We're keeping our eyes out for a 2-3 year old mk3 Octavia VRS 220, and wondered, should we avoid cars fitted with DSG?

 

The reason for this question is for the last 4 year we've been driving a diesel Vauxhall Astra, it's now just over 5 year old and has 63,000 mile on the clock. Recently we've been stunk for a new DPF, next we suspect the clutch will be on it's way out landing us with another massive bill. As a result, we're going to change to a VRS (something bigger, better performance), but want to potentially avoid any costly repairs in a few years time as the car starts to age.

 

My instinct says we're better off with the manual, less complicated, clutch replacements I guess will be cheaper than the DSG should we keep the car that long. But, I've always fancied a DSG.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Welcome to the forum.

 

If the clutch goes in a manual vRS it will be just as expensive or not more than what you already experienced,

so why not get a car with a DSG & buy a Skoda Warranty and keep that up.

(Your DSG will need servicing though.)

 

Lots of help in the Octavia section if you have a look.

 

george

Changing a clutch isn't necessarily an issue, I understand with DMF's etc that clutch replacement costs are higher now than they used to be. We're looking at cars with around 25k mile on them, and plan to keep it 5-6 year with mileage of around 10-15k a year. So I guess we'd be looking at about 70k mile on the car when we start looking to change, hopefully not at the point where the clutch needs replacing.

 

My concern with the DSG gearbox is it's complexity over the manual, and that potentially it's more likely that something will go wrong with it during our ownership leading to an expensive repair.

 

I've had a look at Skoda's warranty, and although it's an option, pulling out around £500 a year on top of servicing is a bit much for us justify.

Are you looking at the Skoda Warranty, because it is not £500 a year,

& servicing of a DSG at 40,000 miles or so will depend on your mileage annually how often you have that.

 

The 6 Speed wet clutch DSG is not made of chocolate if you look at the failure rates.

Maybe best if buying try research and try to buy a good car, be that manual or DSG.

 

Watch for Fleet Management manuals that might have 1 former keeper and maybe many drivers.

I used this to calculate the warranty.

https://www.skoda-extendedwarranty.co.uk/VWFS/Vehdets.aspx?r=false

 

The only issue is that it won't provide a quote if the vehicle you enter is still in warranty, so I had to look on Autotrader for a 2013 mk2 and use it's number plate. The price came back around £500.

There you go then, life is a gamble what ever you do, buy what you want and take the risk or cover with a warranty, 

or just buy what you want and wing it.

 

Have fun whatever you do.

There you go then, life is a gamble what ever you do, buy what you want and take the risk or cover with a warranty, 

or just buy what you want and wing it.

 

Have fun whatever you do.

 

Probably the best answer.

 

If you really want a DSG why would you not get one?

If you're not really bothered then maybe a manual would be better, it'll be cheaper and slightly less risk in terms of repairs.

Plenty of other things to go wrong, and being honest is there such a thing as a cheap repair on a car these days?

Seems like it's £500 labour to change a 50p washer most of the time.

Thanks for the input. I think we'll stick with manual, but should the 'right' car come up with a DSG, we'll consider it.

DSG is very, very good, but also extremely complex. What isn't on a modern car these days?

 

Fewer and fewer people are buying their cars outright anymore, PCP and PCH (leasing) are both becoming the norm. In these situations I'd go DSG every time as the car will be under warranty for most of it's time with you.

 

If the car is a keeper I'd be swaying towards a manual.

 

The other issue with buying 12-24 months old is that these cars (especially those on a Skoda forecourt) are almost always ex-PCP and PCH cars where the original owners have known that the car will not be with them for long. Perhaps their attitude to mechanical; sympathy might be less than someone planning to keep the car longer term?

 

I keep my cars until they die (30,000 miles per year) so I'd go manual every time. A premature mechatronics failure can easily kill off a 3 year old car with above average miles on it.

Edited 15 June, 20169 yr by silver1011

What you actually do is get a new Mechatronics Control Unit, maybe Clutch Packs if required, the 3 year old car in not dead.

They are not very very complex or anything like it, but there have been some failures, but likely not that many 

for the millions of DSG that have been produced and sold.

When a new mechatronics unit can be as much as £3,000 plus fitting then it can easily write off a 3 year old car with high mileage.

 

And compared to a manual box DSG is indeed very, very complicated.

Edited 15 June, 20169 yr by silver1011

?

Are they as much as that for a Octavia vRS?

