Went up to Scarborough for the weekend and scorching hot, lovely break.

 

It's about 85 miles from where I live so 170 miles round trip  and on the roads around Beverley, Driffield, one roundabout follows another very quickly.

 

Honest John makes much score in saying the DSG can be 'dangerous' at roundabouts due to hesitancy and I must admit that having read his reviews prior to buying my car I was very unsure. However after asking the questions in many quarters, including the excellent Octavia threads on here I was assured by owners the hesitancy, if any, was minimal.

 

My fears followed ownership some years ago of a Nissan Primera CVT which, when asked to go at a road junction..it didn't..and was most scary.

 

My findings have been totally the opposite of what Honest John wrote and at each and every roundabout progression was smooth and instant. In fact the only way I can ever get the box to hesitate at all is to plonk the right foot hard down from stationery. This may or may not result in the slightest of pauses but nothing that would cause embarrassment. "Learn" to drive the car or I might even say drive it sensibly and the DSG surpasses anything I have ever driven, by a country mile.

 

Now the other criticisms I have heard range from, problems with hill starts (rolling back) to the car doesn't 'creep' like a torque converter box. So...

 

On the way back, Monday morning, heavy traffic I was driving up Staxton Hill, a notorious 17% incline when the traffic suddenly came to a halt. I must admit I hadn't encountered this with my newly acquired DSG and as there were cars behind, rolling back was not an option. I used the handbrake and on moving off gave gentle throttle until biting point was felt then it was smoothly away without a hint of rollback. This occurred 3 times on the hill and each time I used the handbrake and encountered no problems. Had I jumped from the brake  to the accelerator in that situation, I feel sure the car would have had a tendency to roll back, so again it's a matter of 'learning' to drive the car.

 

A few miles from the Humber Bridge traffic came to a halt, it later transpired that they are working on the toll bars and instead of six, only two were operating  and all other lanes were coned off.  The thing being we were crawling and 'creeping' for 45 minutes. The car creeps absolutely fine but as I am still unsure of whether the clutches can over heat I elected to select neutral each time we were stationery for any length of time.

 

I hope owners and potential owners find my experience helpful. I believe we have to understand, the DSG is not like other TC automatics of the past, nor is it a manual where one can slip the clutch etc.but it is a sophisticated piece of engineering which if used correctly and with just a little understanding ( I'm no mechanic!) will perform superbly, giving a smooth ride with efficient performance whilst not draining the fuel tank in the process like the old conventional Autos used to. I have quickly come to love my DSG and praise the day I bought it .

Edited 8 July, 201312 yr by horkin

Excellent summary of the DSG box. After 7 months in mine I have quietly come to appreciate the marvels of the technology. 

 

Sometimes you have to take Honest John, What Car and other reviews with a pinch of salt and go and try for yourself, just to see what you are missing!

You don't need to use the handbrake on hills, the DSG has hill-hold that keeps the brakes on until the clutch is biting. Try it, it's a bit odd at first but great when you get used to it. It also works in reverse, if you're backing up a hill and need to stop. Hope that helps!

 

I am also a big fan of the DSG, although i do notice slight hesitancies sometimes but you learn to anticipate these and drive around them.

My first DSG was in 2008, this did play up at roundabouts, coming to a roundabout having to brake there was a 2 second delay before you could accelerate, very dangerous. I changed this vehicle for a manual box after 18 months.

I purchased a new L&K MY13 in March, the gearboxes have had many updates and this one ia absolutely perfect in all respects. Honest John etc. are very rarely up to date and after over 40 years as an MV Tech. I take all such people with a lrarge bag of salt. (not the preverbial pinch of salt, they are mostly only newspaper and magazine writers with no mechanical experience) Forget them and look at forums any faults will be there. Briskoda is about the best on the web.

Well said - and I also agree that anyone being put off from 'reading' about the DSG in the fabia or any other car should try it before they decide. It might not be to everones tastes but I love it.

nice little review.... but may i suggest you find a hill without any danger of close cars, and stop with the foot brake, then simply move your foot to the accelerator and gently press, you wont roll back, trust me... I let my learners do it first time with traffic behind! lol.. "just let go of the brake and touch the gas gently" I say the hill holder will keep it still... the only way it may roll is if you release the brake and do nothing for 2 seconds..... even then it will be very very slight.... I have done over 50k in a DSG, and not rolled back ...

 

what you are doing with the handbrake is perfectly safe, and the only issue I can think of is you may cause heat and premature wear on the clutch as you are asking it to go when it engages the clutch and not allowing it with the handbrake, (energy cannot be created or destroyed, it just changes form, so without forward momentum, it will turn to heat and friction, just a bit of random physics )this may only be for a fraction of a second in limited circumstances, so you may say i am being a little unessasary, BUT trust me, the hill holder does its job well just go and have a play on a quiet hill with the brake FULLY depressed the clutches dont engage, so you don't need neutral, only time I teach to put in neutral (with handbrake on of course) is when waiting for a long time... temp traffic lights, railway crossing ect ect ....

 

I'm glad you are happy after your worries, I really do believe this sort of box is the way forward!

 

Shark.

 

edit: I (or any of my many pupils) have never experianced ANY hesitation! lol...

