[pta320]

Originally Posted by 1.2TSI7DSG

Or we just get to know the failed transmissions. How many manual trannys get clutch replacement?
If we take that into account the DSG is not a big thing.

For someone like me who use car for long haul journeys through deserted roads and often through forests during night time, I wouldn't touch a car with a 10 foot pole which has a weak transmission that fails without much warning no matter how good you take care of it. Manual transmission clutches do fail but they start giving warning signs much earlier and are relatively inexpensive to fix. That gives you ample time to fix it before you are left stranded.

And as far as appreciating the complexity goes, German engineers make everything overly complex and hard to fix. For them the easiest solution from point A to B is not a straight line. So even though their tech might find some recognition in research papers, in real world where my life, money and peace of mind is at stake I would pick a well trusted technology.

I would rather appreciate Toyota for bringing in cutting edge hybrid cars that save fuel and environment and keep on continuously innovating that tech yet keeping the reliability intact. VW, not so much.

For a weekend toy, sure go ahead, buy a DSG, baby it ... For a daily driver, keep something else.

Originally Posted by ASHUJNMC

Time and time again i see internet forums filled with VW and Skoda complaints. Their attitude is like - we are doing you a huge favour by letting you buy our cars you ungrateful people. Just shut up and be happy with what you have got. We are not gonna do you any more favour by providing you world class warranty and ASS.

As long as consumers keep on buying their defective cars, they will not learn anything.

In reality they deserve a lawsuit but sadly automotive industry is not well regulated in this regard.

If it would have been something highly regulated like aviation industry, these guys would have long filed for bankruptcy.

[hortons15]

Originally Posted by shancz

That's a pretty bad response from Skoda on a "known issue"

Not surprised!

My 2017 Volvo V40's steering rack completely failed in just 15,000km and 2.5 years of ownership (the 2 year new car warranty had expired by then). Undriveable. It's a known issue for this particular Volvo model since it uses Ford Focus components and that Ford steering rack has had multiple failures and recalls overseas.

With the lockdowns in 2020 and closure of the Volvo dealership in Tamil Nadu, I have just managed to get it replaced in the later part of 2021. Almost 2 Lakhs out of my pocket for the steering and 2 wheel speed sensors that go with it. How can the entire steering unit fail? It's not a regular wear and tear part. Volvo India and the dealership denied any "goodwill" or discounts altogether. I even got kind of a rude response from Volvo India to my escalation email. So, I'm not surprised Skoda is doing the same. I've been meaning to do a thread about my issue but haven't had the time

[akash_v12]

Have been meaning to ask this for a while.

Does the Rapid have the DQ200 'box or is it some other transmission? I remember seeing back in 2017 in an uncle's Rapid (1.6 Petrol) that it had only had 6 gears whereas the Vento (1.2P) has the 7-speed. Or, is it such that the 1.5D got the DQ200 whilst the Petrol got something else?

[vishy76]

Originally Posted by akash_v12

Have been meaning to ask this for a while.

Does the Rapid have the DQ200 'box or is it some other transmission? I remember seeing back in 2017 in an uncle's Rapid (1.6 Petrol) that it had only had 6 gears whereas the Vento (1.2P) has the 7-speed. Or, is it such that the 1.5D got the DQ200 whilst the Petrol got something else?

The 1.6 MPI had the 6-speed AISIN AQ250 gearbox I believe which was a torque converter. The current 1.0 TSIs in the VAG lineup come mated to an improved version of the same gearbox.

The 1.5 TDI and 1.2 TSI on the other hand came mated to the DQ200.

Originally Posted by 1.2TSI7DSG

Or we just get to know the failed transmissions. How many manual trannys get clutch replacement?
If we take that into account the DSG is not a big thing.

Appreciate the complexity of a shaft on shaft with two sets of clutches all controlled electronically. Hell in electronics, a 1 lakh phone also fails without warning. Or atleast at the slightest exposure of water/dust, it will collapse.

