Take long test drives would be my only recommendation as I made a huge mistake buying without test drive. :no:

DSG is a great system, but like everything else in life, some like and some don't.

I had a mkiv R32, looked at the mkv when it came out, test drove the manual variant, loved it, then decided that I

fancied a change from the mkiv, so went DSG, but couldn't get a test drive anywhere at the time... big mistake as I ended up

hating it... great for a set of bends, other than that not for me. Hated reversing out of the drive (on a slight incline).

Lasted 14 months and got traded for an ST-3 added, eibachs, Miltek, remap..... great car :yes:

Now I drive a diesel although I do fancy a petrol vRS estate sometime soon !

Why would anyone want to sit in traffic having to push their tiring left foot continuously up & down on a clutch pedal? It just doesn't make any sense when we all know that in the UK traffic congestion is a way of life and much more common than the "open roads" myth beloved of the "must have a manual" traditionalists. DSG autos are the way of the future giving equal or better mpg and performance. Once you have had a DSG you will never go back to the old cog swapping levers and pedals!!

Hi guys,

First of all a big hello to you all, as you can see from my number of posts i am new to this forum.

After a lot of searching for a new car I have finally decided to purchase an Octivia VRS deisel - great looking car. However i am torn between going for the DSG or manual. Always had manuals in the past and considered them to be more of a drivers car- however was impressed with the DSG on a test drive last week., very smooth.

With regards to extras was thinking of going for the Xeons, parking sensors , Leather, and maxi-dot (if i went for the maunal as i believe its standard on the DSG), am i missing anything off that i might regret ?????????

Thanks

Riggs

I've lasted 14 months too and hated virtually every minute. Worse still, my car is a sport, which is basically an Octavia with all the suspension removed. It is rock hard and the worst riding car i've ever driven.

Couple that to the horrible DSG and i'm surprised it lasted this long. Especially the amount of time i spend in it.

Don't really care if people agree with me or not. I'll be glad to see the back of it.

I've lasted 14 months too and hated virtually every minute. Worse still, my car is a sport, which is basically an Octavia with all the suspension removed. It is rock hard and the worst riding car i've ever driven.

Couple that to the horrible DSG and i'm surprised it lasted this long. Especially the amount of time i spend in it.

And you didn't notice any of that before you bought it ?????

I love the DSG for my day to day driving which is mostly motorway and rush hour city driving. As stated above, the standard mode is "very lazy", it wants to change up earlier than i would, and stays in a high gear when slowing down longer than I would, but changes quickly enough when you put your foot down.

The sport mode is next to useless unless you are really ragging the car (it seems to not want to change up til about 500 revs before the redline), so for the few times I'm on an open road somewhere I tend to shove it into manual mode and use the paddles which is taking a bit of getting used to but gives me more control (note, not complete control... It will still kick down if you floor it unless you hold the paddle before flooring it.... sometimes I only want to speed up a bit, not gain 20mph in a few metres...)

Take it for a good long test drive before making your choice, but for me, I prefer it 90% of the time, but if my vRS was a low mileage car, only used for fun, then it'd be a petrol manual and not a diesel DSG

And you didn't notice any of that before you bought it ?????

As i already said. You only realise a cars shortcomings on a day to day basis. Hope you enjoy your DSG but i'll never have another.

From reading this thread I will agree/comment on the following from my experience of my DSG.

Hated reversing out of the drive (on a slight incline).

my drive is on a slight incline and the first few times I tried reversing it in I did have trouble, but once you are used to it then its not as bad, but I do have rear parking sensors which do help.

I love the DSG for my day to day driving which is mostly motorway and rush hour city driving. As stated above, the standard mode is "very lazy", it wants to change up earlier than i would, and stays in a high gear when slowing down longer than I would, but changes quickly enough when you put your foot down.

I would again agree in normal mode it does change up earlier than I would if it was a manual which can be slighty annoying if the traffic then changes and you need a little extra speed, but again once you know this you will adapt your driving style to suit.

The slow speed manoeuverability is awful

do you mean parking? Or when stuck in traffic?

and a really fast take off causes a jolt

maybe that is more inline with the PD140 that you had, having a big lump of torque? I cant say I get a jolt in mine but to be fair I've not tried a really fast take off yet.............so possible I will find this when I do.

To be fair I've not owned a DSG long enough to maybe have some of the problems or issues that some may have but unless things changes I cant see myself going back to a manual in a hurry. Yes on the right piece of road then a manual is great but when that happens is so often its not worth it against having the ease of the DSG for the rest of the 95% of the time.

Go for a test drive, make it a long one and try it in as many everyday drives as you can, around twon in traffic, on the motorway and a little "blast" I would suggest spending atleast 30-45mins on the test drive and ask to take it out on your own.

I've never driven a DSG and have a manual Mk 2 vRS. The manual is a great gearbox.

Out of interest, what are DSG's like on roundabouts?

One of the problems with non-DSG autos was judging a gap. You'd floor the throttle and depending what mood the car was in, there'd often be a half second pause before the car started moving... very disconcerting and it was the main reason I got a manual this time round. (That and I honestly didn't want to fork out that much for a gearbox!)

The only downside that I agree with from this discussion is one about reversing up an incline, it is a bit difficult to parallel park on an incline, but lets be serious, how often do you really have to do this. The box constantly adapts to driving conditions, if your just ambling about on very soft trottle movements, yes the box will change up early but as soon as you start being a bit more aggresssive with the trottle it will hold the gears longer. If you need to rev above 3000rpm (in a diesel) just use the manual mode. I have done nearly 300,000kms with PD140 DSG so I am fairly sure I know how the box behaves.

