Confused: VAG 1.9 TDi PD or 1.9 non-PD.

[jonspectre]

In my constant state of indecisiveness about car purchases, I think I've decided just to buy a cheap <£2.5k car for commuting/business miles.

Various cars with the VAG 1.9 TDi engine are on my list, including the VW Golf, and Skoda Fabia and Octavia.

Most cars thrown up by Autotrader come with the 1.9 PD 100 engine. Some of the slightly older cars come with the 1.9 non-PD 110 engine.

I'm having some real difficulty establishing whether one is better than the other and if so, why. Any VAG aficionados willing to assist?

[CzechRS]

There are many iterations, I had the later BXE 1.9 PD in an Octavia on an 09', last year before DPF I believe. It was brilliant, no issues over 100k but apparently not as hardy as the earlier engines and known to throw a rod.

Info here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Volkswagen_G...

[phil y]

In my limited experience of the pre PD engines, they sound considerably more agricultural than the PD engines, which weren’t exactly refined.

The 110 was the most powerful of the pre PD engines, the 100 the least powerful of the PD ones. PD130s are generally held to be the ones to have, I believe the PD100s only ever came with a 5 speed box, where as the PD130s mostly had 6 speed, which seems to suit the engine better.

Skoda carried on using the older engines for a while after the rest of the VW group.