No doubt it varies from model to model, after all there are quite a few different versions of DSG but I'd imagine they will be roughly the same sort of money.

 

This made for interesting reading...

 

http://www.gearboxnottingham.co.uk/dsg-mechatronic-units.php

And it was £2000 to replace the gearbox on my old Octavia (6spd mnaual). That was reconditioned box and would be more if I'd gone new.

We put £50 a month each into a bank account that is there as a car slush fund. That way any unexpected bills come up we've got some way of covering the cost.

When the gearbox went I took out a 0% credit card, paid it off over the year to make it manageable.

Any car has some risk attached to it. Don't want the risk then either lease or buy new. It's the only way I'm afraid.

What's the running cost like for the astra as I'm thinking of going the other way and go 4 year old 2.0 astra diesel as my octy mk2 is almost 10 years old now.

Ask Honest John...he will probably not recommend VAG DSG.

Ask Honest John...he will probably not recommend VAG DSG.

Not sure I trust much of his comments these days. Some of his comments seem out of date with technology and current designs

His website is full of useful information but not sure how much of that is generated by other people

Not sure I trust much of his comments these days. Some of his comments seem out of date with technology and current designs

His website is full of useful information but not sure how much of that is generated by other people

The OP is looking at a 2-3 year old vehicle with DSG. If it doesn't have a decent warranty, the older systems have had problems and I think HJ has pointed out theses problems. That's all. I am sure that DSG is great...if you run a company car or have it on PCP which means you won't have to personally pay for any repairs in the mid-long term.

The OP is looking at a 2-3 year old vehicle with DSG. If it doesn't have a decent warranty, the older systems have had problems and I think HJ has pointed out theses problems. That's all. I am sure that DSG is great...if you run a company car or have it on PCP which means you won't have to personally pay for any repairs in the mid-long term.

But it does blow some issues out of the water for all manufacturers. One person somewhere has had this small fault and suddenly it's the most unreliable car ever!

His stock answer also seems to be an FN2 1.8 petrol Honda civic regardless of application or request from the person writing in

Most of the horror stories you hear about DSG are relating to the 7 speed gearbox used in the lower power cars. These have many common failures relating to clutches wearing prematurely and mechatronics failures. This is why there have been worldwide service campaigns on the 7 speed for gear oil change and software update (a bit of a sticking plaster solution IMO) and in some countries they have extended the warranty on them. Also VAGs answer to premature clutch wear? Release a revised clutch pack with thicker discs to make them last a little longer... rather than addressing the core issue of the clutches wearing too quickly.

 

There is nothing like that on the 6 speed. Yes you hear of the odd mechatronics going AWOL and they are prone (just like manual gearboxes) to DMF wear but if properly maintained (40k mile oil and filter change) they are pretty solid boxes. The reason being that their clutches are lubricated in oil and so can take a load of stick before wearing.

 

There is a guy on here somewhere that ran a 2.0 TDI 140 DSG as a taxi in Ireland. Clocked up well over 500,000kms on the original box with nothing but oil changes and a couple of DMFs but was on the original clutch pack etc.

 

We had a manual Seat Cordoba that had bearing failure inside the box requiring a completely new gearbox, clutch and flywheel so even manuals aren't immune.

Edited 17 June, 20169 yr by Phil-E

Get the DSG and purchase a Skoda extended warranty if the car's out of manufacturer's warranty - it's very reasonably priced.

The 'chocolate gearbox' stuff is nonsense for knicker wetters - yes, some go wrong, but then so do some manual gearboxes and clutches.

And once you go DSG you will never go back

Well I know  I wont... :sun:

It isn't so much the likelihood of them going wrong, it is more the cost of fixing them if they do go wrong.

 

It doesn't matter how you slice or dice it, fixing a DSG box will always be more expensive than fixing or replacing a manual box.

 

Horses for courses. Hit a pheasant and smash a xenon headlight, it's gonna be expensive compared with a standard headlight. Would this stop me buying a car with xenon's? No, once you've had them it is difficult to go back to a car without them. I imagine the same applies to DSG.

I've had a car with xenons and now have one without - I really don't want to go back to a manual though - and I was a DSG sceptic previously.

As I said an extended Skoda warranty isn't expensive (relatively speaking) and well worth it for peace of mind.

If you really want DSG then you shouldn't let reliability concerns stop you, life is too short.

 

If it's a nice to have rather than a must have, you do big mileage and keep cars for several years I'd then think twice.