Hi all,

We recently test drove the above and during the test drive the car was juddering when pulling away at traffic lights etc. The salesman who was in the car at the time also acknowledged it. We haven't purchased the car yet as I want the issue resolving first. It's going in the workshop in the next few days and we are waiting to hear from them.

Is this normal? If so, is there a fix? or is it best to walk away. Aside from this, its a lovely car.

Thanks in advance.

Possibly normal for a Car For Sale sitting doing not much, brake discs rusty , so a Demonstrator / Management car, ragged to death then left sitting. Maybe E10 95 ron sitting in the tank from before November. Ask the History, is it a Skoda / Dealers car., or is it a Rejected car back into the System? Be Sure to have the Sales Person show you the V5 and the First Registered Keeper. If in doubt have a witness and them put in writting their known history of the car. Any Warranty work so far, or Software Updates etc.

Its had one owner from new, who that is, I don't know. They had it for 9 months...

The issue felt more gearbox related...

How would I find out if its a rejected car put back into the system?

CarVertical report shows nothing of concern regarding history etc.

No recalls on it either according to Skoda.

Who was it with VW Finance / Leased. Ask them selling it, they have to tell you what they know. & they will know. Law, sales. used vehicles, UK. Was it Owned by VW / Skoda or some Fleet / Lease company. As it is there are thousands out there just like that. So remainder of Warranty! Are you getting any extended warranty with it? Is it getting just an Oil Service now and a Pre Delivery Inspection for a used car?

Its under manufacturer warranty until Dec 2028.

Its had one oil change which was done at 9 month old/5,100 miles. Its got 5400 miles on it now.

Was that oil change done where you are buying it. Was that when they got the car in from where ever. Hand back, trade in etc. Ask the Salesperson or the Dealer Principal. Sales Staff can be gone tomorrow, Dealer Principals less likely. PS. Car Reports are only as good as the Information put in. A Dealers car / Fleet car can be in an Accident / Damaged and no Insurance Claim, just Repaired In-House or Man / Woman in a van, forecourt Kerb side repairs.

Edited 8 January8 Jan by Evolution13

Personally, I would walk away and look at others.

I too would be walking away. Though my last word to the sales staff before leaving would be that if they put the car through the workshop, find the fault, and fix it, they'd be welcome to invite you back for another test drive.

I certainly wouldn't be committing to buy the car on the understanding that any faults can be fixed after you take ownership.

We haven't committed to buying it, they intend on putting through workshop and then providing an explanation and a job report for me to review before i make a decision on buying. I am just trying to be ahead of the curve and see if anyone has experienced this fault and if they found a fix.

It might well feel that it is the DQ200 7 speed Twin Dry Clutch DSG, and if it is then that is a big problem. BUT, Quite possibly the 1.5TSI ACT engine though causing the behaviour. That is something the Master Tech might be checking.

Best to walk away

Ours (really wife's car, and she doesn't use it much) does it sometimes. It's a bit weird as if you try and provoke it with different types of starts it doesn't do it. Then don't think about it, and it'll judder. It seems not to do it with the gearbox in Sport mode, but I just don't drive it enough to pin it down.

I'm not 100% convinced it isn't the tyres. It's very easy to provoke front wheel spin - I've found they're sensitive to pressure - should be 31psi, put 36 in them and they go mad.

I'm also in the walk away camp. It's by no means a rare car so unless it has desirable options that you desperately want/need, there will be whole raft of alternatives, even if it means travelling.

I'd also question the diligence of the dealer if they couldn't be bothered to ensure their stock is in good shape. Although that could be mitigated if you just wandered in asking for a test drive rather than booking one.

I had a Polo before the Karoq & the discs would literally rust overnight. But even if left for a week would never judder beyond the manual handbrake initially releasing.

@Rory may have a point about wheelspin as the Karoq is indeed very prone to it even on a damp road, never mind icy. Although the 36 PSI her references is in fact the current specification at 2.5 bar. Something that seems to have changed on later cars.

@Rory thanks. Yeah, i must admit it did feel a little like wheel spin. I was hardly giving it any revs mind so if it is the tyres, it doesn't take much to make them spin!

7 minutes ago, Rbz5416 said:

I'm also in the walk away camp. It's by no means a rare car so unless it has desirable options that you desperately want/need, there will be whole raft of alternatives, even if it means travelling.

I'd also question the diligence of the dealer if they couldn't be bothered to ensure their stock is in good shape. Although that could be mitigated if you just wandered in asking for a test drive rather than booking one.

I had a Polo before the Karoq & the discs would literally rust overnight. But even if left for a week would never judder beyond the manual handbrake initially releasing.

@Rory may have a point about wheelspin as the Karoq is indeed very prone to it even on a damp road, never mind icy. Although the 36 PSI her references is in fact the current specification at 2.5 bar. Something that seems to have changed on later cars.

It's 2.1 bar on ours - I converted it to psi. April 22 car, just before the facelift.

I don't know if that's unusual for Karoq, but don't know why it would be? I thought it was too low and put 2.5bar (36psi) in and the car became a right handful out of junctions - we have to turn out of our village onto a fast A road and you sometimes just have to go for a gap. It did the same with super unleaded fuel too.

Grip will always be worse in cold weather too.

Edited 8 January8 Jan by Rory

6 minutes ago, LiamD91 said:

I was hardly giving it any revs

It really doesn't take much at all.

