long story short, would I be mad to trade in a car with 9k miles for almost the same model with 33k miles? straight swap. Difference being my one has leather interior and automatic, and the one I’d like has cloth interior and manual.

Reason is the auto is unreliable and only bought it two months ago. Even with the warranty I simply don’t have the time for trips back to the dealer.

On paper you’re taking a big hit, leather for cloth, automatic for manual and 2 years worth of average mileage. It doesn’t sound like a great idea TBH, but it depends how unreliable it is and how much you’ve lost faith in it.

Given it sounds like a downgrade in price/spec terms, even ignoring the mileage, I’d say it would be a bit hasty – why isn’t the dealer sorting this out?

How old? It’s a ridiculous sitiation to be in if it’s still under the 3 year warranty, somebody needs a bit of a shake at the dealership me thinks!

Basically I bought a car with a DSG 7 speed box. I did a little research before buying but then when the clutch started to slip at 9k miles I researched a bit more, then realised they are generally unreliable and VERY expensive to fix out of warranty which runs out in December.

I spent all my money on this car so annoyed I didn’t carry out more research before buying. My own fault. It’s back in with the dealer next week and they have been good but theres still no way ill keep the car out of warranty.

The DSG boxes are fitted to a hell of a lot of cars, although there are a few 7-speed variants, they’re not inherently inreliable. Their ubiquity means there’ll be lots of tales of woe. Whilst repair can certainly be expensive they sure as hell shouldn’t need anything doing after 9k miles.

Having just bought a VW Caddy with 7 speed DSG i’m watching thread with interest. It seems there are horror stories about nearly anything but I didn’t find much about this gearbox at all. It’s not new now so any design issues should have been sorted, no?

Having just bought a VW Caddy with 7 speed DSG i’m watching thread with interest. It seems there are horror stories about nearly anything but I didn’t find much about this gearbox at all. It’s not new now so any design issues should have been sorted, no?

just dont skimp on the service for the gearbox. Every 40K I think. I had my T5 done at 35K and 70K .
Cost was around £200 a time. ( you could do it yourself , but its a PITA and the oil makes up quite a bit of that cost

I’d just get the dealer to sort it.
I’d be very vocal in how I expected it to be sorted – polite but firm.

How old is your car?

Only 9000 miles and warranty runs out in December? Even the stingiest manufacturers give 3 year warranties.

Well I changed my 13 year old, 120,000 mile Audi for a 28 year old (now 30 year old) 150,000 (now 180,000) mile Mercedes and have never looked back…

Yes youre mad.

What car? Assuming its a nearly new dq200 box, yes theres plenty of problem stories out there but also much much more are fine. Theyre not that bad a box. Problems with a modern car are all expensive, and youre much more likely to have them in a car with 20k more on the clock. Clutches wear – if you get it sorted under warranty why do you think it will go again? I have a manual vw same milieage and im assuming same age as yours with a woeful clutch, guaranteed to cost me about the same money as it would have been to have a dsg from the start. Id stick.

I’m guessing you’ve had persistent problems with your gearbox and that you weren’t the first owner. Personally, I’d make the swap especially if you are planning to keep the car for a while. Peace of mind would be worth the money. I’ve been in a similar situation. It smarted At the time, but isn’t something that makes me cringe when I think about it

Alternatively have you considered selling the car? Or extending the warranty?

Get the car in the dealers as much as possible before December and get issues fixed under warranty, then decide to get rid ?

Most cars go wrong within warranty period, and are usually OK after that. Any slight niggle with the box, just don’t delay and get it in. It’s probably something simple they have missed, and are doing the ‘part swap until we find it dance’.

People only post on forums when things go wrong about cars. They never post saying, my cars great, no problems at all.

Do I’d take the comments about the issues with a pinch of salt considering how common they are.

Alternatively, sell it privately for more money, then buy the car you want with cash rather than the garage making money out of you.

As above, use the garage for warranty repairs as much as possible before December

Those are really common gearboxes, so although it might ‘seem’ as if there are loads of horror stories out there, it’s probably no better or worse than any other make of car.
The internet always makes things like this seem worse.

This might sound daft, but get on to Twitter or Facebook and make a complaint directly to the manufacturer. It’s still under warranty, so you’re obviously not getting good dealership service. Dealerships sit up and listen if they get a call from the manufacturer about a complaint made directly to them.