Automatic gearbox question

harveybobbles

tsb wrote: »

Thanks for the interesting replies. So if the VAG group automatic box could have issues, which automatic box is worth looking at

Audi auto's are ok as long as they are thw quattro version, as they only fit normal auto's in quattro versions.

BMW and Vauxhall make good autos.

anotherbaldrick

As a follow up on the DSG gearbox and particularly the Golf the cars so equipped in the USA have had bags of trouble, perhaps it's the way they treat cars. However because the mark was getting such a bad name over there they extended the warranty on the auto box to 10 years to get them buying them again. No such extended warranty on UK cars though.

Gloomendoom

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

As a follow up on the DSG gearbox and particularly the Golf the cars so equipped in the USA have had bags of trouble, perhaps it's the way they treat cars. However because the mark was getting such a bad name over there they extended the warranty on the auto box to 10 years to get them buying them again. No such extended warranty on UK cars though.

It could be that that the majority of cars they sell over there have the auto box so they get proportionally more problems.

vikingaero

tsb wrote: »

Thanks for the interesting replies. So if the VAG group automatic box could have issues, which automatic box is worth looking at

James Ruppert, Mr Bangernomics, wrote an article in Autocar magazine earlier on this year. In this article he interviewed an automatic transmission specialist in East Sussex.

The specialist said that anything with 6 or more gears was guaranteed to go wrong soon after the warranty. Also semi-automatics (MMTs, dualogics etc) were guaranteed to have problems after 30-40k. Same with DSG boxes as he had repaired many at low mileages. VW and Ford DSG/Powershifts were especially problematics. Even the 6/7/8 speed gearboxes in Mercs and BMWs were fragile. CVTs on Audi's were pigs and the only worthwhile CVT was in the previous generation Honda Jazz.

When asked to recommend a car/gearbox for reliability the specialist said that anything Korean/Jap that had a traditional 4/5 speed torque converter automatic was best and if you had to go for a European car then again stick to a 4/5 speed traditional automatic.

Lum

I'd agree with that. I've had 3 old(ish) cars with torque converter automatics, the oldest being an F reg Mk2 Golf 1.8 that I bought for £250 in late 2006 (so roughly 18 years old at the time). Gearbox worked perfectly.

I guess all these extra gears they're adding these days, in the name of fuel economy, are just over complicating things and making them fragile. This seems to be a general trend with modern cars.