SE 1.6 TDI (105ps) 5dr Estate

A good, practical family car if you're doing the miles required for a diesel engine to function but beware of the common faults

I've had this car now for nearly 3 years. In this time it has been mostly very reliable and passed every MOT with only very minor advisories, but there has been one notable exception - the EGR valve. This engine is renowned for its EGR issues. When I bought it I was doing around 15k miles a year. Since the end of 2014 I've done around 10k miles a year. The EGR valve went first in April 2015 when it suddenly went into limp mode on a hill in the outside lane of the motorway. Moving over 4 lanes of traffic and then getting it back home with no acceleration was not fun. We had it replaced at a cost of around £350 with a VW part that was guaranteed for 2 years and allegedly much stronger than the one it was replacing. It went again this January (2017) after only 22k miles, with the car going into limp mode at anything over 2000rpm, although initally it was difficult to determine whether it was the EGR valve, the DPF, or something else. After much toing and froing with a local garage who were unable to determine what exactly was wrong with it due to the codes it threw up only being fully decipherable by VW, it went into the dealership.

To VW's credit they replaced the part under the warranty, even though they hadn't fitted it, but twice in 2 years is enough for me. The car has been off the road for the best part of 2 months whilst we tried to determine what was wrong with it and the ABS unit has now also gone wrong, at a cost of just over £1,000 to replace because although VW used to make a repair kit for it (because guess what, it's another known fault that they haven't rectified/recalled), they don't with the Mark VI and you have to buy a whole new unit (£800 just for the part).

Good points: The mpg is very good, turning in around 45-50mpg around the lanes (less if I rag it) and up to 60mpg on the motorway. It handles well and for only 105bhp it's relatively pokey when needed as long as you remember to use a gear lower than you think you'll need. It pulls well in 5th on the motorway and is comfortable and quiet in the cabin. Tax is only £30 a year and the tyres are relatively inexpensive to replace. The boot is cavernous - it had two pushchairs, luggage and a dog in it on one journey.

I reckon it's a reasonably safe bet if you want a practical, sensible family car, but do your research, and be scrupulous about finding out how it's been driven if you're buying secondhand. It's not a car that encourages you to push it as it just doesn't have the oomph and this is a death knell to diesels that don't do long journeys regularly. It's not what I would call exciting, but then I didn't buy it for that. If I did more miles and therefore hadn't experienced the EGR issues I would probably hang onto it, but it's too much of a gamble for me now that it's gone twice, and the ABS issue was the icing on the cake.

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