2007 passat tdi sport dsg a good idea?
Discussion
Hi,
I'm on the verge of buying the above model Passat (immaculate 2007 78,000 miles, actually paid a deposit and going to pick it up on Monday). Now even though they have a good review most places I presume that I must be overly paranoid because I've spent the weekend worrying about it and searching the Internet to see it there are any major problems with them.
Low and behold I've come across what seems to be a major fault with the DSG gearbox so I thought that I'd see what people on here thought about them as I've always had a great response to my questions in the past.
Should I walk away now, even if it means loosing the deposit? (it was only a a small one so thats no problem really)
Are the problems overstated? Is it just a few people making a lot of noise?
Are they horreddously expensive to fix?
Is there any way I could go back and determine if it's likely to go wrong in the future before I pay the balance? (it seemed great when I took it for a test drive)? e.g. are there any tell tales?
Or am I panicking about nothing?
Cheers in advance
Gareth
I'm on the verge of buying the above model Passat (immaculate 2007 78,000 miles, actually paid a deposit and going to pick it up on Monday). Now even though they have a good review most places I presume that I must be overly paranoid because I've spent the weekend worrying about it and searching the Internet to see it there are any major problems with them.
Low and behold I've come across what seems to be a major fault with the DSG gearbox so I thought that I'd see what people on here thought about them as I've always had a great response to my questions in the past.
Should I walk away now, even if it means loosing the deposit? (it was only a a small one so thats no problem really)
Are the problems overstated? Is it just a few people making a lot of noise?
Are they horreddously expensive to fix?
Is there any way I could go back and determine if it's likely to go wrong in the future before I pay the balance? (it seemed great when I took it for a test drive)? e.g. are there any tell tales?
Or am I panicking about nothing?
Cheers in advance
Gareth
Edited by z0rT10ok on Sunday 11th March 09:29
There are a lot of scare stories about teh DSG and yes they can be expensive to fix. Most common failure is the Mechatronic Unit which costs circa £1,500 to replace.
The signs are the gearchanges are clunky and lack smothness.
It's important that the gearbox oil and filter are changed every 40k miles so check it has been done at 40k miles abd it will be due another now, Cost is £179 at a dealer.
The signs are the gearchanges are clunky and lack smothness.
It's important that the gearbox oil and filter are changed every 40k miles so check it has been done at 40k miles abd it will be due another now, Cost is £179 at a dealer.
yellowbentines said:
VidalBaboon said:
DSG will be the least of your worries.
What are the bigger things to worry about on these cars - I'm curious?Funnily enough there's nothing wrong with the pump itself, it just loses drive and the engine s
ts itself pretty quickly- it's a £3 part that fails.Some people have seen 5 figure rebuilds from VAG with this engine, this is on top of the early ones with chain issues. A car of this vintage, you'd be lucky to see any good will.
- Airbag wiring loom issues
- Injector issues (now a recall)
- E-Brake issues which have stranded me on occasion (each caliper is £250odd + VAT + Fitting)
- Sticking Turbo Vanes
- Rust (mine needed a new boot lid, and respray of the roof & drivers door)
- DMF failure
- Radiators rot out (although I've read about porous head somewhere), tell tale is smell of coolant & an undetectable leak for ages. I was loosing 0.5L every 1000miles and couldn't find any traces.
te I've ever owned. Buy Jap or buy BMW would be my advice. 
ETA:
- Key reader problems
Edited by VidalBaboon on Sunday 11th March 23:47
Fox- said:
VidalBaboon said:
Buy Jap or buy BMW would be my advice.
You'd be very nieve to expect a 2007ish BMW to be a paragon of reliability in comparison to something from VW. Ever increasing reliability issues are something that is plaguing most European manufacturers.I've listed all the things that have gone wrong with mine in 2 years. I'd choose a BMW 318d every time if I had to do it again. Can't be any worse than the above.
Our old 2004 Corolla T3 (donated to my parents) has 170,000miles on it, and is still running on the same oil I put in it the last time it was serviced. It's never gone wrong, in mine or my parents ownership.
Hi, I bought a Passat TDI on an 07 plate, 101k miles, back in August of last year. Went for the 1.9 model as I'd heard about the potential reliability issues with the 2.0 engine. I'd steer clear of the 2.0s.
The only problem I've had so far in almost 9k has been with the parking brake being sometimes reluctant to engage and have to turn the ignition on and off a couple of times to fix. Looking online and also hooking up a VCDS cable suggests it's the switch itself at fault, apparently costing £50-75 to fix.
I did have the timing belt changed after I'd bought the car, and other than topping up the oil haven't done anything else to it yet.
Good points:
- Spacious, good storage spaces inside
- Decent spec as long as you go for the SE upwards
- Good on fuel on the motorway (c50mpg with cruise set at 70mph, I often drive from Essex to Nottingham using the M25 and M1 and the computer returns 55-58 MPG)
- 60/40 motorway/town driving and will do 750+ miles on a 70l tank of diesel
- Steers nicely, much better in the bends than the old B5 model
Bad points:
- Not so good on fuel around town as takes a while to warm up, if you're only using for short runs expect 30 mpg
- Interior doesn't feel as well built as the previous B5 Passat I had as it rattles a bit
- Boot opening size can be inconvenient, just as with any saloon car
- Not particularly fast
Edit to Add: My car is a 5-speed manual, heard a few DSG horror stories too...
The only problem I've had so far in almost 9k has been with the parking brake being sometimes reluctant to engage and have to turn the ignition on and off a couple of times to fix. Looking online and also hooking up a VCDS cable suggests it's the switch itself at fault, apparently costing £50-75 to fix.
I did have the timing belt changed after I'd bought the car, and other than topping up the oil haven't done anything else to it yet.
Good points:
- Spacious, good storage spaces inside
- Decent spec as long as you go for the SE upwards
- Good on fuel on the motorway (c50mpg with cruise set at 70mph, I often drive from Essex to Nottingham using the M25 and M1 and the computer returns 55-58 MPG)
- 60/40 motorway/town driving and will do 750+ miles on a 70l tank of diesel
- Steers nicely, much better in the bends than the old B5 model
Bad points:
- Not so good on fuel around town as takes a while to warm up, if you're only using for short runs expect 30 mpg
- Interior doesn't feel as well built as the previous B5 Passat I had as it rattles a bit
- Boot opening size can be inconvenient, just as with any saloon car
- Not particularly fast
Edit to Add: My car is a 5-speed manual, heard a few DSG horror stories too...
Edited by nickdrinkwater on Monday 12th March 00:04
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff