Automatic reliable car suggestions?

IC3

IC3

IC3

Soldato
Joined
3 Dec 2011
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Looking for a reliable car with an automatic gearbox, so far the cars which my dad is looking at are Skoda Octavia VRS and Skoda Superb with DSG gearbox. The badge doesn't matter, production year and mileage does, it has to be reliable as the car will do between 15-20k yearly.

What are you thoughts about Octavia DSG or Superb DSG for this sort of budget? Are they reliable?

Budget: £9-£10k
Size: Something along the lines of Octavia or Superb, possibly a bigger hatchback
Yearly mileage: 15-20k+, it doesn't have to be a diesel.
MPG: Above 30MPG seems reasonable?

Open to other suggestions, but the mandatory requirement is an automatic gearbox. :)
 
I'm not sure I'd want a DSG box if reliability in the long run is a concern, I've heard a lot of horror stories about them - not in those specific cars but just generally in VAG cars.

My last car was a Peugeot 508 auto, might be worth a look. The badge means you get a young low mileage car for the money. The engine is the same as you get in a Mondeo (and others) with a standard no nonsense torque converter autobox. Plenty of kit, comfortable and seems to be reliable on the whole. You'd get one still in manufacturer warranty for that money
 
iaind said:
I'm not sure I'd want a DSG box if reliability in the long run is a concern, I've heard a lot of horror stories about them - not in those specific cars but just generally in VAG cars.

My last car was a Peugeot 508 auto, might be worth a look. The badge means you get a young low mileage car for the money. The engine is the same as you get in a Mondeo (and others) with a standard no nonsense torque converter autobox. Plenty of kit, comfortable and seems to be reliable on the whole. You'd get one still in manufacturer warranty for that money
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Its French thou... :rolleyes: French and reliable shouldn't be used in the same sentence :p
 
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Going to put the Prius out there, you'll just about get a gen 3 in budget, enormously reliable, not diesel and very much auto. I have an Auris hybrid as a daily (mechanically very similar) and its a great day to day car :) That said if you want any real driving enjoyment ignore this post :)
 
IC3 said:
Its French thou... :rolleyes: French and reliable shouldn't be used in the same sentence :p
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Didn't have a single issue - minor, major, niggle or even rattle in 18 months for me. I know what the stereotype is but have a look at one and you'll be surprised - it's the stereotype that makes them great value
 
I wouldn't get a VAG product with DSG if I wanted reliability.

Get a Toyota Avensis* or if you want something more classy with even better reliability get a Honda Accord.

Something a bit different would be the Hyundai i40, really really nice cars.

* Don't rate them as highly in the reliability stakes as before, but still better than 90% of stuff on the roads.
 
Think they are generally pretty reliable, particularly the wet clutch 6 speeders. however when they do go wrong the bills can be eye watering :(
 
chanjy said:
Think they are generally pretty reliable, particularly the wet clutch 6 speeders. however when they do go wrong the bills can be eye watering :(
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My boss had it fail on his TTS - £4500 for a new box from audi

His wife's 2.0 TDI A3 suffered a similar failure and he was quoted about £4k to put it right - effectively writing off the car. A mechanic friend of mine bought it from him and managed to fix it - both clutch packs and a refurb control unit later it's on the road again. The cost to get it running was just shy of a grand, but that didnt include labour as he was fixing it for himself.
 
I believe the DSG boxes need scheduled oil changes (every 30-40k) in order to keep them sweet, in the same way the Ford Powershift does. Crappy old oil can cause accelerated clutch wear and gunk up the mechatronics units. I don't think most people realise this.
 
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Howard said:
I believe the DSG boxes need scheduled oil changes (every 30-40k) in order to keep them sweet, in the same way the Ford Powershift does. Crappy old oil can cause accelerated clutch wear and gunk up the mechatronics units. I don't think most people realise this.
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Is that in the official service schedule? I know my boss was very anal about having everything done that the book said, but he wouldn't have done it if it wasn't prescribed maintenance by audi
 
I don't honestly know. As far as I know, Ford don't seem to always say "sir, your gearbox oil change is due", but I don't know what the case is with VAG and their DSG boxes.
 
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It's one of those weird ones, I know a lot of gearboxes are supposed to be "sealed for life" but a lot of people advocate changing the oil anyway
 
Indeed. Most DCT boxes aren't, as the oil is very important for their correct operation as well as lubrication of the clutches (unless they're dry clutch variants - I think the dry clutch DSG boxes aren't known to be as reliable, as said above).
 
lemonade said:
I wouldn't get a VAG product with DSG if I wanted reliability.

Get a Toyota Avensis* or if you want something more classy with even better reliability get a Honda Accord.

Something a bit different would be the Hyundai i40, really really nice cars.

* Don't rate them as highly in the reliability stakes as before, but still better than 90% of stuff on the roads.
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But aren't the Honda Accord automatic gearboxes really bad? I've heard quite a bit about the automatic gearboxes not being that great, a lot of people say to just get manual if you want an accord. I had a chat with a mechanic who said that he hates Japanese and Korean cars as they rarely ever come in for a bigger repair, we had an accord before and that car was bulletproof. :)

The Hyundai will not be ignored as my dad had a Kia in the past which had a Mazda engine inside, that car was mainly used as a company car and just like the Honda apart from normal maintenance it was bulletproof. :)

BTW The car doesn't have to be fancy, but my dad hates French cars and I know trying to convince him that they're 'good' will be nearly impossible. He really wants a trouble-free car which will do those sort of miles without bigger repair costs, he might sacrifices automatic gearbox if they aren't all that reliable. But it would be a nice luxury since quite a lot of those miles will be done in towns (London and the traffic :rolleyes:) and not on the motorway...

What about makes such as; Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru?
 
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