Now i will throw a spanner in the works, i own a DSG kombi (family wagon) and im happy with it, gentle relaxed driving and easy to munch the miles with no stress - do i regret it ? no very happy with it
Time for a new work van in 2018 to replace my ageing transit, will it be a DSG ? No probably not, i just wonder if it would get on my tits driving it all day everyday and doing reasonable mileage, thats the honest answer but its a close call as im not a DSG hater (as of a couple weeks ago)
Now comes the interesting part, i have heard several people moan and loathe DSG and i have always thought whats the problem ?
People complain about lag when pulling away and difficulty reversing on slopes etc etc and i have always taken it with a pinch of salt as never agreed with them ....... until a couple of weeks ago, my kombi went in for some warranty work (on the gearbox as luck would have it) and as i have three kids required a kombi courtesy which they didnt have so i got a brand spankers 67 plate caravelle SE 150 DSG, lovely van with the comfort dash, rear heating twin sliders etc thought we were going to love it until i drove it
This van was an absolute nightmare and i hated it and couldnt wait to give it back, my wife hated it and complained at me every day until it was returned two weeks later, the reason ? The DSG gearbox
It was absolutely terrible, the lag and general unresponsiveness of the thing was unbelievable, reversing was a nightmare, stop/engage reverse/throttle gently and nothing van didnt move, bring the revs upto around 1500-2000 revs on a slight rearward incline and absolutely nothing, no movement....I couldnt believe it, just how different it was from mine !
Being serious if this van had of been mine that i had bought i would have either tried to have the gearbox remapped and if that didnt work i would have sold it it was that annoying, jump back to my van and its the polar opposite, the second you engage a gear its ready to go, click it into reverse wait a second and as soon as you release the footbrake even on a rearward slope and it starts to pull back and wants to go, the slightest touch on the throttle and your moving comfortably and in a controlled manner.
I have no idea why it is so different between the two vans it makes no sense but its how it was/is, back to real time would i buy another van that was DSG ? No, not without being able to drive it first to see if i had one with a nice tight responsive feel that i would buy or one that had this slack laggy non responsiveness that i would run a mile from
I realise i am hijacking this thread slightly and may move it off to its own thread but interested to open up the debate on how people find their DSGs because if there are lots more out there like the caravelle i had im surprised people arent complaining more !
