Thoughs on a Small-Medium Sized Car

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by EL2794

I do respect the DSG. Not sure if the ones in the RS Octavia's is an older version of the VW one, as I have mainly driven the DSG in Skoda's, but I had one almost stall on me a couple of times. Might've been a rare occurance however. I have noticed it takes a while to go from R to D, but I'm never really in a rush!

Our Ford dealer in Nowra is also the VW/Skoda dealer. Their service people (who are old-fashioned country mechanics not BSAs!) say that Skoda uses the previous, proven, cycle of VW mechanical components and are far less prone to failure and generally more reliable than the VWs - which tallies with what you hear from overseas.

They do say however that spare parts and service costs for VWs are far higher than for the Fords - but anybody should be already aware of that if they buy an imported car (though presumably Ford Australia keeps the costs down on its imported models so that would be a plus for the Focus).

They also said that when Fords have a mechanical failure they tend to be able to limp home whereas VWs are more complex and totally fail and have to be picked up on the flat top! All in all, they suggest that if you're choosing between the Skoda and VW equivalent go for the Skoda because of more reliability and often they have a few extras like more internal space (particularly the Octavia and Superb).

That's the nearest I can get to the horses mouth - staying away from sales staff, although the Skoda salesman was amazed when I told him I had been driving a faultless Octavia with 200,000 on the clock, he wanted me to come and tell his customers!