Keep 306 HDI or buy Fabia VRS

[powerandtorque]

This right here is the crux of the issue alright, most vag owners i know will think nothing of dropping £500 on a service, whereas most of you would scrap an hdi over that. Unfortunately that attitude affects reality and as such there's a lot more knackered hdis out there compared to stuff like the golfs.

Cheap cars attract cheap owners.

It happens to everything eventually once they fall to in price to below a grand or so, just unfortunate that French cars as well as stuff like Ford and Vauxhall tend to be cheaper when new and have heavier depreciation, so they fall into the hands of neglectful penny-pinching owners sooner.

As said though, it happens to everything eventually - just look at many aging "premium" cars (BMW, Audi, Lexus etc) that are now parked looking sorry for themselves in sink estates up and down the country. You know they're not going to even get an oil change, let alone a proper comprehensive service, and repairs will be limited to the bare minimum required to scrape through the MOT re-test. Anything vaguely sporty you know will get the same lack of care, only it'll be thrashed from cold everyday as well just to compound things...