Hello!, new to the forum, and relatively new to VW. My latest company car is a 55 plate 140 TDi SE saloon, and was chosen for its VW heritage, tax break, and ability to swallow the family and luggage. Overall I'm happy with the car which achieves an average of 39mpg around town and 55 mpg on a long run at M way speed. For such a big barge it handles well, brakes well, and the mid range torque and acceleration are good. However, turbo lag is noticable, and the engine has a dislike of supermarket diesel, producing too much (IMO) black smoke under load. I switched to Shell Optima and there is less smoke. If you are prepared to put in BP ultima diesel, its a different car, with greater mpg and acceleration. Makes me wonder where the supermarkets get their fuel from...
I noticed some of the threads refer to electrical problems and want to share my experience. On a wet night in January this year, ie 11 month old car, I had total electric failure, couldn't start it, lock it etc. Brakes locked on. AA took it to the main dealer, dragging it on the transporter due to locked handbrake (have since learnt of fuse to disconnect!). The problem was the "Consumer Unit" a box of tricks located under the front passenger seat. The dealer explained that VW know that there is a problem with these units, but won't issue an official recall, they repair them as they go wrong(?!). New unit installed no problem for 3 weeks, until same problem occurs. It transpires that VW had sent an unmodified unit which the mechanic had not realised and fitted. Back to dealer, modified unit fitted and no problems since. However, going back to dealer on Monday for wiper motor recall!.