Thanks SLO I did not realize they were so recent That is why there's no info

Edited by SLO76 on 21/04/2019 at 11:21

Apologies BBD Had a senior moment again

Trouble is, how can you tell how a used car has been driven or looked after?.

Tyres wheels and brake conditions can all tell their story, though all these can be silenced by a new set of cheap ditchfinders the wheels blown in by the smart paint guy and most people don't appear to notice the brakes inside sparkly wheels and tyres painted on shiny goo unless they're admiring the bright paint that's been applied to calipers to make them look sporty, apparently.

Anecdotally i collected a load of brand new cars at the docks one day, and upon inspection spotted the front tyres of a hot hatch were almost bald, scrubbed the way only serious thrashing and wheelspinning could do, first thought was they'd been swapped, but closer inspection revealed rubber debris burned into the plastic inner wheel arches and the lower sill covers both sides, all hell let loose when i reported, but didn't get any feedback after the inevitable investigations, whether that car was still sold new or they de-classed it and sold as used i have no idea.

A useful place to look on a hot hatch would be to closely inspect the inner wings and area of the driven wheels in particular, hot rubber burns into the plastic, yes it will come off but the evidence of severe thrashing should be there, same as ingrained mud from off roading is always visible on 4x4's, if the buyer can be bothered to slide under and look.

Usually though hot heads can't help themselves making individual (though most do the same things :-) changes to make their cars appear more sporty, seldom are these cars totally standard.

I would not buy a car with a weird gearbox with my own money, unless it was under a proper maker's warranty for the duration and then i would still be sceptical, due to attempts to shift the blame we read regularly on these pages.

Edited by gordonbennet on 21/04/2019 at 15:02

John Cadogan (YT channel) has said they've been used in Asia and Down Under on Hyundais and KIAs for quite a bit longer without much of an issue - I suspect that if you use them as intended - as an automated manual and not 'creep' in slow moving traffic/keep it in drive when stopped on the brakes, then you'll be fine.

I often wonder if driving them hard is a problem too?. I remember when the Golf GTI first became available with DSG and it was something like half a second quicker to 60mph than the manual. So drivers who were more interested in outright performance than tactility might be encouraged to buy one over the manual, use it hard, then sell it on to some poor unsuspecting person who doesn't know the car has been utterly ragged and ends up paying the price?.

There does seem to be a general agreement that buying a used car with a DCT gearbox is a bad idea (that includes me). But if the car is driven with a degree of mechanical sympathy, they maybe are not too bad?. Trouble is, how can you tell how a used car has been driven or looked after?.

The dual clutch semi-automatic gearboxes were always designed for the performance (and efficiency) market, which is why they started out in high end cars after they appeared in motor racing. What they don't like (the racing ones are the worst and burn out very quickly), just like manual gearboxes, is riding the clutch, but unlike a manual, there's less of a clue as there's no clutch pedal to know you're using it too much on slow speed manouvringcreeping forward in traffic or keeping the car in D rather than N when stopped at a junction/traffic lights/in heavy traffic.

IMHO, people either don't do their homework and/or just get lazy and use them like a TC auto, which they are definitely not. Even worse if you regularly tow. Still, I'm sure some people love doing racing starts all the time!