My friend is looking to purchase a 2-3 year old Octavia Mk3 facelift vRS TDI estate, potentially with a DSG box. He's going to be piling the miles on it, is there anything he needs to watch out for reliability wise, particularly anything with big bills attached?

 

I remember from my days of Fabia ownership that DSG boxes had a reputation for going wrong out of warranty and being very expensive for any repair, has the situation improved markedly since then?

Edited 8 May, 20197 yr by ckyliu

Nothing wrong with the DSG as long as they get the regular oil change. 

Should have plenty to choose from at very good price.

Does he want to buy mine? 

He's gonna be on PCP so probably can't buy private

27 minutes ago, ckyliu said:

My friend is looking to purchase a 2-3 year old Octavia Mk3 facelift vRS TDI estate, potentially with a DSG box. He's going to be piling the miles on it, is there anything he needs to watch out for reliability wise, particularly anything with big bills attached?

 

I remember from my days of Fabia ownership that DSG boxes had a reputation for going wrong out of warranty and being very expensive for any repair, has the situation improved markedly since then?

Your Fabia would have had the 'dry' 7 speed box which initially did have major problems especially in hotter more humid countries until the specified lubricant was changed. Since then most of the issues relate to instances of premature clutch wear.

The more powerful vRS Octavia have the wet 6 speed versions which actually have a good record.

@Gerrycan He got in to gear S7 on a nearly new vRS TDI test drive, are you sure it's a 6 speed wet DSG on the facelift cars?

Edited 8 May, 20197 yr by ckyliu

Newer ones have a 7 speed wet clutch jobber.

Oh but, if he got up to S7 he must have been shifting !

Edited 8 May, 20197 yr by TDIum

1 hour ago, ckyliu said:

@Gerrycan He got in to gear S7 on a nearly new vRS TDI test drive, are you sure it's a 6 speed wet DSG on the facelift cars?

Nearly new model would have a 7 speed wet box but I think the 2 to 3 year old versions he is thinking of buying would be 6 speed.

I'm not sure when they made the transition to 7 speed, but I'm sure there will be others along who do.

 

The only thing that crops up regularly with the TDI models is the water pump failing. There is a sticky thread up top of the mk3 list on the topic.

Edited 8 May, 20197 yr by Gerrycan

Whilst the DSG box is generally pretty reliable, the comment about repair costs are valid, they are often exorbitant, purely down to the fact that they're extremely complex.

 

I wouldn't want to be running a DSG box into big mileage without a warranty.

Just an update on this, he ended up with a Golf GTD estate 2.0 TDI with 6 speed manual and loves it. He got a cheaper deal than he could on used Octy estates at the time and the Golf has variable boot floor as standard, it was rarely optioned on the Octy.