Virtually all modern VAG engines are fairly bullet-proof, just not idiot-proof.
Engine block, yes.... electrics and ancillaries, no.
Ancillaries are debatable as to weather they are part of the actual engine. Just like the dodgy batch of air conditioning compressors - just because one of those might fail, you wouldn't describe the engine as a whole as being weak or unreliable.
Small parts such as dv's and coil packs have had a poor reliabilty record for a number of years.
Hmmmm . . . with a DV, I'd probably class that as a consumable, similar to say spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter - so it is unfair to include DVs in overall reliability, especially as they only seem to go south after a remap.
And coil packs - don't agree. The modern single coils (push-in type, without any screw holes) introduced around 2000, have been increadibly reliable. It was the earlier screw-in type coils on the 1.8 20vT which had the reliablity issues - and these were eventually solved when VAG used a new supplier.
As with all moderm engines, they have too much in the way of electronics which can (and do) go wrong.
Again, 'electronics' are not the same as the lumps of metal which make up the physical engine. And Bosch ECUs are bullet-proof. And if you try to include things like coolant temp senders, or camshaft position sensors - again, not part of the main engine, and are no more unreliable than the same components on a Vauxhall or BMW or Reno.
That said, VW is far from the worst culprit!
Exactly. I would say petrol Renault engines are considerably less reliable than any VAG motor - an achilies heel on Renos is the throttle butterfly gumming up - 1980s Vauxhalls used to do that!
On a positive note, my engine fault has been identified and fixed by a local mechanic.... for free. Turns out it was only a loose connection on the lambda sensor. Can you believe 2 main dealers took a day to investigate and couldn't find a fault? It took my local guy 10 mins to fix it
That's a great result - but that would have shown up during data logging - something the VW stealers seem utterly incompetent to do, even though they have the VAS5052 tablet.