The 1.4 TSi is a peach of an engine. The only issue that I know of is carbon fouling of the intake which can strike from about 60K miles on although I'm over 80K now and still fine. Costs around £500 to clean the intake. Go for the more powerful one as..why not? Timing belt and needs special tools to change as uses a trick cylinder shut-off system to give you frankly astonishing mpg for a petrol. Dealers are quoting about a grand for it these days. VW have changed their advice to inspection and change only if it looks bad but this is bullshit. I spoke to a dealer recently and he said you should be ok up to about six, seven years on the belt but he's seen them fail after that, even if they looked ok.
The 1.8 and 2.0 petrol are similar enough to talk about as one. Generally very reliable, despite being a complex engine. One know weak point is the thermostat housing/coolant manifold. It's made of plastic so cracks or leaks. Pretty much always. If yours hasn't failed yet it will, it's that kind of deal, and if you fix it it can still fail again. I've seen them go as soon as 20K miles or it could last years, it's a lottery. Because of where the thing is, replacement cost £750 to £1,000 depending on where you get it done. Other than that the engines are not scary.
My pick is the 1.4 150hp FR. We've had two diesels, the FR and a 300 Cupra and the FR wins. The Cupra engine, brakes etc are too heavy and feck up the handling of the car. The 1.4 FR feels spot on, like the way they designed the car to be, is perky enough and gives around 45mpg on mixed driving. Tyres matter and Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 or 6 are perfect.
The DSG gearbox is generally pretty reliable if you don't neglect servicing but if they do break, you're crying. Manual gearboxes are simple things and just don't go wrong. I've just changed the gearbox oil on my wife's car as precaution, she wants to keep the car. It's done about 65K miles and the oil that came out looked fine. I asked the dealer about and he said they never change the oil and he's never seen one fail.
The gearbox on my wife's car was a bit notchy when cold into 1st and 2nd when we got it at about 16K miles. Nothing terrible but you notice it's not as good as the other cars. It's never changed, no worse or better and the oil change didn't
help.
By the way, the estate can carry a full-sized spare, the hatch can only carry a space-saver.
