case it was a faulty 'Throttle Sensor' which was causing the revs to jump unexpectedly. Basically in newer cars these parts are electronic and they control the flow of air intake I think? This will have a direct effect on the acceleration as you are experiencing.

Fortunately my car was under warranty so the garage replaced the part, but it was all done very quickly so I can't imagine this is what's causing your problem, as it would have been fixed easily by now if it was.

How old is your car? How many miles etc?
 
Car has 113k Miles its a 2000 petrol, it could be as simple as that perhaps, they told me they hooked it up to the computer and found no faults so they cleaned the throttle body! for €900!
 
Jolly Man said:
Umm trust is one way of putting it! My uncle is a main dealer! First car he sold me the engine blew, this is the second basically whats happening is while driving the Escalator pedal goes down by itself and starts going a little faster, but when it comes to stopping then after that and when you touch the clutch to down gear it will race up to 6 and 7 on the rev counter and the only way of stopping this is to turn off the key and if you do the car fails to start for 10 to 15 minutes after that! I took it to another mechanic a few weeks ago and he found a hole in one of the air feed pipes into the engine i replaced this, had it with the uncle before that to solve the problem cost me €900 but it happened again the following day!
Click to expand...

That's a new term for it! :D
 
Jolly Man, it does sound like a trottle body or air flow meter.
Replace the air filter, clean the trottle body and clean the air flow meter.
If it was cleaned before and went ok for a short while, it just looks like it needs doing again.

You could get some carb spray, remove the air filter housing and spray short burst's of it in to the trottle body while reving the engine. Clean the Air mass meter with a dry cloth in your hand. Fit a new air filter. The whole lot should cost no more than €40.00 but might take a bit of time.

Worth a try before you give up on the old girl.
 
Thanks Mr2, i had replaced the air filter, tried carb spray etc etc to no avail it eases off for two days max after this. Its a 1.6 petrol Skoda octavia.
 
It really does sound like the air intake side of things. You could get a can og BG 44k and pour it into the fuel tank, it will help burn off most of the carbon build up on the valves but wont do any damage. This would help free up all the valves, help fuel consumption etc.

The car will be a bit smokey for a while, but this just means it's working. It's no harm to do this any way.

Are you in a position with your Uncle that he could swap a trottle body and air flow meter off another car just to see, there is only so much cleaning of both items you can do with out having to replace it.
 
According to Honest John, faulty throttle and air flow sensors are mentioned as possible problem areas for the 2000 Octavia.

[broken link removed]
 
Where would i get a can of this stuff to try it out? Driving the car home last night was an experience through the jack lynch tunnel id say people diid not know what was coming it started to race up to six on the revs and was amplified by the tunnel.

Would it take much to switch the throttle body?

At least since i replaced the air feed pipe when i do have to turn off the car it starts again. One plus i suppose!
 
Jolly Man said:
I took it to another mechanic a few weeks ago and he found a hole in one of the air feed pipes into the engine i replaced this, had it with the uncle before that to solve the problem cost me €900 but it happened again the following day!
Click to expand...

Take it back to them? €900 for nothing?
 
I can indeed. The problem though is with the mechanic through his inability to fix whatever the problem is, and not with you who paid him big bucks (for apparently nothing).

Be firm. Say "I paid you €900 to fix my engine, and you haven't done it. Please now do what I paid you to do".
 
RS2K, the problem is also "it's his uncle" so for most people you cant start ranting and raving at family, it can upset a lot of people in the family. A lot of people don't want to fall out with family.

Is your Uncle a main Skoda dealer? If not, you could bring it to your local Skoda dealer and get them to bill your uncle's garage for the fixed repair.

The trottle body isn't to bad to do. The whole job no more defo than an hour.
 
He is the main dealer, and as you said you can only say so much when family are involved! It should be up to him to fix it though and worst of all when i brought it to a mechanic down the road from my office here he pulled a load of insulation tape of one of the pipes. He said that was placed there by my uncles mechanics!!!

I really dont know what to do with it at this stage if i brought it to a another garage will it cost me much?
 
Mr2 said:
RS2K, the problem is also "it's his uncle" so for most people you cant start ranting and raving at family, it can upset a lot of people in the family. A lot of people don't want to fall out with family.

Is your Uncle a main Skoda dealer? If not, you could bring it to your local Skoda dealer and get them to bill your uncle's garage for the fixed repair.

The trottle body isn't to bad to do. The whole job no more defo than an hour.
Click to expand...

Understood. Uncle hardly did him any favours though. €900 for a non fix.
 
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