Well it would appear that the inevitable has happened... The auto 'box on my 05 superb has started to misbehave. After 233,000 miles of faultless shifting, I can't really complain! It's not showing any fault codes but I have been advised by a specialist that it's more than likely going go be the forward clutch bands which have worn sufficiently to start playing up. I have been quoted £800+vat to replace the forward clutch or £1400+vat to fully overhaul the complete gearbox which I believe involve a full strip/clean, inspection of all components with replacements where necessary and includes the torque convertor.

My choice is one of the above, or, cut my losses and buy a new car. It's a difficult decision, ultimately the full rebuild is probably going to cost as much as the car is worth, but it is in A1 condition inside and out so is worth more to me. I suppose my concern is that I shell out the best part of £1700 and still have problems (I've read horror stories about auto box rebuilds)

I'm also reluctant to spend £900 ish having the clutch changed only to have other problems 6 months down the line.

So I'm just after thoughts really - what would you do? I will be getting more quotes but do these prices seem ok? I would rather have the job done right first time than pay a numpty £200 less to do a half baked job.

Can anyone suggest a good auto recon company? The prices above are from Auto Man in Leighton Buzzard who seemed to know his stuff and was willing to explain things, which I liked.

My dad has a friend who had a Superb & his auto box gave up last Christmas. He had nothing but hassle; he found one online and rang the breakers who took card details & he paid for it. It didn't arrive and they told him it was still on the car as it was an insurance companies and they were still waiting for release papers, I believe he opened a case with small claims re this. He sent the old one to be "reconditioned" somewhere in Gateshead who done something with it, sent it back and it still didn't work.

He ended up buying an Octavia and cutting his losses.

Not a big help but something to think about, IIRC they are £4k+ from Skoda.

We've used theses people in the past, not cheap, but cheap is the last thing that you need when repairing automatic transmissions.

A1

whenever I have a big bill comming with a car, I always trade in for another with a warrenty ..... just my thoughts... you pay for the reconditioned box, and other things start to go wrong, then ypou end up shelling out double what the cars worth...