Thinking of buying one with 190,000km
Wich ia 130,000 miles.
Complete service history. Mainly highway use. Im from Europe.
What do you think ?
It's basically a VW passat for less money. not a bad looking car and certainly not short of creature comforts.
However it's not all good news, the Ambition has the 1.8 Tsi engine, which is basically a nightmare. Oil consumption issues, carbon buildup on the valves because of direct injection, and stretched timing chains.
Most of these have been allegedly fixed for the third generation engine, which would be in this particular car. However at 130K miles, most of these issues would start to crop up.
Get a good mechanic to inspect the car before buying, checking for those three issues above in particular.
Thank you.
@g-t thanks for letting me know of this question.
The Škoda Superb (2015/2016 - new) is quite honestly probably the best car but it is definitely not the most reliable.
The 1.8L Turbocharged engine (3rd generation EA888) is quite an engineering marvel (180 horsepower, 250NM while still doing 45 mpg on the highway) but it does have it's flaws:
- It can can experience low oil pressure because of faulty oil pumps and can clog up their oil systems mesh. Further more these engines tend to consume quite a bit of oil if services by the manufacturers recommendations (pretty much killing the engine entirely).
- replace the oil every 3,000-5,000 miles (5,000 - 7,500 km) kilometers, the 9,000 mile (15,000 kilometer) rating is absolutely fake and that will destroy the engine.
- The chain and timing system is not the most reliable and they do tend to fail prematurely causing either the chain to snap and destroy your engine or make your petrol car run like an old diesel.
- Overheating is a big issue, the engine has a coolant pump and coolant control values that are known to leak and the thermostat is quite buggy and can select inappropriate settings randomly.
- The following isn't an issue but a lot of people forget that it must be done: regulate your turbine range screw every 30,000 miles (40,000-50,000km).
Overall, I'm familiar with this engine from the SEAT LEON FR coupe and it honestly just blows everything else out of the water.
With that being said, It's a complex European engine (intake and exhaust delay, both GDI and MPI injection, Variable valve lift profiles) and these engines do last quite a lot with proper maintenance they can go 150,000-170,000 miles (250,000-270,000 km).
But they do breakdown, and they are not cheap or easy (AT ALL) to repair.
The biggest issue on Volkswagen products is definitely not the engine, it's VW's brilliant but troublesome DSG7 (in the case of the superb - DQ500).
The DQ500 is extremely overbuilt, it's rated to handle 2.5 times the torque that the superb engine makes - but still, like all dual clutch gearboxes in the class (like the Volvo MPS6 and Mercedes 7G) they do tend to wear out completely around 120,000 miles (200,000km).
although the reliability of the DQ500 is much better then the previous models, it is still the same flawed design
- solenoids and other mechatronic unit parts fail prematurely because of clutch particles that get suspended in the oil and it's very expensive to repair it.
- So to keep it working, make sure the oil was changed at least every 35,000 miles (60,000 km), otherwise by the time you get to 120,000-130,000 miles (200,000km - 210,000km) it will have completely wear out.
- These have the clutches suspended in oil so when you drive hard they can overheat the rest of the gearbox too, so make sure your head exchanger is always completely clean.
When the gearbox will experience issues, make sure to imitatively service it at a service center that has had previous experience with this exact type of gearbox.
This is overall an excellent car, European luxury and driving experience but they do have their big share of faults. under it's Czech skin, it's an Audi with your typical German engineering.
TLDR: overall this is great car, but it does have issues. I wouldn't recommend getting one with over 90,000 miles (150,000km) because they sadly do turn into money pits.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you
Hy!
This generation came out in 2015, so it is relatively new.
Some basic info about the car and the engine:
https://autospruce.com/1-8-tsi-tfsi-engine-review-problems-reliability/
https://www.whatcar.com/skoda/superb/estate/used-review/n916/advice
Perhaps @dan knows more!
Good luck!
the first link is great! it gives clear indications as to it's nominal oil consumption and the costs and way to fix the it's common issues
Thank you for the links
You're welcome!
We don’t have Skoda in the US, but we do have VW, which owns the Skoda brand. And uses similar platforms.
I do have additional questions to the OP.
Whats the difference between the TDI, TSI, and MPI engines of VW?
Is there one the OP should get and ones the OP should avoid?
Tdi- Turbo diesel Injection (self explanatory really, been around since 1980's if not earlier)
TSI- Turbo stratified injection (direct injection & turbo charged)
MPI- Multi Point Injection (it used to be just a Fancy name for Fuel injected rather than carburreted, now its more to do with sequential fuel injection where the amount of fuel and the timing of its injection is measured against what point of the combustion cycle each cylinder is at, resulting in less fuel wasted and less pre ignition of fuel)
And to answer the first part, VW make fantastic Diesel engines. So where possible get a 1.9 or 2.0 Tdi engine, regardless of the actual car model
TSI can be also supercharged engine
VW doesn't make 1.9 TDI engines anymore nor SDI ones (naturally aspirated diesel).