Buying an ultra-low mileage 1.9TDI

[proze]

Morning, new member hoping for some advice, here. I've found an ultra-low mileage PD130 Avant locally. It's a one-owner, old couple's car was has had 20000 miles put on it since 2005. It has a service history, including the timing belt in 2014, shocks, tires and oil-change in 2015. It seems to be in excellent condition inside, apart from some of the rubber coming off the radio/AC buttons. It is priced at a 50% premium over cars with 100k+ miles on them.

The service book says it's done about 2000 miles every year, so it never stood idle for years and years. What should I look out for?

[diagnosticator]

Look at everything that will deteriorate from exposure to the air especially if it is near the coast. All rubber items, door and window seals, suspension bushings, etc. The cooling system most likely needs maintenance. fresh coolant/anti-freeze. The lubricating oil in the rear axle need changing, and the power steering fluid also. The engine oil is on a long OCI, most likely. Long interval OCI saves oil, but it is really hard on the engine. Here in US/Can we don't use long OCI, and change the oil every 5000 miles or once per year on a seldom driven car. There is only one way to limit the amount of contamination of the oil, regardless of if it is still lubricating good, the oil must be changed more frequently than the long OCI allows. Deposits will build up in engines with the longer OCI. When a car is only driven on short trips, that is considered heavy duty service and requires more oil changes compared to a car driven mostly on the highway.
It's hard to say, but 2000 miles a year equals sitting most of the time. Even with the low mileage, if the car was driven enough to get up to temp at least once a week would be prefered. Cars that get driven frequently always stay in better condition compared to cars that sit unused a lot. If you buy this car, be prepared to fix a lot of age related problems that could show up with more frequent driving. It won't typically be large expensive items, more small annoying items that will cause trouble. Change the oil, using a high quality synthetic, the cost is small in comparison to the negative effects cheap oil seldom changed causes. Use some diesel fuel system cleaner regularly. Diesel fuel treatment is an added expense, but the cost is small compared to not using it.

[f1torrents]

Its also crazy easy to change the KM on these cars.
With the TDi it is also stored in the ECU and you can check it with VCDS to see if it matches.
It is also easy to change it in there but some people are lazy or dont know its also stored in there.