Never owned an auto of any kind but our next car will be one. There is a fair chance it will be a DSG since cars on our short list are VAG plus cars made by many other manufacturers use DSG type boxes as well.

Some years ago there were posts concerning failed VAG DSG boxes especially the 7 speed dry clutch one but now we see very few, when was the last one on a car that had not done a million miles or was over 10 years old and been through dozens of abusive owners who did not carry out any maintenance.

VAG have made literally millions of these boxes and now approx 100% more VAG cars sold are fitted with DSG's than were 10 years ago. But do we see double the failures, simple answer is no, in truth there are far fewer posts on here about the topic.

But its clear some posters still have a strong dislike when there seems to be no current need to worry.

It depends I think.

A DSG equipped car in my view is an excellent choice if you're buying new or nearly new with a good warranty and don't intend to take it to high miles under your ownership or own for very long with no support.

It's a much higher risk and poorer choice if you're buying at 5 years old and 70k with a 3 month paper warranty and intend to keep it 4 years.

The problem in this case is that it sounds to me like the questioner's wife is likely to be doing lots of short trips - the school run maybe or as a shopping car, which means lots of low speed gear changes in heavy traffic, which is certainly conducive to dual clutch gearboces, especially those with (IMHO) a history of below-par reliability such as those from VAG, even the 'wet' clutch type.

Far better for them to choose either one with a much better reliability record on that score (like Hyundai or KIA), or, better still, makes than use traditional TC auto boxes or reliable CVTs, such as Toyota.

Note that a warranty will not cover a dual clutch box if it wears through normal usage just more rapidly - most, apart from (I think) Hyundai or KIA only come with 6 month warranties when new, and even then documented abuse will likely be taken into account when trying to settle any claim.