As compared to that a DSG, it's is still a brilliant piece of engineering. I take it as a high risk high return. The day I bought a dsg (touch wood 8 years 87 k kms) i put aside a lakh for the failure.

How much does a clutch change on a manual tranny cost by the way? Your justification is completely wrong. The mechatronics is a "premature" failure of a part that is expected to last the life of the vehicle. If you would have said the same about a clutch pack, it would have been a viable argument. Instead of replacing the clutch on my manual transmission (a 15-20K job tops), I replace the mechatronics on my DSG every 70-80K km? Even if I replace the clutch pack, I believe the total cost is not less than 70-80K.

No one here has denied that the DSG is a marvel of technology. It's brilliant fun to drive and it revolutionised the AT gearbox phenomenon in a way no other GB could back in 2000s. The DQ200 even more so since it came at a very affordable price point. However, I am not going to cut it so much slack and claim these failures aren't a big thing. It's not about having an appetite for risk. It's about a GB (one of the most basic components in a car) that can fail and leave someone stranded even if you keep the bill aside, and the fact that the same manufacturer who provides a 10 year warranty at minimum in international markets, is forcing customers to beg for goodwill warranty here in India.

[luvurride]

As a victim of Skoda's failures in my Octavia, I do empathize with fellow owners.

Well, to me, it is not spending in tens of thousands or lakhs for repairs, or about taking an extended warranty or the company providing standard warranty for the frequently failing products(like say 10 years) - It is about that unpleasant experience you go through when out there with family. Maybe i would not mind it in my 20s or early 30s when I'm driving alone. But when you are tagging along family for that pleasant vacation and the car suddenly gives up, this is not something I would want.

I sold off the Octy and decided to stay away from VAG cars however good they are. But damn, how good they were! If only I wish...!!!

[sunsetorange]

My GT TSI had a DSG failure in december , I called up the service center here in trichy and said the reverse gear doesn't work. They sent a mechanic who did a reset by disconnecting the battery terminals and reconnecting them after a few minutes.He then drove it to the service center where after checking everything, the service advisor called me up to say the car has a mechatronic failure and that they will file an application for replacement under add on warranty ( Fortunately, I had taken the add on warranty just a month and a half prior to the failure).
I had to wait till the first week of january for the car to return with a brand new mechatronic unit. All I had to pay was 4500 for the pick up and car wash. There was never a need to raise my voice or escalate or any dramatics.
I guess some dealers are better than others. I feel the VW dealer here ( Ramani Volkswagen) is way more customer friendly than the Skoda dealer.

[ASHUJNMC]

What India needs is Lemon laws, or a Reasonable durability guaranteed by law like in Australia. Till then, no respite for consumers.

[shancz]

Originally Posted by vishy76

the fact that the same manufacturer who provides a 10 year warranty at minimum in international markets, is forcing customers to beg for goodwill warranty here in India.

This captures the crux of the discussion we're having here.

What made me respect the brand elsewhere, the lack of it makes me diss them here.

Considering that this was a conscious decision, they would know that buyers will be in trouble and pissed. And still going ahead with the decision shows their apathy/don't care attitude for Indian customers regardless of the "premium experience" gloss they keep throwing in their pressers.

Feeling about 5% as frustrated as the owners I can just say that the Slavia has already started to bring that salty feeling in the mouth.

[ASHUJNMC]

Originally Posted by vishy76

the fact that the same manufacturer who provides a 10 year warranty at minimum in international markets, is forcing customers to beg for goodwill warranty here in India.

Even Kia offers 7 year Warranty in Australia, but 3 year warranty in India. Also Kia Seltos India vs international model are not the same platform. In indian Seltos they have removed most of High strength steel from the frame.
This is problem with these multinationals. That's where Tata Mahindra come on top.

Even Suzuki has same problem.

[Dry Ice]

Really sorry to hear about your ordeal. I hope this gets sorted soon. The first thing you should do as and when the car starts moving on its own accord, is to let it go. No amount of driving pleasure is worth enduring such a substandard product/service.

