Anyone here driving a Skoda Octavia with automatic gear system? Reliable?

Thinking of getting one but I have not driven one before so want to get some opinion.

What other automatic gear cars do you recommend?

🙂

Crikey … nobody drives an automatic?

Presumably the DSG? It’s pretty good, but if it’s before some point in time like 2008 I think, the oil needs changing at 80k miles or so and costs £300 to do 🙁

There are several versions on the road currently.. I think there’s an older 6 speed (the expensive oil change one) a newer 6 speed and a 7 speed, I think neither of those have the expensive oil.

There was a thread on here posted by me about ooh, 6 weeks ago with more info on the oil changes as I was concerned the garage were taking me for a ride!

molgrips,

Good info that.

Yes, I think it’s a DSG model year 2005, 2006 to 2008 model with max budget of £7.5K.

Yes, someone told me the gearbox oil needs changing on time or it would be a costly venture if not change on time. £300 … wow! 😮

Do you know the model year for the newer version with less expensive oil?

Yes, same here as I don’t want to be rip off.

What did you buy in the end?

🙂

I have a 2006 Passat 2.0 TDI with DSG. I was fairly shocked originally but to be fair it’ll be 4 or 6 years before it needs doing again, so I’m not that worried. And it can be done for much less money by independents apparently.

I like it overall – ace in spirited driving but when going slowly it’s not as smooth as a traditional auto. I won’t get another though I don’t think since it costs me probably 5mpg which is 10%, not an insignificant amount.

Our 55 plate DSG auto has been faultless so far over about 60,000 miles, still returned over 50mpg on a fully loaded camping trip with roof box the other week.

Best auto we’ve had.

Phew! I missed that 80k miles oil change and thought it was changing every year … 😳

Gearbox oil change every 80K miles is fine with me and the extra 10% might be fine with me too so long as it’s reliable.

The cost saving might come from not having to deal with clutch lining?

Have you done any repair since? If so what?

MoreCashThanDash – Member

Our 55 plate DSG auto has been faultless so far over about 60,000 miles, still returned over 50mpg on a fully loaded camping trip with roof box the other week.

Best auto we’ve had.

Do you have a Skoda or VW?

What’s your normal maintenance cost like?

It’s an Octavia 1.9tdi estate, 6 speed box (living the STW dream!)

Service costs are fairly low, nothing major gone yet, maybe £300 a year (crosses every conceivable appendage, making it hard to type)

MoreCashThanDash,

Do you use independent garage? £300 per year sounds reasonable but what do they change/do exactly?

Have you change the gear box oil since you got it? How many times have you done so?

I have not driven an auto before and was told gear box oil change is a must as auto gear is much more sensitive.

🙂

Don’t pay any heed to Molgrips 😀 he only likes to pay top dollar in shiney Munich showrooms – £150 will get a full dsg service in Skoda dealers when in the UK – my wife has an estate version of the one you are looking at with 143k and it is still going strong – she is a community nurse and with lots of stop start driving she is getting a real 48mpg- oil and filter on the box needs done every 40k

mundiesmiester,

Yes! That’s more like it.

Is that 2005 model?

£150 for gearbox oil change? Sounds very good.

What’s the yearly maintenance cost like?

🙂

Yep it is a 05 1.9tdi, wife does about 20k a year – if you need helpful info please feel free to email me

mundiesmiester,

Yes, I will email you nearer to the time as I am still short-listing auto gear cars.

Also looking at Japanese made cars.

🙂

Consider a Prius. They are all auto* but have no special servicing requirements. Servicing is £150-£200 at the main dealer here, and they are extremely reliable and of course great on fuel.

* It’s not actually an auto box full of gears or hydraulics, it’s just two electric motors and some clever fixed cogs. So far fewer moving parts than even a manual gearbox.

Molgrips,

Thought about Prius but not sure I want to go electric at the moment. 🙂

It’s not electric.. just a car that’s economical, easy to drive and reliable.. You don’t have to do anything special to own or run it. No plugs or anything required.

molgrips – Member

It’s not electric.. just a car that’s economical, easy to drive and reliable.. You don’t have to do anything special to own or run it. No plugs or anything required.

Opps! It’s a hybrid … but might be a wee bit small because there will be four people in it everyday. The boot is a bit small as well. Estate might suit the bill better.

I drove a DSG (Passett CC) for the first time a couple of weeks ago, very un-impressed – foot on accelerator, press and wait while counting to two – then it goes.

Compared to a normal auto, which just goes. Just this would make me avoid the DSG.

b r – Member

I drove a DSG (Passett CC) for the first time a couple of weeks ago, very un-impressed – foot on accelerator, press and wait while counting to two – then it goes.

Compared to a normal auto, which just goes. Just this would make me avoid the DSG.

D’oh! Do they (Skoda/VW) have non-DSG version? My mate told me to avoid Tiptronic and he only goes for Japanese auto like those from Toyota.

Is that the only problem? i.e. slow response.

😯

Chew, it’s a bit of a funny one. Cos of the body shape the back seats are actually really spacious – I’ve had 4 adults in it a lot and there’s definitely way more room in the back seats than in an Octavia. Boot is smaller tho of course.

foot on accelerator, press and wait while counting to two – then it goes

Well.. sometimes.. you have to know how it works to avoid that. Almost all the time shifts are instant.

