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I had a Mokka with presumably the same engine, never gave any problems tbh...
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Take a look on the Astra owners forum. There does seem to be an unusually high incidence of engine issues . I’m not convinced any of these small capacity turbo engines are any good . Peugeot, Ford, Nissan have all got problems.
Toyota 1.2T seemed a good engine, typical that it should be discontinued in this country.
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Take a look on the Astra owners forum. There does seem to be an unusually high incidence of engine issues . I’m not convinced any of these small capacity turbo engines are any good . Peugeot, Ford, Nissan have all got problems.
Toyota 1.2T seemed a good engine, typical that it should be discontinued in this country.
The Suzuki 1.0 Boosterjet too.
A Swift with that engine should be just about doable on the OP's budget. otherwise there is also the slightly bigger, roomier, but arguably less desirable Baleno.
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The OP should take a look on the Astra forum to get a feel for reliability of the 1.4T. certainly there are more complaints for the early ones but things were improved by software updates and two changes of oil spec.
Service history of the one sited would be essential. Those wheels aren't standard and neither were heated seats. But it does have a spare wheel if that's important.
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I’m not convinced any of these small capacity turbo engines are any good . Peugeot, Ford, Nissan have all got problems.
Have you owned one? We have had 4 now (all VAG) and all have been excellent. They drive brilliantly and have great mpg. No issues at all.
We have also had a small supercharged Nissan. Again no issues, great mpg but driving it was not as good as the turbo's.
OP, get in one and try it. I was convinced withing 100 yards on my first drive and I have had no reason to change my mind.
Many on here would have you buy a Mazda or Honda with the larger non turbo petrol. I have driven a couple and have to say I was more than disappointed. To get them to go at decent speed you really have you rev them whereas the small turbo's do exactly the same from 1500 rpm onwards.
There are no downsides to them in my experience.
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Many on here would have you buy a Mazda or Honda with the larger non turbo petrol. I have driven a couple and have to say I was more than disappointed. To get them to go at decent speed you really have you rev them whereas the small turbo's do exactly the same from 1500 rpm onwards.
In fairness, you don't have to rev them hard to get to motorway speeds, they will get there with moderate throttle input, it will just take longer. But most folk have no patience, so this would be considered unacceptable!.
Also, once you are used to the torque delivery of a turbo (petrol or diesel), a n/a engine is going to feel slow regardless of whether that actually is the case.
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I’m not convinced any of these small capacity turbo engines are any good . Peugeot, Ford, Nissan have all got problems.
Have you owned one? We have had 4 now (all VAG) and all have been excellent. They drive brilliantly and have great mpg. No issues at all.
We have also had a small supercharged Nissan. Again no issues, great mpg but driving it was not as good as the turbo's.
OP, get in one and try it. I was convinced withing 100 yards on my first drive and I have had no reason to change my mind.
Many on here would have you buy a Mazda or Honda with the larger non turbo petrol. I have driven a couple and have to say I was more than disappointed. To get them to go at decent speed you really have you rev them whereas the small turbo's do exactly the same from 1500 rpm onwards.
There are no downsides to them in my experience.
To be fair, you (wisely) chose the best VAG engines on offer. Don't forget that the chain-driven 1.4 twin charger with its litany of issues, the 1.8TSI and 2L all had chain issues and the 1.8, if I recall, had major oil usage problems earlier in its life. The 1.5TSI, the successor to your 1.4, had that 'kangerooing issue' which took 2 years and a lot of fancy software to get right.
VAG's TSI engines have been around a good while longer than the competition and thus are that far ahead in terms of R&D, rather like Merecedes were when the smaller capacity turbo engines appeared in Formula1. They aren't top dogs any more.
As cars have gone over to hybrids and eventually EVs, you might find that some makes that took a punt by going in one direction (or not) may subsequently have the upper hand later on, especially if world events (and thus legislation) take an unexpected turn.
As regards the up or downsides, I would suggest that long term usage (and thus reliability / cost of ownership / real world environmental issues) will be the best guide to whether certain tech stands the test of time. I would say we're still in the 'wait and see' period for a lot of car engine tech. There is something to be said for keeping it simple.
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I would say we're still in the 'wait and see' period for a lot of car engine tech. There is something to be said for keeping it simple.
Turbo's are hardly new technology. Saab was fitting them to production cars in the late 70's, plenty more came along in the 80's. Small turbo's were plentiful by the early 90's.
How long is the wait and see period going to last?
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I would say we're still in the 'wait and see' period for a lot of car engine tech. There is something to be said for keeping it simple.
Turbo's are hardly new technology. Saab was fitting them to production cars in the late 70's, plenty more came along in the 80's. Small turbo's were plentiful by the early 90's.
How long is the wait and see period going to last?