The kind of image they have built for themselves, I just can’t think of considering any of their products in India or abroad. Just search for Skoda+issue or Volkswagen+issue on this forum and you will not run out of reading material.

[roadrunner_nv]

Originally Posted by vishy76

As for the DSG, Skoda fanboys can thump their chests all they want claiming an executive higher up in the chain is taking interest and trying to solve issues. But the fact of the matter is that they continue being arrogant idiots and fail to acknowledge the fact that they have sold a number of these flawed examples. A 10 year warranty was standard in China for these DQ200s. All a VAG customer gets in India after a failure is a 90K bill and several trips to the service centre begging for warranty.

Arrogance is the right word. Ignorance is the other one that shines in a country where lemon laws and consumer protection is almost absent.

Not just the warranty, but even owners of VAG cars were offered a fair buy back value of their car if it wasn’t acceptable to them after the dieselgate fix. Here, they do the fixes without any information to the customer, and they are unapologetic towards it.

VAG be like: Why the hell should I tell a moron who is just a customer for me? I made the car and I will keep changing whatever I want without informing.

My Rapid used to be pretty silent but on one service visit, these idiots flashed the dieselgate fix without informing me. I gave a Rapid for service and took back a tractor that day.

Do this in any other country and the law of the land will hang you by your b**ls. It’s only here that VAG could just do whatever they wanted with no fear. The Govt. too was just happy pushing a hefty fine on VAG for the emission scandal. Why-o-why did the Govt. not think of all the people who have been cheated? Why wasn’t there an order to compensate the customer or to offer a fair buy back or a lateral shift to one of their products at a fair cost?

[deetjohn]

For the insane taxes (GST + Registration) we pay on cars over here, one would expect the most stringent of laws to protect us - the customers, be it premature failures, lemons or safety. But its the absolute other end of the spectrum!

Originally Posted by audioholic

...To mention a few examples, here is one not so well equipped mechanic but who is knowledgeable enough to strip down the DQ200 and sort out the issue with the valve body. Its in Malayalam so I didnt understand the specifics, but looking at the way they stripped it to bits, I was impressed. https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=-MQsTed46ss

Like this, Why cant the company offer such a solution instead of asking to change the whole unit? Did they not think about this in their India 2.0? Its high time they do so.

The issue here was minor - only the O-ring was torn and which caused hydraulic pressure loss and the sensors packed the DSG to protect the transmission. They replaced O-ring, which fixed the leak and the pressure was back up. Many issues with DSG are not so straight forward.

But you are right, there are many competent garages which can do a good job on diagnosing and fixing the issues. Here is another example:https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...lo-gt-tsi.html (DSG FIX - Multiclutch replacement of the DQ200 on my VW Polo GT TSI)


Better to take the car to one of these places near you if Skoda/ VW is not honoring the warranty - goodwill or otherwise.

Have to say, 'Penny wise and Pound foolish' by Skoda here! This is no way to treat a customer! Save some of that marketing budget from the new launches and take care of the existing customers, that will be more fruitful in the long run!!

[OffRoadFun]

Originally Posted by vinaydatla

I own a 2015 Skoda Rapid 1.5 TDI AT and 2018 VW Polo GT TSI. Both are equipped with a DSG gearbox.

One week ago, my Skoda Rapid's gear lever refused to move out of "P". The glowplug indicator was flashing and the check engine light was ON.

I

After one week of continuous follow-up, I get an update that Mechatronics has failed and the initial estimate of Rs.95000/- has been provided. Will the mechatronics fail without any warning or issue?
What are my options? Please suggest.

Car has been serviced only at the A.S.S that too Mahavir Skoda dealerships.

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I also had a mechatronic unit failure in my Audi Q5 and got it repaired at independent garage for "just" Rs 72k where the replacement cost quoted was 2.75L. I know mechanics who do in BLR/Mumbai. Yours must be cheaper to fix, definitely much less than Rs 95k quoted.

[harry10]

Most old members here would remember the ordeal our team bhp member Harish had to go through many years ago. His whole ordeal and the experience of my Uncle for his top variant Octavia taught me very early to always stay away from Skoda and now the VAG group itself.

