Photo: Volkswagen
A little over a week ago, we told you guys that Volkswagen Australia was facing accusations of loss of acceleration. The problem comes from the German company's DSG gearbox and linked to similar problems encountered around the world.
VW Australia took the 'fix it as they break' approach for a while, until today it was announced they would recall nearly 26,000 cars equipped with DSG.
A number of recalls have been announced all over the world because of the DSG gearbox. In China, the Germans have been forced to recall 400,000 to fix this problem, but official statements claim this is an isolated incident due to a bad batch of parts for the locally assembled gearboxes. As a result, VW did not issue a global recall, but soon after a similar recall was conducted in Japan. The justification: hot climate conditions and stop/start traffic, not a problem with the gearbox's design.
The recall in Australia sheds new light on the subject, because no such excuses were made. Simply put, all cars built with DSG between June 2008 and September 2011 will be making a trip to the dealership to replace the mechatronic system responsible for controlling the gear change. The models involved are the Golf, Jetta, Polo, Passat and Caddy and as far as we know all are imported from Europe. All have the same DQ200 seven-speed DSG box.
"In isolated cases, an electronic malfunction in the control unit inside the gearbox mechatronics may result in a power interruption," the company statement said.
Does this mean cars assembled in Europe after September 2011 are good? Will VW announce an official recall sweeping all markets that offered these affected cars? We don't know… yet.
A number of recalls have been announced all over the world because of the DSG gearbox. In China, the Germans have been forced to recall 400,000 to fix this problem, but official statements claim this is an isolated incident due to a bad batch of parts for the locally assembled gearboxes. As a result, VW did not issue a global recall, but soon after a similar recall was conducted in Japan. The justification: hot climate conditions and stop/start traffic, not a problem with the gearbox's design.
The recall in Australia sheds new light on the subject, because no such excuses were made. Simply put, all cars built with DSG between June 2008 and September 2011 will be making a trip to the dealership to replace the mechatronic system responsible for controlling the gear change. The models involved are the Golf, Jetta, Polo, Passat and Caddy and as far as we know all are imported from Europe. All have the same DQ200 seven-speed DSG box.
"In isolated cases, an electronic malfunction in the control unit inside the gearbox mechatronics may result in a power interruption," the company statement said.
Does this mean cars assembled in Europe after September 2011 are good? Will VW announce an official recall sweeping all markets that offered these affected cars? We don't know… yet.
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