The problem was that they weren't fitted to that many petrol-engined cars in the 80s, 90s and up until the mid 2000s. Most turbocharged petrol engined cars were high performance ones, a good number of which were NOT very reliable. For example, I don't think that the Renault 5 turbo or Ford Escort RS were paragons of reliability.
As I mentioned before, it's only been in the last 15 years that turbocharged, small capacity engines have been utlilised en-masse, and as we've discussed, many have certainly NOT been reliable, including a fair number from the 'TSI' brand from VAG.
I don't recall seeing many early TSI engined 'normie' VAG cars on the road compared to the many naturally aspirated Japanese equivalents, yet the former were sold in big numbers. Whilst you've contended that you've owned your ones for a reasonable amount of time before selling/PXing, if I recall that was only a maximum iof about 7 years from new and often a fair bit less.
Most older turbocharged VAGs I see are TDIs (and mainly the legendary 1.9PDI) and a few Golf GTIs, though they seem to be 'pimped-up rides' and thus likely have had a LOT of work done on them to keep them going.
The belt-driven 1.4 TSI 140 / 150PS COD unit you've twice (as I recall) chosen has been by far the best of the bunch, and I give yoiu credit for choosing it - I was seriously thinking of going the same route (partly down to your and other Backroomers' recommendations) a few years ago with a Golf 3dr 1.4 GT / Leon SC 1.4 FR, but didn't only because I wanted an auto, and wasn't keen on any dual clutch gearboxes because of reliability concerns due to my driving pattern (lot fo heavy traffic driving on my commute) at the time.
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I would say we're still in the 'wait and see' period for a lot of car engine tech. There is something to be said for keeping it simple.
Turbo's are hardly new technology. Saab was fitting them to production cars in the late 70's, plenty more came along in the 80's. Small turbo's were plentiful by the early 90's.
How long is the wait and see period going to last?
The problem was that they weren't fitted to that many petrol-engined cars in the 80s, 90s and up until the mid 2000s. Most turbocharged petrol engined cars were high performance ones, a good number of which were NOT very reliable. For example, I don't think that the Renault 5 turbo or Ford Escort RS were paragons of reliability.
I think with the Renault 5 turbo the basic lump was OK, it was the carburettor set up causing fuel starvation from heat soak, and the turbo wasn't water cooled, not to mention the oil at the time was not as advanced for hot turbos. A great car when working properly.
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Take a look on the Astra owners forum. There does seem to be an unusually high incidence of engine issues . I’m not convinced any of these small capacity turbo engines are any good . Peugeot, Ford, Nissan have all got problems.
I normally listen and agree with your undoubtedly wise advice Doc but this time you are very wrong I'm afraid......
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In fairness, you don't have to rev them hard to get to motorway speeds, they will get there with moderate throttle input, it will just take longer. But most folk have no patience, so this would be considered unacceptable!.
Its not about patience for me, its about driving pleasure and having a car that does not accelerate quickly is a car that is difficult to overtake in. That may not matter to many but until its outlawed I want to be able to press on (at legal speeds) and that means taking every opportunity to get past slower traffic and many cars do not have the mid range to do that
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Genuinely hard to know what’s good these days. I might go drive it and then decide !
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........ I’m not convinced any of these small capacity turbo engines are any good . Peugeot, Ford, Nissan have all got problems.
I normally listen and agree with your undoubtedly wise advice Doc but this time you are very wrong I'm afraid......
Agreed. Clearly the early examples had problems, but now mostly sorted. Now that it has a satisfactory cambelt , the award winning Peugeot 1.2 puretech engine seems to be OK after 2018. Ours is, anyway - 130hp yet still well over 40mpg in our 2008 auto EAT6 (long term trip reads 42.7 - mainly Mrs F's driving - I can get far more!).
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"the award winning Peugeot 1.2 puretech engine"
I wouldn't put too much faith in awards. Ford's Ecoboost engine has won a shed load.
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Of course, if awards are important to you, the Astra was European CoTY in 2016 :)
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Of course, if awards are important to you, the Astra was European CoTY in 2016 :)
It was in 1985 too.
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Of course, if awards are important to you, the Astra was European CoTY in 2016 :)
It was in 1985 too.
I had two mkII Astra company cars back in the day - great cars in the late 80's. Surprisingly capable long distance vehicles. I also was given a 1300 Maestro which was less so!! I was doing about 68k miles a year back then - wouldn't want to do that now.
Edited by Big John on 05/02/2023 at 18:31
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Indeed it was. I had a Mkll as well. Wasn't as well built as the Mkl which preceded it.
We have also had an Uno (1984 winner), a Punto (1995 winner), Panda (2004 winner) and of course, the current Astra. Can't say the award influenced us in any way though.
Edited by Chris M on 05/02/2023 at 18:42
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I had a MK1 Astra. It was 17 years old by the time I got, but half the switches fell out of the dash when you closed the doors, it had the worst automatic choke ever and I had to tighten the clutch cable monthly. Other than that...
