You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Any one got one and are they any good?
I had one, in a TDI A3, enjoyed using it, full auto was good when in the traffic crawling to work (i know i should have been on a bike), the flappy paddles were useful when driving normally,
When the car was about 2 years and 11 months old it started to occasionally randomly change gear, like you could be happily going along in 4th and it would suddenly go to 2nd, so I traded it in quickly for another A3 with a manual box, could have been a simple fix but I wasn't about to find out when the warranty was about to expire and I wanted a new car anyway.
My dad has just got rid of his 56 plate passat as the gearbox started making a rattling noise. The garage were quoting him £1000 with no guarantee what they were trying would actually fix it, so he got rid. There was also some stuff on american frums where the box can catastrophically fail causing the wheels to lock up at speed!
any auto box will need its fluid replaced on a regular basis to prolong its life.
it doesn't matter what they say about being sealed for life. it is not the case. its sealed for warrantly life.
Typically auto boxes should be needing fresh oil / filters about the 60k to 80k mark, and then its no bad thing to do it every year or so to keep the fluid fresh inside. If you dont, then autos nowadays tend to go downhill quickly beyond the 80k mark.
The DSG needs oil and filter service at 40k, very important apparently, my dad had his done, but it still started failing
'Proper drivers' will tell you that auto's are for girls & a real man drives a manual or uses the paddles, but if you were trying to get from point a to b as fast as poss then the auto wins hands down. Very smooth indeed.
I've had a go with it in my mums 3.2 TT & S4 Avant (she's 60 btw so prefers auto's anyway).
Things to note:
* Not all VWs with DSG come with the paddles as standard - make sure you check!
* At anything above crawling pace the up and down shifts are excellent
* At crawling pace (e.g. in town) progress can be very jerky - the system appears to be a bit on/off with its clutch control
* Even when you put the box into 'manual' (i.e. paddles only) it will still automatically downshift when you come to a halt. This cannot be changed/overridden. This can be exceptionally irritating where the gearbox throws in an automatic downshift just as you're doing the same, or when it drops to first as you hesitate at a junction (where you'd just leave a manual in 2nd), and you pull away in a lower gear than you were expecting.
* If it's a company car the benefit-in-kind figures can be usefully lower on DSG cars because of lower CO2.
The system probably works best in full auto mode with you just pulling the paddles (which overrides the automated gear selection for a few seconds) when necessary/appropriate.
The above is based on personal experience in a Golf, TT and A3. My other half previously has had an A3 with DSG but last time selected a manual in preference.
I can't comment on longevity, but the consensus does seem to be that they're not going to be as reliable as a manual long-term (even with regular servicing), and potentially expensive if they go wrong.
Its a company car so not bothered about the service costs but I think the additional price premium apprix £1.5k on the overall car value offsets any CO2 saving. Think I prefer the idea of a manual still
My boss has a GTi with the flappy paddle DSG box, 40,000 miles and it sounds rough! In the last 3 weeks it has started to hop when he pulls away in it. Car has done mostly motorway miles so it shouldn't be that bad.....