Daft modern cars

I see you have a proper little classic Mini as well Jack, looks a nice example

 

The cars I was referring to were the VAG range in particular clue - the quality of some of their cars really seemed to suffer from late '05 until early '07, with the diesels being particularly plagued with faults. Not every model suffered, nor did every engine in any particular model range - however, there were a whole host of issues that fell under the heading 'really should have known better' when it came to some of their designs.

One of the more 'renowned' engines was the 2.0TDI pumpe duse engines - basically, they took a 1.9 unit which was a bit noisy, and a bit dirty, and decided to strangle as much power out of it at the same time as making it lighter and also cleaner - capacity went up, injectors were changed, oil pump was redesigned along with other components. First to the catalogue of failures were the injectors - these failed left, right and centre with cars completely shutting down the second that one failed; this led to some hairy moments for owners who happened to be in the fast lane at the time! I got 'lucky' with mine - I had just come off the motorway when it died on the roundabout at the bottom of the slip road. Each injector was £450 + fitting, and for a long time VAG denied there was any issue.

Owners forums were awash with the problem, and there was mutual encouragement for everyone to write to VOSA to highlight the danger of sudden engine shutdown at speed (including loss of brake servo and power steering); eventually, VAG 'volunteered' to fit modified parts as part of a "customer satisfaction" exercise, and also refund any owners who had paid out to fit new injectors previously; they emphasised the fact that it wasn't a recall though! In other words, they did it just before they were forced to.

Then came the oil pump failures - stupid design really; imagine a long hex-shaft that spins with the top end driven off the crank and the hex end driving the oil pump; only, the shaft itself was hollow, and not particularly tough. Net result, hex end rounded out of shape, completely killing the oil supply to the engine. If you got lucky, it was a bottom end rebuild only - if you were unlucky, that went on to encompass the turbo and associated pipework. A bill upwards of £4000 was not unheard of.

And that is before you come onto the more common (as in, common to modern cars of all makes) failures such as dual-mass flywheels and early turbo failures. Just to add insult to injury, some of the models had real issues with the interior trim too - creaking and squeaking away like a car from day of old - - oddly enough, Skoda were by far the best of the bunch when it came to this, as their build seemed to remain at a good standard.

In the end, my 2007 Passat wanted just shy of £2700 just to squeeze another couple of years out of it, hence it got traded for the Audi before it bit me.

VAG cars from early '08 onwards are much better, with very few reliability gremlins, and the feel of the build quality seems to be back to the standard it should always have been.

 

Ouch! Not the kind of bill you'd expect from such a low mileage car!

In some respects, Skoda would have been better off in the reliability stakes if they hadn't had the 2.0TDI foisted upon them by VW; as you are no doubt aware, the 1.9 unit was pretty unburstable.

When I was looking round before buying the A4, the Skoda Superb was very near the top of my list - the clever hatch/saloon combo idea appealed, but sadly the rear end was just so ugly I couldn't bear the thought of walking up to one every morning. The touring was prettier, but at the time I was looking they were as rare as hobby horse poo on Mars.