DSG woes in The Age

[dissapolo]

Death prompts VW owners to speak out | theage.com.au
Long overdue!!

[Hail22]

Death prompts VW owners to speak out | theage.com.au
Long overdue!!

Still Volkswagen Australia and most likely the whole brand are run by a bunch of soulless cockroaches, there is a life after this one so remember this word VW "Karma". If people start dying on the road due to a loss of power or a defunct DSG box failing on a motorway / highway what will be there new excuse? Driver error more than likely....

[ill0gitech]

"Her car was a manual; most problems overseas with sudden deceleration in Volkswagens are found in automatics."

So "DSG Woes" or "dying on the road due to a loss of power or a defunct DSG box" might be a little premature in this poor woman's case.

[pologti18t]

AFAIK people don't suffer sudden deceleration if there is a DSG fault.... they loose drive. It's not as if they go from 100km/h to 0 in 50m

If people start dying on the road due to a loss of power or a defunct DSG box failing on a motorway / highway what will be there new excuse? Driver error more than likely....

Remember the Toyota unintended acceleration whirlwind in the USA recently? it did indeed end up being operator error. The same as the Audi scenario in the 1980s. People were adamant that it was the car's fault.

Lets hope that the investigators get to the bottom of the issue and the loss of this innocent persons life results in safer cars for everyone.

How about looking at the truck driver who smashed into her...

Also

Fairfax also received complaints about sudden speed loss in a Ford Mondeo and a Mercedes ML 350.

[tigger73]

Yes I found the article didn't make the link between the car involved in the tragic accident and DSG issues.

Though hopefully VW are sitting up and thinking about it as sudden loss of power for no reason can put the driver and occupants of the car in serious danger no matter what drivetrain is involved.

Given the number of reports of this happening its only a matter of time until one of the DSG faults results in a serious accident/death.

Lets hope that the investigators get to the bottom of the issue and the loss of this innocent persons life results in safer cars for everyone.

[RoknRob]

Is this the same article?

Death prompts VW owners to speak out

Because there are a lot of references to the DSG in this version... Look at the box.

"Volkswagen has this year issued recalls for almost 400,000 of its cars in China and 91,000 in Japan for problems with the high-tech automatic direct shift gearbox (DSG). The DSG problems have been connected to sudden power loss."

But then again, no mention of it relating to the Polo...

[OilBurna]

http://www.vwwatercooled.com/forums/f40/death-prompts-vw-owners-speak-out-86316.html

[mrkris]

her car i s a manual, then they waffle on about DSG recalls. typical media article padding

[Martin]

AFAIK people don't suffer sudden deceleration if there is a DSG fault.... they loose drive. It's not as if they go from 100km/h to 0 in 50m

Exactly!!!

And if you run into the back of a vechicle, it's your fault, there is no defence, hence truck driver is likely to be at fault

I've been on the motorway and had a sudden tyre blow out
I just pressed the hazard button and coasted to a stop
I was busy controlling the car and watching the traffic behind me
but I was not overly concerned

These comments are just emotive and sensational reporting

terrifying loss of acceleration

she drove "in constant terror". The light comes up, the car just dies and you just pray that you're not smashed into

[Transporter]

I probably get even less popular between some of you, but I'd like to get these DSG thoughts off my chest, since I've been thinking about it for a while and the article like the one posted above helped me today to do so.

So, here we go; The truck driver didn't keep the safe distance from the car in front of him or was influenced by something else (you know what I mean it's in media often enough to get you worried), or the combination of both and the DSG gets blamed.

Many car manufacturers today have the problems related to the transmissions, because they come from only a handful of the global manufacturers, some of you know that VW doesn't make their own transmissions.

If I would be in the VW shoes, I would be monitoring the age category of people with the DSG faults and if the car was modified in any way.

The reason behind is, that I'm still waiting to hear from any of my customer that their DSG misbehaved (most of my customers are well over 45 and the cars are stock standard driven normally), mind you I always ask if there was any problem with the car when servicing it. No offence intended to those (regardless of the age) who drive their car normally and have a problem with the DSG, after all any mechanical component can fail, that’s why we have the warranties. You may argue that it is a very small sample of the DSG cars to mean something, but so are the internet forums compared to the hundreds of thousands of the DSG equipped cars on the road and most of them don't have any problems. It's not uncommon that one person posts his/her bad experience in many places in the internet forums, I see people posting the multiple threads about their problem instead just a link to the original post. The rationally thinking individual would see more credibility in it once he/she figures out "hey all those negative comments I found today are coming from the same person".

I have no doubts that there are many smart people working or in any other way engaging in the media, but also a good number of the less sharp ones and when I read something in the media, I always have to question; How smart are those journalists? What's their education (are they high school dropouts or maybe just made it through the year 12)? Do they have any common sense? I guess you have to figure that on your own before you start to believe in anything you read and repost it on the internet.

[Greg Roles]

Best of luck people, took VW 5 years to address the failing injectors in the MKV 125kw diesels, where they all shut down if one fails, causing immediate engine cutout. Bit more dangerous than loss of drive, as you lose power assistance to steering and brakes. All we have now is a silent campaign anyway, such is VW's care factor for safety vs recall costs.

[Gambit]

DSG woes in The Age

Man up VAG and take responsibility and issue a recall. Tis all.

[stickshift3000]

I'm sorry that these issues had to come to light under these tragic circumstances, but I'm glad to see this article as it may save another life or two.

These issues which put the driver and occupants at risk, and are being fixed via VW issued 'service campaigns' (such as the 125 kw diesel injector issue), should be addressed by recalls issued by the ACCC.

In high compression diesels with a lot of engine braking, when/if engine drive is lost on a highway I wouldn't want a big truck even a safe distance behind me...

I'll be interested to see where the media goes with this, and whether VWA can man up and work proactively with authorities (for once).

[nomadx38]

Haha I would just like to point out that the car in the picture which she is standing next to (which I assume is hers) is a MKV Golf (from what I can tell anyway by the front grille and the headlights)

These cars had the 6 speed wet clutch DSG NOT the 7 speed dry clutch which most of the new cars have and have the majority problems with.

The 6 speed DSG had the temperature sensor that would play up and force the gearbox into neutral and you would slow down to a stop but far from a "dangerous" or "terrifying" experience. Haha I'm sorry but that aritcle is a joke.

I'm not saying VW should be let off the hook but I think The Age or any other media conglomerate should get the facts straight before saying somthing like this.

[stickshift3000]

The death was also related to a 2008 Golf.

I don't mind the lack of VW experts at the Age, I'm just glad these issues are receiving some media attention.