My gran had a Mk2 1.3 Auto. She died over ten years ago, but I reckon her car is still accelerating towards 60.
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My gran had a Mk2 1.3 Auto. She died over ten years ago, but I reckon her car is still accelerating towards 60.
One of mine was a 1300 manual MkII and was pretty nippy for the day. Way better than the two 1300cvh MkIII Escorts that preceded it - which were really thirsty as well. Part of this might have been my run in procedure , the 1300 mkII Astra was my first brand new company car. Previously after driving other similar cars(especially Cortina 1'6's) the real life performance always seemed to be matched to the first owner so rather than just driving like Miss Daisy to run it in I varied my driving style from the off including giving it some beans. That 1300 was always a rather lively one! I've done this ever since to any new cars I've had.
Edited by Big John on 05/02/2023 at 19:50
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I had two mkII Astra company cars back in the day - great cars in the late 80's. Surprisingly capable long distance vehicles.
No doubt that slippery shape played its part.
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Of course, if awards are important to you, the Astra was European CoTY in 2016 :)
It was in 1985 too.
Was that the one with the fancy orange 'Knight Rider' / Honda S200 style speedo on the range-topper? I always thought that looked cool when I was a kid.
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Mid 80s Astra Gte with the digital dash . Also fitted to the senator . Very good it was too . Clear display with a digital speedo read out . Flick of a switch, and it changed to kph .
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My understanding of the 1.4 turbo in the Astra
the early version of this engine had a few issues the main one being the head gasket can go although no one ever seemed to find out the exact cause, Vauxhall did carry out an ECU update which helped solved it.
There is also an oil spec upgrade , I can’t recall exactly but they changed the spec of oil the engine should use to help reduce issues.
GM were rubbish, they knew for months about reports of head gasket failure but turned a blind eye, much like Ford with the eco boost issues and VW with the TSI and DSG issues,
Edited by daveyK_UK on 06/02/2023 at 06:37
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You won’t do better than a Leon Fr 1.4 pref in 150 bhp form though the 125 bhp isn’t bad. Loads of low down torque, quick and 50+ mpg. Only down side is 5yr cam belt intervals.
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You won’t do better than a Leon Fr 1.4 pref in 150 bhp form though the 125 bhp isn’t bad. Loads of low down torque, quick and 50+ mpg. Only down side is 5yr cam belt intervals.
Personally I'd be looking to specifically avoid the FR in favour of a trim with smaller wheels more amenable to UK roads. but regardless, there are only nine (third gen) Leon 1.4TSI's nationwide on Autotrader within the OP's £7.5k budget. And of those, only four have done less than 100k miles.
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"the award winning Peugeot 1.2 puretech engine"
I wouldn't put too much faith in awards. Ford's Ecoboost engine has won a shed load.
That's another example of an intrinsically good engine's reputation trashed by a faulty component. In Ford's case it was a duff coolant hose which split, dumping the coolant.
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there are only nine (third gen) Leon 1.4TSI's nationwide on Autotrader within the OP's £7.5k budget. And of those, only four have done less than 100k miles.
Just shows how mad prices are currently. When I PX'd my 3 year and 8 month old Leon 1.4 TSi SE 140 PS back in early 2017 I got £7200 for it which at the time was a good price considering the discounts I was getting off the new Superb. It was as good a car you would find, 35,000 miles, full service history, no accident damage, wheels unmarked interior unmarked, tyres had about 5 mm tread, a few stone chips (as expected) plus it still had just over a year of the Seat extended warranty left. It was traded out to a local VAG specialist who had it on his site for £8500 (way too much) and over the next 9 months it slowly dropped and eventually sold for about £7500. Since the 4th service was presumably late by about 6 months I doubt the warranty was still valid but still a good car.
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John F,
And VAG with their sub standard timing chains a few years back.
These gongs are awarded before any of the quality control issues surface.
Edited by Chris M on 06/02/2023 at 11:59
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Amazing that some manufacturers 1.4t engines are a bit sub par. Suzuki's Boosterjet engines especially the 1.4t variety were an absolute hoot, I found it bulletproof. So much so I bought another one tge 1.0t 3cyl version and again superb.. Sadly its all gone a bit Hybrid and I've not had one of those.
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Amazing that some manufacturers 1.4t engines are a bit sub par. Suzuki's Boosterjet engines especially the 1.4t variety were an absolute hoot, I found it bulletproof. So much so I bought another one tge 1.0t 3cyl version and again superb.. Sadly its all gone a bit Hybrid and I've not had one of those.
I currently have a Vitara ( mild hybrid) with the 1.4T, it is as you say a absolute hoot, probably a little bit more than yours thanks to the leccy motor!
I did briefly have a Baleno courtesy car with the 1.0T engine, that was also superb.
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