Fabia - manual or automatic?

[lornemalvo]

I'm looking for a Fabia TSI , max 2 years old. Undecided between a manual or an auto. It's for my wife, who's never driven an auto. A DSG box suits my Q5 but does it suit a small car like the Fabia? One reason to go auto is that Skoda only guarantee clutches for 6 months (which is shocking in my view) Recommendations?

[Pica-Pica]

lornemalvo said:

I'm looking for a Fabia TSI , max 2 years old. Undecided between a manual or an auto. It's for my wife, who's never driven an auto. A DSG box suits my Q5 but does it suit a small car like the Fabia? One reason to go auto is that Skoda only guarantee clutches for 6 months (which is shocking in my view) Recommendations?

As a reference point, our Fabia 1.2 TSi (so 4 cylinder) is 13 years old. It has one of the lightest clutch and gear change I have experienced. The car has done 82k miles and still on the original clutch. Clutches don’t wear out like they used to decades ago. I would go manual.

[paul_c123]

I would avoid auto, being the smaller engines in the VAG lineup it will be the DQ200 dry clutch which is known to have issues.

[Chris_i8]

As above I'd avoid the DSG and stick with the manual.

[Brent Hoffmeister]

Given the age neither transmission is likely to be an issue, and depending on how long you plan to keep it the balance of the 4 year warranty should offer peace of mind against anything serious that goes wrong

[SAS Tom]

From a reliability point of view I’d go manual as the DQ200 hasn’t got the best reputation however, I drove a scala with the same engine and DSG and I thought it was very nice to drive.

[Easternlight]

I have a Yeti 1.2 with the 7 speed dsg.
My first ever auto and I really like it.
It's a bit jerky sometimes pulling away but apart from that seamless, very easy to drive.
I've nothing to compare it to though.
Yes I've read all the horror stories but that's pretty normal for anything now and by all accounts the dry plate box is a pretty easy thing to work on. (By dsg auto box standards)