Newer Diesels...

[Toms306]

I often think that a lot of what you see online is hearsay and that if you actually looked after your cars, serviced them at correct intervals with quality parts then how many of the 'common problems' would you actually experience?

Yeah you are right Chris, and I do understand that a lot of content owners aren't going to posting about it.

But the part above is the part that worries me I guess, when buying a used car, you have no idea about the previous owners (unless you buy a one owner car from that owner) so you don't know whether the cars been looked after or not...service history and exterior condition mean nothing in my experience.

And every car I buy seems to have the common faults occur during my ownership -

1.4 306 - headgasket + gearbox
1.8 306 - ICV
PD Golf - Turbo/DMF/Chocolate cam
Vectra B - waterpump failure
106 NAD - Driveshafts/snapped glowplug
306 estate - Rusty rear arch/snapped cat pipe/clutch slip/dying release bearing/door handle snapped
Vectra C - Snapped springs/sticky stat/stuck EGR
306 hatches - Door looms/water leaks

Now I know I'm clearly unlucky, but it's pretty obvious that if theres a common fault with a car, it WILL happen during my ownership! So I try to avoid them. But it does appear that there isn't a fault free car at all.