I am having a test drive of Fabia SEL DSG on Wednesday. Registered March 2019 with only 4000 miles on the clock. Never driven a DSG car before so could you advise what to look for?

in particular any advice on: keyless stop/start button; overall reliability; do you find car comfortable; would you buy again?

 

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Nearly one year on from buying a March 2018 se model with similar mileage. My model had been driven for a few months and then left parked for the rest of the time as the Skoda fleet users had nicer cars to drive once they'd run it in. The net result was that having been flattened a few times the battery wouldn't hold charge. It showed low battery warnings when I test drove it but I was assured that it would charge up under driving and I ended out having to call out Skoda Assistance to replace it under warranty after one month.

 

I moved to the Fabia from an '07 Octavia and I found that the ride is a little firm. I deliberately sought out a Fabia with 15" alloys rather than anything larger as a result - make sure you are able to experience traffic calming. Start-Stop on DSG is annoying. It's triggered when you move into neutral with the brake pressed down, but the engine restarts the moment you lift your foot off the brake - make sure that you're able to try it and see what you think, and that you can find the "off" button for it

I'd agree on the battery not liking a bit of use then not much for a while, I suspect that my older daughter's April 30th 2019 reg'd but not sold until mid August 2019 has suffered maybe a couple or so "low battery charge" events prior to her starting to use it.

 

Currently, at 3650 miles and 10 months old, I checked the stats for its battery and found that the car's  battery management system claims it is a 31AH, when it was originally rated as a 69AH battery - it has a Moll EFB battery - maybe I'm wrong there, but I think that combined with the way she is using that car, it might just let her down within the next year, I hope that she gets plenty warning of that before it actually fails, but so far, she has not admitted to getting any warnings.

 

Maybe just clear up where you stand if that battery hands out "help I've had enough" warnings while still within warranty, but still starts the car.

 

Edit:- don't get me wrong, I'd think that what I've noticed could happen with any "not freshly made" car from any marque out there, just something to be aware of that is all.(it is called progress I think.)

Edited 24 February, 20206 yr by rum4mo

Test drive went really well so decided to go for it - picking it up next Tuesday. Thanks for your advice regarding the battery. The stop/start would not trigger which could have been the lowish exterior temperature but also could be a poor battery. So asked to have that checked. Only other (slight) negative was the rear wash/wipe which was noisy and just smeared the window so asked for that to be adjusted.

I liked the pick up of the engine and the smoothness of the changes. Ride was a little firm but not uncomfortable. Hopefully it will be reliable. 
The keyless start was fine. I like the fact that you still open the car with the remote button.

Edited 27 February, 20206 yr by rkenny

Had our 2018 (pre facelift) 1.0 110 DSG SEL estate for almost a year. No battery charge or powertrain issues, only a niggle caused by an aftersales fit satnav we didn't even know was there. We don't find an issue with the start stop function. I have to say that when pulling away, the DSG isn't as smooth as the wet clutch version on our Kodiaq, but it's not any kind of problem. 

Question about Skoda Connect: is it the case that you only get a year’s subscription to this? Should I renew it? The car is 11 months old so will only have a few weeks use. Any thoughts on its usefulness?

40 minutes ago, rkenny said:

Question about Skoda Connect: is it the case that you only get a year’s subscription to this? Should I renew it? The car is 11 months old so will only have a few weeks use. Any thoughts on its usefulness?

No idea on the Furby, but I got it with the Kodi. Barely used it. On the odd ocassion I wanted to check I'd locked the doors an update to the app meant it had forgotten the password, again, so was not at all user friendly to use. The fee is in two parts, and the little bits I had used were split over the two, so I'd have had to continue to pay for both, and at nearly £100 for a year I decided not to bother.

Thanks lowedb. If they quote £100 I’ll just leave it. Seems a bit steep - you’d think there should be an initial 3 year period to match the warranty. 

Skoda Connect is pretty useless to be honest.

I didn't renew mine as I didn't use it and it was too expensive anyway.

One thing to think about when testing battery 'capacity' is that it goes down with temperature. 0C means somewhere between 80-85% of normal capacity.

 

Stop- Start with the DSG is much better than S/S with a manual, When you come to a halt, with your foot on the footbrake the engine cuts out, reduce the brake pedal pressure slightly the engine restarts, reduce the brake pedal pressure a bit more the DSG clutches engage, completely release brake pedal Fabia starts to move - now apply throttle. If you reduce the footbrake pressure slightly before coming to a complete stop the engine won't cut out - assuming the car considers S/S can be used whether actually gets used is controlled completely by the amount of footbrake pedal pressure. If the battery doesn't have enough charge, the engine oil/water temp is too low, the electrical demand (Air con HRW, lights etc) is too high will all prevent S/S being deployed. Battery charge is the usual one; our Fabia which does 5 to 5 short journeys a week and no long runs (>10 miles) the S/S is never deployed - as the car reports battery charge too low - it isn't as the car starts first time everytime.

On 02/03/2020 at 22:40, thamestrader said:

the car reports battery charge too low - it isn't as the car starts first time everytime

 

There's too low and there's too low. They don't want it getting down to the point where you get one chance to start the car and if unsuccessful you're stuck. I'm sure you wouldn't want that either.

 

I prefer S/S on the manual vs the DSG. On the DSG i found it added an extra layer of hesitation between being stopped and pulling out of a junction. Then again, i actually managed to stall the car, with a DSG.

I forgot it isn't like the classic torque converter where you can pull the handbrake and it'll hold it the same as holding the brake pedal, rather, it immediately attempted to pull away but due to the handbrake being applied it failed to do so and ultimately stalled itself.

Update: picked up the car yesterday - very professional handover. The car had been really well prepared: like new inside and out. Interestingly the only problem was getting the Škoda Connect to work! I reckon it has limited use for me and have decided not to renew in 3 weeks when it expires.

I got used to the dsg pretty quickly. I did half the 40 miles home from the garage in Halbeath, Dunfermline with stop/start switched on and did find it a bit tricky at roundabouts so switched it off and it was a bit easier after that. The car was very refined and no rattles! Got 46 mpg on the trip home.

So somewhat relieved that my first dsg car seems to be a good choice.

Edited 4 March, 20206 yr by rkenny

On 04/03/2020 at 18:51, rkenny said:

I did half the 40 miles home from the garage in Halbeath, Dunfermline with stop/start switched on and did find it a bit tricky at roundabouts so switched it off and it was a bit easier after that. 

 It take a bit of time to get the 'feel' of the brake pedal pressure, with practice you will find that you can  come to a halt at a roundabout with just enough brake pressure to remain stationary but not enough to cause the S/S to stop the engine. I get a lot of practice as I live in the UK town with the most roundabouts (130). I tend to use Sport mode for roundabouts, not for the extra speed but because its smoother and is less inclined to change up and then down, seems to suit the 'accelerate, ease off, accelerate'  throttle movement as you enter, go round and then exit.

 

And yes I agree there is too low for S/S to deploy which is no where near as low as  too low to actually turn the engine over.