A3 Passenger Side Rust

[jonnobailey]

Just need a bit of advise. I'm thinking about buying an Audi A3 2.0 TDI 53 plate, I test drove it today and it drove beautiful (as most A3's do).

As I was having a look round the car I noticed some rust just below the passenger side door - could anyone let me know if this is something I should stay away from or would this rust be of no harm to the car, apart from being a bit of an eye sore?

 

[SootySport]

That kind of rust used to be quite common on old cars where the sill drain holes were blocked. Also the car may have been standing in flood water in it's past history. If water is still retained inside the sill the problem will get worse and result in MOT failure.
The near side of the car is also subject to more stone chipping than the offside in normal road use so could be just historical damage and just need rubbing down and repainting.
I would leave it and look elsewhere, plenty A3's for sale.

 

[jonnobailey]

Hi, thanks for your reply - I'll stay away from this one. I have found another A3 for sale, same year but in blue. I haven't drove it yet but what would be your view on high mileage 2.0 TDI's. This one has 140k miles, considering it has recently had a new cambelts and water pump. It also has almost FSH.

 

[Qasim91]

Hi, thanks for your reply - I'll stay away from this one. I have found another A3 for sale, same year but in blue. I haven't drove it yet but what would be your view on high mileage 2.0 TDI's. This one has 140k miles, considering it has recently had a new cambelts and water pump. It also has almost FSH.

I have an a3 2.0 tdi at 192k miles currently. The engines are very good just make sure you look out for their common problems like flywheel and turbo. With the one at 140k see if it has had turbo or flywheel changed they tend to go usually 100k+ usually. Both mine were done at 120k.