DSG woes in The Age

[PassatB6]

This accident is completely unrelated to any issue with DSG as she had a manual box. Therefore the other owners' testimony is irrelevant. Remember it suits both sides ie the truck driver and the victims family to see VW as the cause of the problem. A common cause of sudden slowing in a manual is failure to correctly change gears however the truckie must have been going quite fast and/ or been too close to the car to stop as her car slowed.

[OilBurna]

was it diesel or petrol?

I've had two shutdowns in my tdi Passat lucky both were not on the freeway with a b double up my ass

[Greg Roles]

Young girl in the ACT had an injector shutdown at 110 with a truck up her arse and it was a very very near miss. She than had some guy try and kidnap her whilst stuck on the side of the road in middle of nowhere. Her Dad and I had a lot of "chats" about what to do about it, and he took it up the ladder only to find our Gov watchdogs are a joke, thus VW's ability to do as they please.

I have no doubt this is why the 125kw MKV diesel was never released in the USA, VW knew it had potential problems.

Will be interesting to see how the woeful 7 speed DSG problem pans out though, FAR greater numbers of failures.

[Transporter]

Yeah, it would be good to know the official number from VW rather than guessing it. Maybe one day they will release that info, it could be also working at the VW favour and I have to agree that it's not the DSG or the injector problem but the company behind that and how they address it read it as deal with it.

Still though, the media have more blunders than the car manufacturers.

[Greg Roles]

Less chance of dying due to a dodgey story in the paper Miro!!

[sVWatt]

300 comments and climbing on the SMH article. Surely VWA can't play dumb for much longer.

[OilBurna]

Greg dont forget it is also 103kw pd diesel as well so a lot of golfs passats and jettas. Ive got the service campaign sticker but didntknow about it until i went in for a service. VW should man up admit there is an issue and do a recall on the injectors and dsgs. PR 101 to admit u have and issue and are taking action. Otherwise their reputation will take a serious hit...

[Transporter]

Less chance of dying due to a dodgey story in the paper Miro!!

oh they can do a lot of damage by manipulating the facts and sometimes even helping to twist the history. The media can even help to start the conflicts and they did in the past that affected life of thousands people.

[Transporter]

300 comments and climbing on the SMH article. Surely VWA can't play dumb for much longer.

and you forgot to mention how many likes or dislikes on the facebook.

[mythik]

Just spoke to Stephen from Burwin VW Service.... they've been flooded with calls from concerned owners about The Age article...

[Hail22]

300 comments and climbing on the SMH article. Surely VWA can't play dumb for much longer.

VWAG can and will do exactly that (Play dumb) why?

300 comments to them equates to 0.60% to their bottom line as some of the comments are fan boy ying yang, VW haters and some internet trolls so to the PR machine that equates to collateral damage (to the few who have commented with genuine issues) due to a poorly designed / tested unit.

The only way a recall will happen is if complaints reach the department for transport and infrastructure and you need a lot of people power to push a bunch of Government bums to take action against someone like VAG.

[The_Hawk]

I said this in the other thread too, but if you look back to the original article from 2011 and there is no mention of VW or any issues other than the truck that cleaned her up. You'd almost think they are two different events that happened to happen on the same road.

I'm not by any stretch saying there isn't a number of issues that VW need to address, but have to wonder why the focus of this whole thing has turned for this article.

[brimway]

.......
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.

I think VGA already "tag" cars via VIN that have been confirmed to have been tuned.

Re your comment about DSG problems. I fit the category you describe, ie over 45 and drive a stock standard (at the time of DSG problem) Golf.

The false neutral that I experienced could have ended in death or serious injury. So, the incidence of genuine reported problems with DSGs may be small compared to the total number of DSG equipped cars sold, but this "statistic" doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy given the experience that I had with a mechatronic generated "false neutral".

The result for me was good in that the dealer, after hearing how my car had no drive half way through a right turn at a busy arterial intersection, replaced my mechatronics unit.

[BluChris]

To me, the story has the sorts of things media look for to get coverage. It sure worked in this case judging by the massive response. Not many car related stories would get this many comments.

I also wonder if motoring journo's aren't starting to respond to the public kicking they regularly get for rating the Golf highest in small car tests, because of reliability and servicing concerns. Have a look at the commentary in the current edition of Top Gear for another example.

None of us know the % of faults and failures, but even if tiny when these result in risk of death or serious injury there is absolutely no ethical justification not to take swift preemptive action. Too often individuals hide behind 'company policy' instead of having the balls to challenge their own company to act.

[Greg Roles]

Greg dont forget it is also 103kw pd diesel as well so a lot of golfs passats and jettas. Ive got the service campaign sticker but didntknow about it until i went in for a service. VW should man up admit there is an issue and do a recall on the injectors and dsgs. PR 101 to admit u have and issue and are taking action. Otherwise their reputation will take a serious hit...

I know, I know, but it is my understanding a 103 failure results in running on 3 cylinders, and you can still hopefully pull over safely. Plus I'm focused on the car I own : )