Is Seat DSG gearbox right choice?
I’ve been looking to buy a small SUV to replace my 13-year-old Toyota Corolla. I will probably go for a Seat Arona, so I was glad to see you voted it the best small SUV of 2018. One reason for choosing the Arona is that its boot is big enough to take a golf trolley and a full set of clubs, as my Corolla does.
I’ve driven both the manual and automatic versions, and I like the auto. But I am worried about reports that the DQ200 DSG ’box tted to the Arona has been unreliable, albeit in other cars. I understand it is used in the Audi A1,volkswagen Golf and Skoda Octavia.
Are you aware of a problem with this gearbox? If so, is it a historical one that has now been xed and, if so, what was done? Richard Crawford
WHAT CAR? SAYS…
The DQ200 was prone to failure a few years ago. The gearbox used synthetic oil that, under certain circumstances, triggered a fault in the car’s onboard computer, preventing the driver from being able to select drive.
We asked Audi if the problem has been rectified. A spokesperson said: “We became aware in 2014 of an issue involving synthetic gearbox oil and its effects on the seven-speed S tronic gearbox. To rectify the problem, the synthetic oil was replaced with mineral gear oil and the gearbox control unit software was modified.
“By now, all affected vehicles should have been rectified unless we have been unable to trace specific vehicles/owners.”
We also checked the data for Volkswagen Group cars fitted with this gearbox in our reliability survey and did not find that a significant number of faults had been reported.