28th Aug 2014, 07:06

Are you measuring in miles or kilometres? If so, my car has done 243,000 KM and doesn't use a drop of oil. The TDI Volkswagen engines they use in Skoda, VWs, Seats and Audis are European taxis firm's choices as they are robust, economical and they last forever. 300,000 to 400,000 miles is nothing on them and they don't use any oil. I had a Toyota Corolla 1.6 GLS and it was using 1 litre of oil every 1200 miles, and it had done 55,000 miles with a full Toyota service history. My dad got a brand new Honda Accord in 2003, the latest shape at the time, and that started to use a similar amount of oil after it had done 18,000 miles. Honda concluded that is a trait of the engine.

Honda have had to lay off more people at the Swindon plant because their cars aren't selling enough. Japanese cars in Europe are really quite expensive for what they are, and most people in this continent would rather a home-grown product which is more suited to our tastes. The mechanics on Japanese cars are pretty robust, but an engine using oil for me is a sign of wear, that's why I would never touch an Alfa. However suspension, exhaust and bearing parts in Japanese cars for the most part are poor quality and more expensive than average to repair. Volkswagen's warranty claims have gone down 48% in the last 5 years when Volkswagen decided to simplify their cars, making them easier and cheaper to repair, while maintain quality and improving reliability, as most modern cars are needlessly over complex. The new VWs are easier to do work on than the early to mid 2000s. The Mk5 Golf and that era of Volkswagen group cars were complicated to work on however.