Keep 306 HDI or buy Fabia VRS

[Toms306]

For a drive about daily, it would be the fabia every time with its hydraulic clutch

Sorry but the PD is just a good all rounder, easy to have power from, decent mpg and the engine goes on and on. Witnessed a tuned pd having a spirited drive with hg failure and drank all its coolant and then smashed the sump open and continued on for a good couple of miles the only thing killing it after a new sump was someone crashing into it. They also seem pretty simple to work on, there's plenty of support for them.

Mine still drove with a smashed lifter and very little cam left... Good luck driving with a broken LP pump or no cambelt thanks to the crank pulley/waterpump failing. Never actually had a 'breakdown' in a Golf, all 3 have been in 306s!

They are much easier to work on as you say, I'd change the turbo or boost pipes on one over changing a 306 HDi turbo any day lol. EGR clean/delete is much easier as well. Oil filter is on top, fuel filter doesn't have a stupid plastic case, driveshafts are bolted so you don't accidentally lose half your gear oil changing suspension components. Back then they weren't all rusty either, even I didn't snap or round all the bolts on it, but I guess they're probably more corroded by now lol.

Urgh, this thread makes me want another one, fml.

[Piggy]

Often boils down to this
(and it keeps coming up recently on forum/fb/real life)

Buy £300 15yr old peugeot hdi with no history or known care been given...
Treat like a shed/van/mpv/off roader/racecar...
Still don't service or maintain...

Then moan it breaks and complain that french stuff is junk.

[powerandtorque]

Piggy's hit the nail on the head there sadly, although I wouldn't say that it's unique to French stuff by any means.

Mind you, dip your toes into classics and some "restored" cars that have had many thousands spent on them are utter horrors once you start looking closer...

[toseland]

The newer Volvos (HDi) do have VNT and they are spectacular

[Poodle]

Often boils down to this
(and it keeps coming up recently on forum/fb/real life)

Buy £300 15yr old peugeot hdi with no history or known care been given...
Treat like a shed/van/mpv/off roader/racecar...
Still don't service or maintain...

Then moan it breaks and complain that french stuff is junk.

This right here is the crux of the issue alright, most vag owners i know will think nothing of dropping £500 on a service, whereas most of you would scrap an hdi over that. Unfortunately that attitude affects reality and as such there's a lot more knackered hdis out there compared to stuff like the golfs.

[r3k1355]

Not the smoothest but not quite the cold morning XUD running veg
A real shame for the HDi is not having a VNT from factory

I somewhat miss cold mornings running veg.

Taking three attempts to start because you forgot to thin the mix out before it got cold.
Left foot braking for the first few minutes while you kept the revs high to stop it stalling out.

[powerandtorque]

This right here is the crux of the issue alright, most vag owners i know will think nothing of dropping £500 on a service, whereas most of you would scrap an hdi over that. Unfortunately that attitude affects reality and as such there's a lot more knackered hdis out there compared to stuff like the golfs.

Cheap cars attract cheap owners.

It happens to everything eventually once they fall to in price to below a grand or so, just unfortunate that French cars as well as stuff like Ford and Vauxhall tend to be cheaper when new and have heavier depreciation, so they fall into the hands of neglectful penny-pinching owners sooner.

As said though, it happens to everything eventually - just look at many aging "premium" cars (BMW, Audi, Lexus etc) that are now parked looking sorry for themselves in sink estates up and down the country. You know they're not going to even get an oil change, let alone a proper comprehensive service, and repairs will be limited to the bare minimum required to scrape through the MOT re-test. Anything vaguely sporty you know will get the same lack of care, only it'll be thrashed from cold everyday as well just to compound things...

[lolsteve]

You're lucky Pugs arnt rover levels of cheap. Some owners will scrap a car just because they banged their toe on the wheel