Hmm this is interesting as I was reading about the Ibiza Cupra which is DSG only. Autocar did not get on with the box saying it sometimes changed a fraction before they did in manual resulting in two changes. It alsodidn't downchange on demand in corners on a track test either leading them to say it was unueable on track. It is puzzling as only heard good things about the box???

Maybe the newer DSG's are different, mine is 2006 and its a diesel. In manual mode the box "only" does what its told except when slowing to a halt it will change down to prevent stalling. It will not change up without my input (it will if you want, bang the rev limiter) and it will change down to first (on the move) if I want to.

Hope this helps.

Maybe the newer DSG's are different, mine is 2006 and its a diesel. In manual mode the box "only" does what its told except when slowing to a halt it will change down to prevent stalling. It will not change up without my input (it will if you want, bang the rev limiter) and it will change down to first (on the move) if I want to.

Hope this helps.

Newer ones must be different... Mine was built in December last year and will change up as the revs get to the red line without me asking it to, which can be annoying if you hit the paddle just after it's changed up a gear itself... 2nd to 4th when you wanted 3rd is a little annoying... Changing down into 1st when still moving is possible though, although I'm assuming there's a maximum speed at which it will do this which is obviously higher than whenever I've asked it to do so

It will also kick down if you floor the accelerator when you're in manual mode, sounds like they've tried to mimic a standard auto a bit more than earlier boxes... This is the first DSG/Automatic car I've owned, but I have driven normal autos before

I’m not sure we have answered the original question.

Reading between the lines and from his subsequent posts, and the fact that he is buying a VRs, I have a feeling he may be better off with a manual.

I must have an “auto†because of physical problems and had lots of test drives before making a decision. The test drives demonstrated (to me) that the 6 and 7 speed DSG’s have different characteristics. Furthermore I found that the DSG behaved/felt slightly different depending upon the engine type. I put this down to driving style.

For example I found during one test drive that a DSG boxed 1.9 TD estate was an absolute pain. I felt I had to give it some wellie to get it moving and then it took off like a rocket – inappropriately. The infamous “roundabout†situation. But others with the 1.9 are fine with the DSG box. A 2.0 TD DSG estate on the other hand behaved much better and felt more relaxed to drive. I could feed the power in more slowly in order to filter into traffic. Again is this because of my driving style or because of the way the box works?

There are some comments about the box adapting to your driving style. In practice this is very limited in operation – download and read the manual.

I note that’s some in this thread talk about 2 gear changes being very close together. But are they in auto mode or are they trying to rag the engine up to the redline in sport mode? Remember that the box/engine has some self defence mechanisms and may change again quite quickly in certain circumstances where it feels "threatened". Similarly I have NEVER experienced my DSG box changing to down to first whilst on the move when in normal auto mode.

The biggest downside I have encountered is the inability to modify the characteristics of the box in extreme weather (eg snow). I (and others on this forum) have found this to be a big omission. Even my 10 year old Astra estate with a Borg Warner auto which preceded the Octavia had this as standard.

I would advise you to have a test drive using the specific engine configuration you are thinking of, and to drive it exactly as you mean to. Then form your own opinion from that experience. You will not get definitive advice solely from this forum.

By the way I’m not being negative. I have a DSG box and like it. But I'm not blind to its downsides.

DSG can be the proverbial "double edged sword".

In traffic & on the motorway it makes for easy & relaxed driving , whilst in the snow it's utterly useless unless you have the correct tyres!

I don't find the DSG a problem in snow at all- the tyres are much more significant.

OP: DSG is wonderful.

Similarly I have NEVER experienced my DSG box changing to down to first whilst on the move when in normal auto mode.

Me neither.

The biggest downside I have encountered is the inability to modify the characteristics of the box in extreme weather (eg snow). I (and others on this forum) have found this to be a big omission. Even my 10 year old Astra estate with a Borg Warner auto which preceded the Octavia had this as standard.

Again, I've never had a problem. OK, it will only start in 1st, but I don't think the 'start in 2nd on snow' is important- take it easy ad it's fine, and I found holding 1st on a steep downhill, feet off the pedals did fine too.

I did find after a while of very gentle driving on snow it 'un-learned' my usual style and kept changing up a little soon for a while.

it is a bit difficult to parallel park on an incline, but lets be serious, how often do you really have to do this.

Where do you live?

Valid point........my bad.

Thanks for all the advice, good to see all the positive but also the negatives comments with regards the DSG box.

The only way to decide as mentioned above is to take a long test drive ( or 2 ) to be sure, in a mix of road conditions to see if it suits, thats what i am doing. Planning on keeping the car for 3 yrs or so, would the sell on value be affected ???? Would you buy a used car with a DSG box that was 3 yrs old and outside its warranty ?

from people that have made comments about the DSG gearbox, most would not buy one if outside a warrenty. Put plently of people do and will..........at the end of the day its probably no less likely to fail than any other auto gearbox out there but people still buy them.

Would I? if it was well looked after, serviced correctly and I was in the market for one then yes I think I would. Like all cars we all hear about the ones that fail and not often the ones that dont......I'm sure there is many DSG boxes out there with lots of mileage with no problems.

Push for a warranty to be thrown in.

RANT WARNING!

What's with this "my bad" rubbish?

Don't tell me it's yet another bloody Americanism?

This is Britain, not America. Arrgh!

Eh?

Eh?

Valid point........my bad.

Sounds like something my ex-father-in-law would say... He's Canadian, and they've picked up some bad habits from their neighbours

someone has had too much coffee already this morning haven't they!! :p

Nope! I'm just getting more & more cheesed off with Americanisms creeping into our language!