4 minutes ago, Rory said:

It's 2.1 bar on ours - I converted it to psi. April 22 car, just before the facelift.

My 25 plate SEL Edition is 2.5 on the fuel flap. Never run it at that though due to the stupidly low 50 profile tyres. I bought it in June but as soon as the weather turned wetter, I started to notice it spinning even when just pulling away gently.

Re Manufacturers warranty to December 2028. Previous Keeper (maybe owner had it 9 months.) Did it have an Extended Warranty for 4 years when first registered. ?

Do what Roger Bannister did in just under 4 minutes

22 minutes ago, Rbz5416 said:

It really doesn't take much at all.

My 25 plate SEL Edition is 2.5 on the fuel flap. Never run it at that though due to the stupidly low 50 profile tyres. I bought it in June but as soon as the weather turned wetter, I started to notice it spinning even when just pulling away gently.

Can't be bothered to go outside now, but Googling for "Karoq tyre pressure label" shows one with 2.1bar and another with 2.5bar for 18" wheels. Yet they're both 2.4 for 19" wheels.

5 minutes ago, Rory said:

Can't be bothered to go outside now, but Googling for "Karoq tyre pressure label" shows one with 2.1bar and another with 2.5bar for 18" wheels. Yet they're both 2.4 for 19" wheels.

My MY22 SEL with 18" wheels is definitely 2.5Bar front and back

FWIW, mine still has the OEM Brigstone tyres. They are s***e and will be replaced fairly soon. They can lose traction when pulling out of junctions but never when pulling away in a straight line. It feels like juddery transmission rather than simple spinning wheels. My wife's MY23 has Pirelli Cinturato All Season SF3s and does not experience that issue.

So, you may wish to check if the car you're interested in has the OEM's fitted. It could possibly be those and not the transmission even if it fells like it is.

Edited 8 January8 Jan by Viffer800
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Karoq 1.5 TSI DSGs are fairly numerous, so there will be many others around, however if you do give the dealer and the car a second chance .I would carry out a very thorough road test to see if the fault has genuinely been fixed. There are two clutches in a DSG gearbox; Clutch 1 controls 1st, 3rd, 5th & 7th, Clutch 2 controls 2nd, 4th, 6th and Reverse. On a flat road check that the car will move away from rest in D and R without any throttle, i.e. it move smoothly at tickover revs. Find a road with a slope, one that if you were in manual car it would be a hill start situation using the handbrake. The DSG has an automatic 'Hill Hold' feature so again it should move away from rest in both D and R on tickover without any throttle. In both the above tests once moving it should then be possible to apply throttle and accelerate away smoothly. It could be wheelspin causing the traction control to take control which might feel like juddering. Switch off traction control and see if it makes a difference. Remember the DSG will attempt to start in 2nd and if Stop/Start has partially kicked in that might cause a feeling of juddering. Starting in 2nd is, I think, a contributor to the wheelspin; driver decide to pull away, DSG is in second (the other clutch has already selected 3rd), as the car is not moving soon enough driver presses throttle more, DSG decides to use 1st and there is a delay while it switches from 3rd to 1st, driver may apply more throttle so when the clutch for 1st gear engages the engine revs up and the wheels spin. If the DSG judders starting in 1st but doesn't judder in Reverse or vice-versa I would suspect that there is an issue with whichever clutch is juddering, at 5000 miles that shouldn't happen. Also using Sport mode to see if that makes any difference. The comment about the vehicle having sat for a while could mean the rear brake pads/calipers are sticking, so when auto-hold or the auto handbrake is relased its not releasing completely immediately. From reading the many posts on this forum about juddering, hesitance on pulling away, cutting out all with the 1.5 TSI engine, there are many examples reported but there are many owners whose 1.5 TSI engines do not have these issues, my take is that this engine is complex and has many clever (or not) economy features. These require fine tolerances, if the combination of parts has a perfect tolerances it works as designed BUT if the engine happens to have been assembled from parts that are only just within tolerance maybe it doesn't always work quite as designed.

But as many others have said I would walk away too.......

4 hours ago, Viffer800 said:

My MY22 SEL with 18" wheels is definitely 2.5Bar front and back

Is it a facelift one? Odd they would be different. Ours is on Michelin Primacy 18" tyres. Drives fine with them at 2.1bar

2 hours ago, thamestrader said:

Remember the DSG will attempt to start in 2nd...

Hmmm....I'm quite sensitive to this as I had a Merc which always started in 2nd, then would shift to 1st with an un-Mercedes like thunk if you were "brisk" with it.

Our Karoq always shifts to 1st as it stops. It'll stay in second if you keep moving at all, but once stopped it always goes to 1st.

As above from few peeps, walk away would be my sage advice. Even if it didn’t have issues there is always the worrying “what if …….. “. Plenty of fish in the sea. 👍

9 hours ago, Rory said:

Is it a facelift one? Odd they would be different. Ours is on Michelin Primacy 18" tyres. Drives fine with them at 2.1bar

Not sure about any uplift but definitely Bridgestone. FWIW, both were ex-Motability cars so maybe specced differently by them.

My wife's car had them too before switching to the Pirellis.

I took one for the Team by keeping the 4/8 tyres with the most tread and the mobile tyre fitter took away the other 4.

Hortible tyres but didn't fancy coughing up the sheckles for 8 in one go.

Edited 9 January9 Jan by Viffer800
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