Do all DSG have 'Hill hold control'.?

 

george

I believe so George.

I was not sure if it was on all models as standard.

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/201336-hill-hold-control

dont think its on all models, just the ones with DSG (and possibly manual vRS's) My old fiat was a manual and had it, very good it was too....

I know its not on all models, 

i am asking about Skodas or from this section/thread Skoda Fabias with DSG.

 

I very seldom use HHC on a vRS or anything with a DSG, due to using my left foot on throttle and brake (i have no right foot.)

and unless it is to hold for a few seconds on a slope i use Hand Brake and N for extended stops.

(Thats where the Head Light flash on the left stalk annoys me when you want to flash an oncoming car to let them go first but i am selecting 'D' at the same time, easy in cars with Right Light stalks.)

 

george

sounds tricky george, have you adapted as well as having a right foot?

No i drive too many different cars so never adapt them, just get ones with pedals in the suitable position when its keepers.

When i have bought hand control cars they were horrible to drive and the controls are taken off right away.

 

Early on in my driving days i had a few unfortunate incidents like when someone jumped in to drive a car i had just rebuilt and resprayed, and then lost my licence so could not drive home,

it had 2 throttle pedals and the mumpty put it in reverse & then put what they thought was the clutch to the floor.

 

Another time a MOT tester at Budget Tyres that i warned about the throttle on the left  was putting the car on the ramp,

No problem he says, as he wheel spins it and the Brake Test Metal Panel covers fly out and the car crashed into the ramp.

 

george

I am very impressed with the DSG on my vRS. I knew I wanted a car with DSG after driving my others half's A3 TDi with a DSG box (6-speed, 54 plate car). It was a joy to drive and the vRS is better still.

 

It's not my first auto, but it is my first DSG. Hill hold control works superbly, never had a roll back myself and it is trusted every time. Can't say I have tried it on a 17% incline mind you!

The shift is so smooth, so precise and so quick I find it hard to ever think how a manual will be necessary again. It's fun when you want to click up and down the gears manually, and it is so easy to drive in traffic - makes my commute both more exciting and relaxing (at different parts of the journey!!).

 

DSG gets a massive thumbs up from me.         

nice little review.... but may i suggest you find a hill without any danger of close cars, and stop with the foot brake, then simply move your foot to the accelerator and gently press, you wont roll back, trust me... I let my learners do it first time with traffic behind! lol.. "just let go of the brake and touch the gas gently" I say the hill holder will keep it still... the only way it may roll is if you release the brake and do nothing for 2 seconds..... even then it will be very very slight.... I have done over 50k in a DSG, and not rolled back ...

 

what you are doing with the handbrake is perfectly safe, and the only issue I can think of is you may cause heat and premature wear on the clutch as you are asking it to go when it engages the clutch and not allowing it with the handbrake, (energy cannot be created or destroyed, it just changes form, so without forward momentum, it will turn to heat and friction, just a bit of random physics )this may only be for a fraction of a second in limited circumstances, so you may say i am being a little unessasary, BUT trust me, the hill holder does its job well just go and have a play on a quiet hill with the brake FULLY depressed the clutches dont engage, so you don't need neutral, only time I teach to put in neutral (with handbrake on of course) is when waiting for a long time... temp traffic lights, railway crossing ect ect ....

 

I'm glad you are happy after your worries, I really do believe this sort of box is the way forward!

 

Shark.

 

edit: I (or any of my many pupils) have never experianced ANY hesitation! lol... Hi Shark, thanks for the tip I will definitely try out the hill hold feature without hand brake as you suggest. Not many hills round here mind but I'm off to my Birthplace, Yorkshire next week and will be up in the Pennines so plenty of opportunities there. As for slipping into neutral, we had some really long periods of stand still so used neutral there but for short spells I have no probs holding it on the foot brake and creeping where I can.

good stuff but you are spot on with the "adapt" attitude, car technology is advancing very fast ... I am wholly excited about the possibility the next vRS will have the cylinder shutdown tech, giving circa 200bhp and 60 mpg! lol..

HHC is not a DSG feature, I have it on my manual Monte.

true , I'm sure its available on others, but "standard" on DGS models....

I believe the Hill Hold lets go after about two minutes. I found that out the hard way. Now I make sure I keep the foot on the brake "traditional" automatic style.

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/188008-hill-hold-control/page-2

DSG is one of the best autos I've ever had the pleasure in driving. Try driving the one on the smart roadster absolutely awful thank god it's a summer car and I always put it on to the flappy paddles.

I've never experienced issues with DSG either, I think the reviews are generally on cars that have not learned the driving style of the user.

Best gearbox I've ever used. Tops the Merc CLK I had and that was good.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Have to agree, DSG is really good. I had it on my Seat Altea 2.0TDi and I really miss it.

With regards to hesitation at roundabouts, I know what you are saying and what I did was put it in sport mode if on a busy roundabout. I found the engine responded quicker for swift moves. Once back on the straight back to Drive mode.

 

How i miss it though, next car definately DSG again.

 

Rob

havent had any issues with mine ,, the only thing i have noticed after 12,500 miles is a slight wobble feeling in reverse sometimes and a little bit of judder when idling

sometimes ! but no failures or really bigt issues or problems !