SWMBO is on her 7th Golf diesel, initially 1.9's then she had a 2.0 followed by the last couple being 1.6's. All have been completely and utterly reliable. I have had 2 Passats (2.0 diesels) - again both reliable and not a single problem. The last one I changed jobs and was doing short journeys in it for a long time without a hint of the much maligned DPF problem.

I personally don't believe that VW are any better or worse than other manufacturers and that's based on my personal experience. However there appear to be a body of people on here and elsewhere that tell you VW diesels are trouble.

Ive had a number of friends with DPF's in Audi A4 2.0 and Golf having issues. One solution is to drill larger holes in the filters. I suspect that that the 1.6 has more DPF filters issues on the basis it driven harder.

Check out the owners forum.

I have had it mentioned by the local taxi firm, when there 1.6 diesel VAGS in any VAG vehicle get to 90,000 miles they are gotten rid off.

90,000 miles seems to be when they start costing alot of mney to keep on the road.

Worth pointing out a taxi will do 90k in a shorter time period than the average user but will also drive it harder with more start/stops/manouvering than an equivalent high mileage driver.

I have 61 plate Skoda Octavia with 1.6TDI CR. I bought it when it was 10 month old. It has been looked after well and maintained in line with Skoda Service Plan. It recently started to lose coolant water when it passed 60k. My journey isn't short/cold start. 50 Miles commute x 5 per week. I don't know if this is a small fix or big fix. I am in the process of getting rid of it. I don't know my experience is an isolated one or not.