Need to hedge my bets on a £500 banger... any suggestions?

[Rickster]

I had an old a3 1.8turbo, what a great engine, it had done 230k miles, on original turbo. The engine would still be going now but the rest of the car started to fall apart around it!
It must be one of the most reliable turbocharged "performance" engines particularly in the 180bhp version. Though I believe the 225 is still pretty good.

[tommyb]

Apr 18, 2018 21:23:50 GMT Rickster said:

Apr 18, 2018 19:12:38 GMT tommyb said:

Anything with a 1.9Tdi VW engine I would rate (avoid 150hp). I don't think there is much out there that beats them for reliability/mpg/performance. My misses has a PD130 Golf and its been bullet proof, returns awesome MPG no matter how you drive it and are super easy to look after.

Yup agreed, I bet VAG wish they had kept with that engine rather than the 2.0tdi, which as we discovered, is nowhere near as economical as claimed!

Nowhere near as reliable either. My friends garage has had so many 2.0tdi's in with various problems.