In reply to woppo:
If you're going for the 2.0L 140 bhp version, I'd suggest you do some research re. oil pump 6mm hex drive failure. This affects earlier engines with chain driven pump and balancer shaft assemblies in all applications - VW, Skoda, Audi etc. Later engines had a modified gear driven pump thus avoiding any problems. Chain drive oil pump failure can occur at any mileage over 60-70K and a FSH is no guarantee. Not all engines are affected though; it's very much a lottery. If the pump hex drive fails, it'll happen gradually and the engine will run with gradually reducing oil pressure until the drive fails totally. By the time this happens, it's too late and you have a scrap engine. There's loads of stuff about it on VAG forums. VAG will not pick up the bill for a replacement engine even though it's a known engine design fault.
A mechanic at a VW-Audi specialist once told me that you can easily see if an engine has a chain driven or geared pump by doing a simple dipstick test. The dipstick on a chain driven pump has a slight resistance at the very end of dipstick insertion whereas a gear driven pump does not. I could easily tell the differences by comparing two different engines in the workshop, but I suspect that in isolation it'd be impossible to tell. Following advice from specialists, we got rid of our PD 170 Tdi at 73K because of the potential risk of catastrophic failure.
PD injector failure is an issue with this engine too, but at least VAG did a foc recall and swopped these for modified units. A VIN number check at a VW dealer will indicate whether this has been done or not. The later 2.0L CR TDi engines have gear driven pumps and have no issues with injectors.
Personally I'd go for 6 speed transmission every time - less revs, more economy and more relaxed cruising. The engine's torque characteristics means that it'll still pull like a train in 6th if you keep it in the optimum rev band.
HTH
Dave
