Ok everyone/ Thanks for that. I ,may give it a miss then if the DSG box is really that bad..

It's not. For every bad story of them (and there are plenty), the majority of satisfied owners are silent.

Ok everyone/ Thanks for that. I ,may give it a miss then if the DSG box is really that bad..

Yes, there are, in my view, significant design flaws, but the majority of the problems stem from how the car (and by virtue the gearbox) is used. Dual clutch gearboxes were originally designed for performance on race cars (but obviously not longevity), and more latterly improved mpg over the traditional 'torque converter' automatic transmission.

They problem they have is that they still have a clutch (well, two), which is prone to wear just as in a manual transmission. The difference is that as the driver doesn't control the use of the clutch in a dual clutch system, the driver uses the car as if it was a torque converter or CVT box.

As such, significant wear of the clutch packs will inevitably occur if the car is very regularly driven in slow-moving heavy traffic, and or the driver regularly untakes manouvres that in a manual car would necessitate holding the car on the clutch, such as hill starts, edging onto a road or parking on slopes. Even worse if the owner regularly tows.

If, on the other hand, the vast majority of the use of the car is on faster flowing roads and little slow speed manouvring holding the clutch, essentially the system should last as long as a clutch would in a manual car, if driven reasonably.

Change-ups/downs at speed likely won't be much of a problem, but I'm less sure as to the level of wear from repeated take-offs from a standstill giving it a decent amount of gas (i.e. semi-racing starts), which could be as bad as trickling along at 1-2mph (essentially riding the clutch), though not for the same reason.

As Avant shows, not every one has a problem if the journey pattern type is not too onerous and the driver drives sympathetically, knowing the limitations of the system. Buying second hand is fraught with danger, as rarely can the new owner be 100% sure of how the car was driven previously - mostly they have no idea on that front - even if they know the previous owner personally. A 'slow, gentle' driver may actually burn out their clutch pack just as quickly as a 'boy racer' because they ride the clutch at slow speeds in heavy traffic.

Essentially it's pure luck for the second hand owner that nothing goes wrong in short order.