SEL 2.0 TDI CR Estate

Will never buy a VW again

My fourth car from the VW group (Bora, Audi A4, Caddy van beforehand) and i will,never buy another. Bought the car with 50k miles on it from franchised dealer with 12 month warranty. Two days before warranty ran out engine malfunction light came on and car went into limp mode. Garage told me it was the turbo, only about 80k miles. Didn't care as under warranty but suspect it was the turbo acuator as was fixed in a day. One year later after repeated engine lights and limp mode the EGR valve finally gave up. Replaced at non franchised dealer, mileage would only have been about 100k miles. Suspension was always a problem. Back of car would hit the floor with any weight in it and if any people in car over rough roads the car would bounce really uncomfortably. Had to change rear shocks and springs. Thinking back this had always been a feature of the car.
Thinks for worse earlier this year. Car starting cutting out whilst driving. Checked out fault code myself and it said throttle manifold fault and a short circuit to ground. Brought back to main dealer I purchased the car from, Throttle manifold had to be changed. Two weeks later car continued to cut out. VW said if it is throttle manifold would replace under warranty. Took to non franchised dealer. Still had short circuit to ground. Guy checked everything and car fired up perfectly without actually doing anything. Car then cut out driving over a railway level crossing. Car refused to start. Diagnostics pointed to injector bank B but had Bosch injectors and ECU. I was able to find out from VW that on later models of the 2.0 TDI, if there was a problem with an injector it wouldn't cut out the other 3. ECU was taken out and repaired. Car still cut out after about 200 miles of use. Diagnostic said ECU overheated. ECU changed and software updates etc, car still cut out. Couldn't sell it, couldn't drive it. Finally brought to VW who couldn't find anything. Managed to trade into a VW garage for a non VW.
Car was comfortable to drive, oodles of room and as it was the 110bhp Bluemotion (Slowmotion) it returned 53mpg at 80mph on the motorway. Slow as hell but it suited me at the time.
As other reviewers have already stated, the reliability was really surprising and disappointing from what appears to be a premium car. I'm amazed that the diagnostics of the car couldn't pinpoint the problem. The advanced VW diagnostics still couldn't find the problem that was clearly in the electronics somewhere. All problems pointed to wiring loom between ECU and the injectors but actually felt more like pump in the fuel tank. I'll never buy a VW or any derivatives again. Really had wanted to buy a Skoda Yeti but know it has same engine as my Passat.

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