Our laws are lethargic and specifically designed not to help the consumer. Our only respite is to chose a car which is reliable more than how it drives. There is no point having a car which is fun to drive but can break down anytime with no assistance from the manufacturer.

Tata gets a lot of flak for their customer service. We have one tata in the garage always since 2005. From personal experiences I can tell you their customer service isn't great but they honor warranty always and even without warranty they honor Goodwill warranty when needed. In 2014 while coming back from Punjab our Tata Manza had a engine failure near Kurukshetra. It was towed to nearest Tata service center who diagnosed it as a faulty fuel pump failure. At that time warranty has lapsed and for insurance this has to be taken as an additional Engine protect which we didn't have. The bill quoted was 99000. We spoke to Regional manager in Tata and he agreed to get it done mostly in Goodwill warranty. We just paid 9k from pocket. This is just one instance, i have many where Tata has always helped out. Their service may be questionable but when needed management do comes to rescue of customers.

I had a Honda City diesel for 7 years which ran 135000 km before being sold in July last year. I would have never sell it if there wasn't a 10 year diesel ban rule in NCR. In 7 years of ownership I never went to service center for anything except routine services. Even it's clutch change at 91000km was done from an FNG. It was absolutely niggle free. This is how a car should be which gives absolute peace of mind. Vento or Rapid may be better build, maybe have the better drive but it's of no use cos they aren't reliable.

When we were planning to change Honda City I wanted an Automatic. In all my research there are 4 prominent gearboxes.

AMT - which is widely used these days but isn't smooth and prone to failure. It is quite fuel efficient.

CVT- which is quite reliable but has rubber band effect and not fun to drive.

DSG- touted as the best drivers gearbox but fails a lot and you can never have a peace of mind with this one.

Torque Converter- this was the best of all. Reliable as never read anyone having trouble with it, fun to drive, decent fuel efficiency as well. That's is why in the end we chose Sonet with TC.

Needless to say we didn't considered any Skoda/VW car and never will. I am not a fan of Maruti because of their designs and lack of concern towards safety but I will still buy a Maruti anyday over a VAG car. I hope OP gets a Goodwill warranty and if he doesn't the only option is to repair it at an FNG and sell it off. Just for a paltry sum of 95k Skoda is losing lot of business due to this thread.

[Laidbackakki]

Hi, I too had the same problem as the OP last month and the issue has still not resolved for me. Here are the details.
I have a 2014 Skoda rapid 1.6L petrol AT(Torque converter). On 17th December 2021, the gear lever just refused to move from the 'P' position. Contacted Skoda for this, they said it has to towed and told me towing service will cost around 4k to 5k. Determined to not get robbed by Skoda, I contacted my trusted FNG guy. He came popped the hood and found a big rat had died in the lower part of engine bay and upon OBD port diagnostic found and error in the solenoid of the gear lever unit. Unlike later DSG models or current TC models if the gear lever is stuck you have to manually override the gear selection from the engine bay. There is no manual override pin besides the gearbox. So after doing all the hassle got the car to FNG just to get it checked. FNG guy told me he suspects a gear selector unit failure and told me to take the vehicle to Skoda and get a complete diagnostic report and verify the problem. Now the reason I first took the vehicle to FNG was to just check if any of the wiring was eaten by the rat which might have caused the gear lever getting stuck. But no wiring was damaged.

So manually selected the gear drove Skoda A.S.S got the diagnostic report as gear shifter unit has to be replaced and it was not related to mechatronics failure. They quoted me 85k for the entire thing including labour!!!.
Having bread on team bhp, I tried every option with them to get a lower price but nothing worked. So decided I would source the part from outside and get it fixed from my FNG.

But as luck would have it, not been able to source the part and my FNG's supplier doesnot have the part in stock. Found a guy from Mumbai( called Opera House) and he says it's gonna cost 55k for the part alone. And he has a no money return policy. So found him to be a bit sketchy.

If anyone could suggest any ideas from where I can source my part it would be helpful.