At this age the engine will be the 16v Normally Aspirated Multi Point Injection engine as also found in the Sean Ibiza etc of the same age. I (well my son now) have had a version of this engine in my old 2001 Octavia 1.416v owned from new which now has 130,000 miles and burns very little oil.

On my version it was known to block up parts of the oil breather system if only driven short mileages (which mine was for a while) which then turned it into an oil burner as the increased crankcase pressure blew oil past the valve seals - mine did this a few years ago at about 80k miles (roughly) but was a very easy fix. The engine can be known to sound a bit "tappy" when cold which is a bit of piston slap - mine did this from an early age/mileage but has not really got any worse - dealer at the time said this was normal. It does rather like a higher octane petrol though otherwise you can detect a touch of "pinking" which is not good for the rather shallow pistons.

Overall it's been a pretty reasonable engine which has tugged our Octavia along well giving early to mid 40's mpg.

Simple engine with no turbo or direct injection and no timing chain to worry about (the EA111 1.2tsi fitted to the same car had issues with this) although the cam belt/tensioners/water pump needs changing every four years/40,000 miles or whichever is sooner. If left longer the tensioners are known to fail.

Myself I wouldn't rule it out especially if the price is right!

Edited by Big John on 25/01/2019 at 20:00