There are two input shafts, one with 1st, 3rd and 5th and one with 2nd, 4th and 6th. So you drive off, you’re in 1st and 2nd is pre-selected on the other shaft and the two swap over smoothly so there’s a nice instantaneous shift. If you are cruising in 6th the other shaft will be in 5th, but if you mash the pedal it gives you the lowest gear it can which is say 3rd, this means it has to switch from 5th to 3rd on that shaft which takes about half a second. If you do stuff like mash the pedal then lift off again and drive slowly then mash again etc it’ll get a bit confused and might take a second to sort itself.

So if you want to overtake, say, you either mash the pedal half a second in advance or just switch to manual mode and hold 3rd til it’s time to go – which is just what you’d do in a manual.

It’s not as foolproof as a normal auto but it’s so much better in most cases that I would still prefer it.

Only thing you really can’t do in mine is pull away really fast tyres screaming. It brings the clutch in before the turbo’s spooled up… annoying but you just have to learn not to take tiny gaps!

Molgrips – the wait until the count of two, was from a standing start, when pulling out – or is that just compounded because it was an oil-burner?

Ah yeah.. well it’s partly cos it was a turbo coupled with that box. I honestly can’t imagine why they haven’t added a clause in the control program to detect when you’ve buried the pedal and let the revs climb higher before letting the clutch out.

When driving a manual diesel you can pull away very quickly indeed, as long as you get the revs up before letting out the clutch.

I googled it though and the GTI forums were saying that you could turn off the ESP and then hold the brake and push the accelerator all the way down; letting off the brake would result in a fast start. That doesn’t work in my car though, so maybe it’s a feature of the GTI.

molgrips,

That’s interesting so keep those info coming.

Wish my boy racer mate is here as he could adjust the system by using a piggy back racing board …

🙂

Just test drive the cars, that’s all you have to do.. But I’d really recommend test driving a Prius, just to see.

mrs tts has an 08 octavia diesel estate it has 67k on the clock and total service bill thus far
on 17k skoda service at dealer 170 on 48k at local garageusing vag bits inc mot 105 next one not due till the spanner lights up agian! cheap motoring.

Oh yeah.. I have the long life service setting on my Passat – so it measures the engine revolutions and oil temp and calculates how long you can go before you need new oil. If you do lots of motorway miles it lasts ages – 20k miles for me!

Will definitely test drive a few molgrips.

molgrips, it will be mostly school runs to be driven by my sis.

totalshell,

Is that an auto gear Octavia?

Hmm school runs are usually short trips aren’t they? I would be very wary of a diesel for that.

molgrips – Member

Hmm school runs are usually short trips aren’t they? I would be very wary of a diesel for that.

Yes, I am thinking about petrol too but if non available then I will give diesel a go.

It’s not as foolproof as a normal auto

Why is a ‘normal auto’ more foolproof?

Hi

I have a 7speed Merc and a 6speed Honda auto. Both a traditional torque converter auto, tiptronic and both impressive. The Honda auto is very smooth but a little bit inefficient. The Merc auto (apart from A class – very unreliable) is great, as you might expect from merc. Modern multispeed (7 or 8) are amazing peices of kit.

tonyg2003,

What Merc is that?

Why Honda is a bit inefficient?

Mind you Merc is a bit expensive for me … 😀

I have a Accord (8th gen new shape) Tourer. Which is a good car but the auto blunts the performance/mpg of the petrol or diesel a bit. Very under-rated cars I think.

The Merc is a 320cdi estate – yep pricey but a hell of a car.

tonyg2003,

I like the look of the Accord Tourer but what’s the mpg like? Maintenance cost per year?

I like old Merc of the 80s as they are workhorse.

Yes, I am thinking about petrol too but if non available then I will give diesel a go.

Don’t – you’ll kill it with too many short trips.

It’s not as foolproof as a normal auto
Why is a ‘normal auto’ more foolproof?

Normal autos (if they are decent ones) shift quickly and the fluid coupling (I think) isolates the engine a bit more from the gearbox. The upshot is that they are really smooth and quick in shifting so you can’t really wrong-foot them like you can with the DSG. The DSG is very smooth and quick IF it’s pre-selected the right gear, which it usually does to be fair. DSGs also have an actual mechanical clutch which feels a bit like a manual one, you can feel it being let in and out and this whilst smooth is less smooth than a fluid coupling.

Trad autos are a bit better in traffic and parking and so on, but DSG is FAR better on the open road. No contest.

Molgrips… you are right in most of what you say, the pullaway is often considered nicer with a traditional auto, this is because they have a torque converter which ‘amplifies’ the engine torque.

I don’t particularly agree that normal autos are better in traffic/parking (unless the DSG’s you have driven don’t have creep activated). In terms of there being a delay due to the wrong preselected gear, I would be very surprised if you were able to perceive this as a driver. I’ve been working with DSG’s for years and I would be surprised if I could tell the difference!

chewkw – Member
D’oh! Do they (Skoda/VW) have non-DSG version? My mate told me to avoid Tiptronic and he only goes for Japanese auto like those from Toyota.

What exactly is tiptronic? Is it basically a normal auto gearbox (with torque converter etc) but which also allows you to override the gear choice?

Tiptronic (or whatever different makers call it) is the ability to change the auto gear manually – usually using steering wheel paddles these days.

Modern autos lock up in most gears and hence are close in efficiency to manuals. For narrow torque peak engines like smaller diesels, the 7-8speed autos – which can maintain peak torque are usually quoted with very similar fuel efficiency as manuals. Although you have to pay more for the auto of course (if you buy new).