Evening all,

 

We have a Skoda Octavia from 2007 which has been fantastic, but now that both the dogs have passed on and mum is getting older, there is no need for such a large car so she would like to get a Citigo. There is a world of info out there, some of it conflicting, so I wondered if I could start by asking about them here where I most trust the info to be honest and true. That will give me a good starting point. 

 

Mum has a budget of £3,500.00 which some cars appear at, but with prices all over the place, does that seem a realistic budget for a reliable one? 

 

Her Octavia has DSG so ideally she would like the ASG box over a manual. Looking online some reports say they are great, others say there have been major issues, so I thought I would ask here and find out the considered opinion. 

 

Any thoughts from owners or people in the know on these would be massively appreciated as I have not bought a car in a long time, so I am not up on these at all. 

 

Thanks for your time.

 

Cheers,

 

Ben.

 

 

17 hours ago, gixerboy said:

ASG box over a manual

I have a Manual Citigo and my Brother has a ASG.

Only consider the ASG if you have to,  (  auto licence only ) and have driven one. 

 

 

 

17 hours ago, gixerboy said:

does that seem a realistic budget for a reliable one?

Second hand cars are at a premium at the minute.

It took me several months to find a good one last year.

There is lots to look at before buying.

 

Thanks, AG Falco

£3,500 seems to be about £700-£1,000 below the asking price for a Citigo ASG other than maybe the Cat D write off one in Autotrader.

If there are any at that  selling price best really check them out and see how they drive. 

 

More chance of finding a Mk2 Fabia for under £4000.  They are going to be older though and probably a Tiptronic & not a DSG.

Avoid a Mk vRS 1.4 TSI for £3,500.  

Think you budget for a decent ASG is a little low, Our ASG has done over 50k with no problems and is a great little car for my daughters to use, we have just added another Citigo which is manual and also great fun,

Three months ago both my wife and I changed our cars, Toyota hybrid which has a "auto" completely seemless drive train. We chose to go to Skoda CityGo (could have been UP or Mii) with manual box. No problem going back to manual after 5 years of Toyota seemless. We both love our Citigo's. Cheaper to service, to repair and to insure - just renewed the insurance yesterday with LV at £397 for both (fully comp). We are both over 70 and all we need now reliable runarounds. The wifes 63 plate cost £5k and my 15 plate 7K.  I have seen low prices like you quote buthtey tend to be high mileaage and manual. Nothing wrong with high mileage if they are sound mechanically and body etc.

Anecdotally, the ASG is unreliable. The 'box and clutch is the same as the manual car, but the electronics and actuators are the things prone to failure. Sure, some owners have had good luck, but others (and see the VW Up forum) have had to shell out for expensive fixes. One problem is rarity, so very few independent garages have any idea of how the system works and what the failure modes are, sometimes wanting a huge amount of cash to change parts unnecessarily, when sometimes it's just a 50p microswitch.

 

If auto is a must, look a at a Kia or Hyundai (long warranties, too!).