Nothing to do with his car or knowing how to drive.
Plenty of threads on Briskoda about 1.5tsi issues. Well known characteristics of a significant number (but not all) of 1.5tsi engines are severe cold running hesitations, kangarooing and general intermittent and spurious total loss of power. None of which is accepted by VAG as a problem but then they say the same about DQ200 dsg boxes too.
To this day, still not known if resolved, or even if VAG made much of effort to resolve the issues. Many theories spouted on here but no answers, solutions or warranty from VAG - its simply a characteristic, live with it, is their answer.
In comparison the 1.4tsi suffers none of these issues and is generally praised as being an excellent engine, performance and other wise.