So I had my second annual service yesterday, all seems well.

 

But the courtesy car was a DSG Fabia - I didn't bother to find out which engine or model.

It had stop-start that had no obvious simple way of disabling (unlike my car with its disabling button.)

 

Frankly I thought it was horrible. The combination of extremely heavy traffic, stop-start and DSG felt really lousy, and yes I know you can get used to things but I wouldn't have this arrangement if it was given me for free.

 

(BTW I am quite used to traditional automatics without stop-start, so it wasn't just that.)

The Fabia's stop/start disabling button is above the light switch, in a row of switches below the air vent! You can see it (and the parking sensors switch) in this pic.

 

If it was a petrol DSG car then it'll be the 110PS 1.2 TSI, the diesel is a 90PS 1.4 TDI. I believe with DSGs the stop/start kicks in depending on how hard you press the brake pedal? That's the way it worked for me driving my friend's 2.0 TDI DSG Sirocco.

Well, for the purposes of pottering about for a few hours while my car was serviced, it didn't matter, and wasn't worth investigating!!

 

Each to their own I guess (I think it was petrol but again didn't check as it had plenty of fuel.)

Count yourself lucky you did not buy one then

Well I'd certainly have road tested one first, in the event I'd even been interested, and no way would I have bought one!

 

Anyway you can't beat that wonderful boot on the Octy!

The boot space is probably it's saving grace along with rear legroom.

Think I have had the near full itinerary of skoda courtesy cars.

Fabia manual - reasonable drive for a small car but ultimately a squeeze for my family.

Rapid manual - terrible drive. Higher than ambient are pressure inside the cabin, ears popping frequently.

Yeti DSG - reasonable but looked dated inside and out. Good for waste tip run though.

Vrs hatchback manual diesel - awful ride quality and spartan inside.

Citigo manual - not fun at all.

Just need to try a superb and kodak and that completes the list.

The DSG seems to be well regarded. Mine's a manual, as there's no way in hell I'm paying all that money for a DSG that I don't need, but people seem to like them.

 

But you're not the first person I've heard saying that the stop/start is a bit confusing- a friend of mine's mum had an A1 with stop/start and DSG, and she ended up getting rid of it for a manual one as it drove her nuts, especially while parking. The only DSG cars I'd go for would be hybrids like the Golf GTE.