vw golf diesel engines

[ugene425]

Hello, I am looking to buy a really economical vw golf diesel car, and have come across so many different engines! TDI, TDI GT, SDI, Match and Bluemotion to name a few! Annual mileage between 12-17k, consisting of mainly driving around suburbs (out of London), and some town and motorway driving. Some helpful ideas/suggestions on these various diesel engines would be most appreciated. Budget around £2.5-7.5k.

Thank you in advance.

[Moz_BLY]

Match GT etc are trim level, ie. what seats and alloys things like that.
For your mileage id got with a bigger engine will be less strain on the engine. though the 1.6tdi are good enough but more problematic.
A 2.0 tdi would be ideal for you i would have thought so.

[samoht]

A Golf SDI has a normally aspirated diesel engine. I've not driven one, but other experience of non-turbocharged diesel engines would make me run away from them, absolutely the worst combination of incredibly slow, gutless down bottom and breathless up top, noisy and unrefined. I don't think they're even more economical than a turbodiesel.

Be aware that many of the VW diesels of this era will have been subject to dieselgate recalls. It's my parents' opinion that their 1.6 TDI Golf was less able to pull high gears after the "fix", I'm pretty sure they've pulled some torque from the bottom of the rev range in the process. So the ones that haven't been "fixed" are probably a bit better to drive. Regardless, my parents are happy with theirs.

Bluemotion is an economy special so worth you looking out for, it comes with the 1.6 diesel (or a 1.0 petrol). So I suspect that the most economical variant is probably a Bluemotion TDI which hasn't had the dieselgate fix.

Edited by samoht on Monday 18th January 11:52