Why I Avoid Timing Belt Engines

[ImStricken06]

this is why i avoid timing belt cars. the photo's below are ones i took from a Jetta cylinder head (which is a timing BELT) engine. The belt popped and almost all of the valved got bent.
you can see, of the 3 little intake valves, 1 per cylinder is messed up, and both exhaust valves on every cylinders got bent. there is no way in heck any engine should have the intake & exhaust valves open all at once. heck, there shouldn't be more than 2 cylinders in the same cycle.

[Unicorn]

Which engine and did the owner have the belt changed on time? The 4th Gen and older 2.0 had a 105k mile change interval. It wasn't one of the designs that prevented the valves from slamming into the piston is it broke but some of the few people who did have belts break were lucky. Most is those hadn't ever changed their belts and they are just worn out.

There are engine designs that will prevent the valves from falling into the piston in case of breakage.

I strongly prefer chains though. Breaks are extremely rare. Just replace them when they wear, and there are signs of that. A little louder than a belt which is I think the main reason for belts. Though they only seem to be used in 4 cylinders.
In very high performance engines I like gears, but they have a loud whine.