As someone wrote off my 6 yr old 2.0tdi L&K I was forced to look in a hurry for a replacement . I wanted an auto but worried that the 1.6tdi might not be man enough for the job. However skoda salesmen who had them spoke very highly of them and the claimed performance looked ok. Nothing beats a test drive so local garage had one with 15 k on the clock. After 10 mins and a burst on a dual carriage way I was sold and it now resides on my drive. With the 7 speed dsg it does the job with plenty of get up and go when you need it.

Congratulations, the Mk3 is a good car and betters the Mk2 in most respects.

The new gen of TDI engines are very good and offer punch seemingly a bit better than their power figures suggest (though low kerb weight by comparison plays the biggest part). TBF a Mk3 1.6 TDi probably real world isnt alot slower than a standard previous gen 2.0 CR 140....if it was PD engined though those things have loads of low end get up and go that even the new CR motors lack.