Volkswagen Golf Gearbox & Transmission Problems

A Golf with that mileage after just three or four years on the road is a bit of an anomaly. How has the car been used? Was it a delivery vehicle in a previous life? I’d be asking some tough questions and diving deep into the vehicle’s service history to find out how it’s been driven and serviced before taking the plunge, because that mileage is about double what I’d expect from this make and model.

The biggest potential reliability glitch with this car is the DSG transmission. While VW claimed that all the evils were fixed by the time the Golf 7 came out in 2013, experience suggests that there are still some examples of this gearbox giving trouble. Symptoms include a loss of drive, poor shift quality, shuddering on take-off and a gearbox that seemingly loses the plot on occasions.

And I’m afraid your alternative rings a few alarm bells as well. The Hyundai also uses a double-clutch style transmission and while it hasn’t suffered the litany of problems that the VW unit has caused over the years, it’s still a bit of an unknown quantity. Certainly, some customers seem to be unhappy with the unit in terms of its longevity and replacement clutch packs are not unknown.

Also, you seem to have a knack for finding cars with double the expected kilometres on board. I’d expect a 2018 i30 to be showing closer to 25,000km than the 50,000km on the one you’re considering. Cars with higher than expected mileage can be bargains, but you’ve really got to dig into their past to ensure they haven’t been abused or suffered from poor servicing.

I would suspect so. Contact VW directly (1800 504 076) and lodge your claim.

We haven’t been getting reports of problems once the DSG has been replaced under the recall, as yours has, so I doubt you have any claim against VW for this latest problem.

Generally they’re a good driving car, solidly built, safe, and reliable. The one issue to be aware of affects the DSG automatic transmission. Before buying one carefully test drive it and observe for any hesitation when shifting, or surging when driving or accelerating.

Safer options are cars like the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla.

The VW dual-clutch automatic was troublesome in the period you are considering, so it’s probably best to avoid it, or buy one with a manual gearbox. Rather than a wagon perhaps consider a compact SUV.

No, it isn’t. Get it checked by your dealer.

It’s quite possibly caused by the clutches in the gearbox; they may need to be replaced.

It’s gone into “limp-home” mode because it’s detected a problem, but before you do anything else you need to find what caused the problem. Once you’ve done that you could approach VW and ask them to repair it at their expense, or pay part of the cost to repair it. If they won’t and you want to take it further you could go to the ACCC.

If the problem is caused by the change in oil, as the VW technician is purported to have said, then there’s no much you can do about it. If you feel strongly enough about it, and feel you can’t live with it, talk to VW head office, or contact your state consumer affairs office for advice on how you might seek compensation from VW.

Your car is one of those troublesome ones that had problems with the DSG transmission, and I assume it has been checked before and had relevant the reworks. I would approach VW about replacing the transmission free of charge.