The 160bhp twincharger is reputed to have camchain issues, but I had camchain issues with my 122bhp which I had in a Golf Mk6, so it'll be the same engine I had. I had 3 camchains replaced, an oil pump and 2 tensioners.

And got no where near the claimed MPG, I averaged about 38mpg over about 10,000 miles.

I personally don't like these turbo charged petrols, as they have far more to go wrong than an N/A petrol and they're still pretty much in their infancy with direct high pressure injection.

The newer 140bhp ACT TSi seems to be ok, and its eye opening that VW have gone back to cambelt on it...

The car you will be looking at will be the old chain cam engine which had its issues, mostly in the twin charged version. If you read VW forums many of these were owned by people who had them chipped to stupid power levels. There were very few issues with cars owned by "normal" people so if you go ahead I would want to find out what type of person the previous owner was and was servicing carried out on time using the correct VW parts and lubricants. Remember that this 122 PS engine was fitted to millions of Golfs, Leons, Octavias etc etc and very few had issues.

As for mpg very few cars actually do anything like the "official" mpg figures. The manufacturers have to quote these figures by law despite thier inaccuracy, not to do so would lead to their prosecution.

The Honest John real mpg section is confusing for the Scirocco, 2 1.4 TSI's are listed and I guess the 122 PS one is the correct one, the "real" figure is only 0.8 mpg less than the "official figure" which is abnormal. I have a Seat Leon 1.4 TSI 140 PS which has an official mpg figure of 54.6 mpg, I get a genuine "calculated" average of 45 mpg which Honest John agrees with, the site says 45.2 mpg so maybe the Scirocco is very good.

The problem with the "Honest John Real MPG" is the people who input the figures. There is no way of telling how many people actually enter their figures and how those poeple use their cars and how they arrive at the results. The range for the Scirocco is huge, between 36 and 46.4 mpg. I know for a fact all VAG group cars have mpg gauges on the dash that lie, on my Leon it is about 5 mpg higher than the truth. If people input that figure in it devalues the info on the site. The last fill up on my Leon was used mostly on long trips, the gauge said 57 mpg between fill ups wheras my calculation said 52 mpg. If I put either of those figures into the site it would make for an unreliable average.

If you buy one don't expect to get 43 mpg, take at least 10% off the official figure, preferably 15% and use that as a starting point meaning between 37 and 40 mpg, any more would be a bonus.