[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

VW China has apologized to its Chinese customers...
VW even has issued special instructions in Owner's manual for some cars, here are special instructions for DSG 7 dry type in Golf GT...

How paradoxical that VAG-Skoda verbally tells its Indian customers that DSG failures are related to a wrong technique of driving. Discussion here.

[Sutripta]

^^^
SS, you should have highlighted the 'verbally' part.

And don't forget the almost anecdotal 'crimping not done properly' or 'voltage surge in factory' etc.

Regards
Sutripta

[vikrantj]

Industry in India thrives on corruption, lack of political will and inability to take swift decisions. So unless atleast one of the above changes such products are bound to come our way.
Think of this from VW's perspective they have invested a lot in developing this gearbox and looking at it they need a place to dump it and get some profit out of it. What more lucritive place than India where Skoda has created a name as a luxury despite horror stories.
By the time a decision is taken on this it will already too late and a recall at that point of time will not dent any profits.

[dkaile]

VW Group has just announced that DSG-7 warranty is to be extended to 5 years or 150 000 km on Russian market.

This was in response to extended campaign in Russian Federation with customer complaints as to reliability of this hi-tech gearbox. Official letter is in Russian and posted here in case anyone with DSG 7 issues wants to escalate matter with Skoda India.

[Redline6800]

Volkswagen has issued a recall for almost 4 Lakh cars in China (3,84,181 to be precise) fitted with its faulty DSG transmission. VW will be replacing components in affected gearboxes at no cost to the customer. The decision came after a Chinese Government department completed a yearlong investigation of automobiles that were made between December 2008 and February 2013, before ordering the recall.



Earlier last year, VW extended the warranty on its DQ200 dual-clutch transmission to 10 years / 1,60,000 kms for Chinese customers. This came on the back of complaints from car owners that vehicles fitted with the DQ200 gearbox suffered from issues related to 'abnormal noise levels, excessive shift shock and flashing gear indicators that resulted in emergency mode being activated and the driver being unable to shift into gear.'

There are plenty of reports on our forum of Indian car owners who were stranded by the roadside because of a faulty DSG. Unfortunately, neither the VW group nor Skoda (whose Superb is severely affected by this problem) have announced a similar recall in India. Our country doesn't even have a watchdog like the one present in China that ordered the recall.

Volkswagen announced the recall after reports of malfunctioning gearboxes appeared on Chinese Central Television. Last year, after repeated complaints, VW issued a software update for more than 500,000 vehicles (VW and Skoda) produced in China. The DSG's problems however, began to resurface even after the updates were installed.

[M35]

Its shame that we don't have any consumer quality watchdog in India. Even if we have one, we, the consumer wouldn't get benefited much from it, thanks to the heights of the corrupted bureaucratic system, we have here.But having something that is not satisfactory is better than having nothing at all.

Have a look at another instance where the china consumer quality watchdog urged Toyota to recall around 4400 FJ cruiser for some seat-belt flaws. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said that Toyota China will recall imported cars produced between December 2007 and March 2013, Xinhua News reported.Toyota is working on the solution to the flaw and will release improvement methods before April 15, the administration said.
Source:

It seems like, in China, car owners are advised to fill in a form with their complaints and submit it at their government website before any action is taken by them.

Since we don't have a similar set up in India, what we can do is to make maximum use of reputed online forums like TBHP to share problems faced with our vehicles and make them public.

We could even think of having dedicated threads/platforms for various manufacturers in India for the respective owners to share their bad experiences. We do have a few, up and running already. If we could organise them and have it put up on the TBHP home page, for the owners to post their complaints under their respective brands and those manufactures to notice them quickly as well.

more related discussions:.

[Hayek]

If we had such a government website, it would become only another avenue for corruption. We cannot rely on government action in this country since almost ALL government servants are either corrupt or accessories after the fact to corruption (think of it - how many HONEST government servants, including our own family members, act against their corrupt colleagues?).

We can only rely on consumer pressure here. Unfortunately, India is a small market for VW group / Skoda. The Superb 1.8 TSi AT is the only car affected - and even assuming it accounts for 60% of all Superbs sold, there would be less than 10,000 people who own it. Au contraire, VW group has sold over 1 million DQ 200 equipped cars in China. To Skoda 's credit, they did repair my car on a goodwill warranty basis.

[drmohitg]

Please don't blame VW or Skoda for there failure to admit there mistake. Honesty and transparency in your business practice comes hard to most people and companies. As mentioned above we have our own lax laws to blame for this. From recalls to ensuring the incorporation of safety features in every car variant ( the list is long). Unless the govt wakes up from its slumber and starts enforcing strict laws and penalties , VW will never relent. They will easily find many gullible buyers every month which shows with the sales numbers of Skoda superb.

