Thoughts on Buying an Auto(Diesel/Petrol) Verso from 2009

[GeorgeJoseph]

Hello All, 

I am toying with the idea of getting an automatic  Verso 7 seater for my wife ,I have seen some 2.2 diesels and some 1.8 petrols. The diesels I have seen have done about 95-100k miles. Do the diesels have DPF issues?

The petrol ones are in the 60-70k range. Is there any specific issue I should be looking for . Do the petrol 1.8l engines still have the oil drinking issue(My VVTI Avensis used to drink 1liter every 6000 miles, after it touched 90k on the clock.)? The average mileage done per year on the car would be under 10k miles. Do the diesels have DPF issues?

Any specific issues I should be looking for? After pruchase the car would be serviced in a local garage and not at Mr T.

Any thoughts/feedback appreciated.

Thanks,

George.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Any diesel can have dpf issues, depending partly on the type of journeys undertaken, etc.

The Verso from April 2009 used a CVT as the auto option. The petrol engines (1.6 and 1.8) were the newer Valvematic engines and don't suffer from high oil consumption issues, though depending on mileage some oil consumption may be apparent.

[Devon Aygo]

The diesel auto's will all have DPNR filters which whilst not having any "known" issues are susceptible to clogging/blocking like any modern diesel engine if the car is used for lots of short stop/start trips, city driving, extended engine idling etc the 1.8 valvematic is a much better choice in there circumstances and no the oil consumption issues didn't affect the later valvematic engine in the later Verso

 

[Sohoma]

I wouldn't go near that verso if it has the semi-auto gearbox where you can opt to change gears yourself like a tiptronic,  or drive in auto mode. That car might not be fully automatic... The semi auto has a clutch actuator change gears on a normal manual gearbox with the help of software.

It's a bad setup that will ultimately fail. No one will fix it for you should it fail. We had to junk our 07 verso because of problems with the actuator / clutch. The cheapest price to fix it was €1500. Toyota themselves priced themselves out of fixing it. I could find only one gearbox specialist in my area who would try to fix it for €1500. We decided to let the car go as it would have been the second time the actuator failed. The first time it failed, Toyota fixed it under a recall programme. 

The lesson we learned is not to buy a semi automatic ever again. Fully automatic is the way forward for us.

Best of luck to you. I hope that helps.

[Cyker]

Yeah, whatever one you get, make sure it's one with the CVT that Frosty mentions and not the older crappy MMT autobox that Sohama mentions!

The only half-decent semi automatic I've ever driven has been the DSG system used in VW/Audis, but even those have a downside (They're great but when they wear out it'll cost more than the car's worth to service it!)

You could also look at a Prius+ - Basically a Hybrid Verso. Because it's a HSD it has IMHO the best autobox on the market - Only downside is they are stupid expensive, even second hand! Also you'd probably have to service it at a Toyota garage for peace of mind - A lot of third-party garages aren't very experienced with rarer hybrids like the Prius+.

[GeorgeJoseph]

Thanks Guys. I am looking at a Verso Auto from 2014 based about 100+ miles from my place. The price is good, however, it did miss the very first 10k service. The very first service it had was one year later at close to 20 k miles - looks like someone miss understood the manual.

It does have full service history since then(the owner did get his facts corrected then I guess) and looks well maintained - any thoughts?

Thanks,

George

 

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Questionable about it being well maintained if it was first serviced one year, 10,000 miles late. Any remaining new car warranty and post warranty goodwill from Toyota in the event of a major repair will also be questionable due to the lapse in servicing.

I'd find another.

[GeorgeJoseph]

Thanks FrostyBalls, 

The car was serviced on the following dates:

03/11/2015 - 20 k
16/06/2016 - 27k 
12/05/2017 - 36k
26/09/2017 - 43k 

All done at pinkstone's Mr T. 

The car has now done 48k miles with 1.5 years left of the warranty - though my bigger doubt is if Mr T would cough up in the case of a warranty claim.

 

Thanks,

George.

 

 

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

The service history seems quite disjointed. Bearing in mind service intervals are 1 year or 10,000 miles, whichever comes first -

1. The second service was done 7.5 months/7,000 miles after the first, late service

2. The fourth service was done 4.5 months/7,000 miles after the third service.

We also don't know whether the service history followed the correct sequence of Intermediate services at years 1, 3, 5, etc, and Full services at years 2, 4, etc.

I'd still walk.