Looking to buy a A3 but dies it have too many miles?

[heap1000]

Hi guys, I am new to the forum and I am looking at buying an A3 1.9TDI 105bhp se 55 plate (2006).

The car has 166000 miles on the clock. It has had 2 owners first was a company car and then privately owned for 2 years. It has a full service history (14 stamps) Audi dealership till 143k. 2 cam belt changes at 75k and 132k plus water pump. Brakes pads at 147k.

I have seen the car and it is perfect out side and in the only wear I could see was on the drivers side window buttons. I have started the engine from cold and had it running for 10mins.aoi ded fine with no odd rattles.

Not been able to take it for a test drive yet so can't comment on that.

I am torn with my heart and my head. Heart loves the car but the head says it is too much mileage.
People have said these cars can do 300/400k if looked after.

Also they have said I could get a car with 80000 on it that might have been run short distance round town which would be worse for the car that 150k motorway miles??

What do you guys think?
How many miles can they do?
How much is on your clock?
What problems would I likely run into?

In theory I need the car to last me 4 years 40k miles while I pay off my loan.

Thanks

 

[Gummidge]

Hi, I paid over 5000 for my a3 3.2 v6 and it had 124,000 miles on it. I was having the same worry you had until I drove this car. I had looked at about 5 other v6's - one had 54,000 miles and felt like crap. Mileage has never worried me, the way I look at it is if a car has done some fairly high miles and still looks and drives great then it's a good motor.

Mine now has 129k and still drives perfect, everything is night and tight etc. It drives like a car with 20k on it. I would say just go for it if you are happy, having high mileage you should get it a little cheaper too as it's the first thing buyers will moan about

 

[SootySport]

Normally I would say a TDI with the history attached is a big bonus but 166k. miles is a lot. The favourite expensive items likely to fail on this engine would be the turbo and clutch, more than likely before 200k.
A mileage of 80k to 100k. I can't see any problem but 166k. would be a gamble. Depends on the price of course and as long as its cheap enough and you are prepared to pay for some repairs in the near future then go for it.

 

[Turbo jay]

Even at 80k-100k you could have problems with the turbo my went at 93k on my old 1.9tdi, but other than that had no problems with it great car served me well.

 

[heap1000]

Thanks for the input guys. Car will be costing me £3700.

I know what you mean about turbos blowing. I had a mg zr and that blew its turbo at 75k!

Suppose a car is a car and things can happen at any point in its life. Still a tough decision!

Going to speak to my local garage and see what he thinks.

 

[heap1000]

well in the end i did not go for the car, ended up getting a 04 plate 2.0 tdi SE with 107k miles.

Only picked it up today but loving it already feels alot quicker than my previous car which was a Citroen C4 2.0 HDI (138Bhp remapped to 173Bhp)

 

[MTRL]

Good job mate, enjoy.

Be sure to whack some photos up.

 

[a6_chris]

well in the end i did not go for the car, ended up getting a 04 plate 2.0 tdi SE with 107k miles.

Only picked it up today but loving it already feels alot quicker than my previous car which was a Citroen C4 2.0 HDI (138Bhp remapped to 173Bhp)

Just hope your engine code isn't BLB

Enjoy!

 

[heap1000]

Why's that mate? Mine is a BDK or something along those lines

 

[Strangely Brown]

BKD

 

[heap1000]

That's the one. I'm interested to know what is wrong with the BLB engine.

 

[denraf]

Mine had 200k on the clock when the bold of the cam belt tentioner broke of. Before that car was running absolute superb, with only a bit of turbo wining after remap. I had however the 2.0tdi. It all depends on your feeling when driving the car, the price and what mileage you drive anually.

 

[euphoria]

Purchased my A3 TDI 2.0 last week, it has done 115K miles, full audi history with cambelt changed etc, car feels perfect to drive, my brother also has one on 80k, and it feels the same, there well built! and i got £1000 off the price compared to an A3 with 75k/80k miles, you just have to stack it up, how much is a new clutch and turbo going to cost? add 20% to that for any other failures then see how much it would cost you for a car with less than 100k on it. my guess is you would be better off with the car with 160odd K and take the chance! i know i would!