[dkaile]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

They will easily find many gullible buyers every month which shows with the sales numbers of Skoda superb.

Not every buyer is so gullible. In fact I would go as far as to say most are well informed. And why blame VW group alone? They are one of the foremost auto groups in the world and when skeletons open in the cupboards you will find other manufacturers no better or worse off. The fact of the matter is that the DQ200 gearbox is an issue and needs to be sorted off or replaced sooner than later.

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Unless the govt wakes up from its slumber and starts enforcing strict laws and penalties , VW will never relent. They will easily find many gullible buyers every month which shows with the sales numbers of Skoda superb.

I don't think buyers are gullible - they make a conscious trade off that the risk of a DSG failure is acceptable given the fantastic value for money that the Superb offers. Friends of mine have bought the Superb after knowing about the DSG failure in my car.

[lancer_rit]

Well many are aware of the DSG issues but I guess two aspects may lull them into being gullible.
* % of DSG failures in India are higher than they think. Though a smaller sample, tbhp members have reported an extremely high incidence of DSG failure.
* chalta hai, won't happen to me attitude - like folks not wearing a helmet or seat belt think.

I would not recommend or buy a DSG variant as things stand.

VW and Skoda must own up and take actions based on response in other markets like US, China, Russia etc. Minimally, additional warranty on drivetrain is required.S

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by dkaile

Not every buyer is so gullible. In fact I would go as far as to say most are well informed. And why blame VW group alone?

Originally Posted by Hayek

I don't think buyers are gullible - they make a conscious trade off that the risk of a DSG failure is acceptable given the fantastic value for money that the Superb offers.

First of all I didn't mean to say that only VW as a group is at fault. My views were directed at every car maker, in this case VW ofcourse.

As far as finding gullible buyers, well there are many. Ofcourse many, like your friends, might have chosen to go with the car even after knowing the issue with the gear box. But a majority of the buyers would not exactly google DSG issues before putting down there money. And feature and VFM wise there is no competition to the Superb in that price bracket. Hence most car buyers would actually happily buy the car when there SA would say sir its a 7 speed AT box and not a 6 speed one like found in the rivals.

[Hayek]

Agree the failure rate on Team BHP has been very high. But it is not that high overall - I am still one of only 2 persons in about 20 people I know with Superb 1.8 TSi ATs who has suffered a DSG failure. Yes - 10% is bad but it is nothing like the 50% + failure rate on Team BHP. And this is certainly not the same as not wearing seat belts - as long as Skoda keep replacing mechatronics for free in practice, it is not the end of the world. Further, the 4 year warranty that is now available makes people a lot more comfortable buying their products. But I do agree that offering a 10 year warranty would make the few people who avoid this car due to DSG failures more confident - and that they may need to introduce it when they launch the Polo 1.2 TSi DSG.

[lancer_rit]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Agree the failure rate on Team BHP has been very high. But it is not that high overall - I am still one of only 2 persons in about 20 people I know with Superb 1.8 TSi ATs who has suffered a DSG failure. Yes - 10% is bad but it is nothing like the 50% + failure rate on Team BHP.

I wish & hope they have a trouble free run. But i think its likely that there would be more failures as more km and years pass. Many of the failures on tbhp happened after 2 years, 30k km etc ...

And this is certainly not the same as not wearing seat belts - as long as Skoda keep replacing mechatronics for free in practice, it is not the end of the world.

I was only trying to give an example that most Indians have a 'carefree' / 'won't happen with me' attitude. We agree to far lower 'standards' of what is acceptable from companies/vendors! Agree with you fully that 'not wearing' seatbelts etc is orders of magnitude more serious and potentially damaging!

Further, the 4 year warranty that is now available makes people a lot more comfortable buying their products. But I do agree that offering a 10 year warranty would make the few people who avoid this car due to DSG failures more confident - and that they may need to introduce it when they launch the Polo 1.2 TSi DSG.

Well, for starters, if their claim that software upgrades etc have 'fixed' the DSG unreliability has any reality, the least they can do is to offer higher warranty period for DSG transmission to 'gain' back the confidence of customers. The fact that the issues are worldwide and across various brands of the VW group, establishes quite the opposite of what VW/Skoda/Audi would have us believe!
You're right about Polo 1.2 - if they go mass market, they better have fixed the DSG issues completely otherwise things would go downhill very fast.

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Is there any information on why this thing fails? Software is being mentioned, but what exactly is wrong with the software? I could not find this info, I'm sorry if I missed it somewhere.

Spike