[RA108]

Personally I'd avoid any DSG box like the plague, unless a company car driver, and even then...

I think the trouble atm is manufacturers want everyone to buy them as they lower emissions which helps them meet their pledges, hence why many popular cars are no longer available in manuals.

 

[Skomaz]

Hmm if only everything in life was a reliable as a ......



Funny thing is, in last 9 years since I've owned my Civic, I've never seen a broken down Honda. I've passed multiple VW's at the side of the road though or on low loaders.

Captured 2 days ago on the WR1. Not sure what is happening here but miles from a dealership and the low loader on the wide shot takes just 2 cars so I suspect a breakdown or accident pickup although I couldn't see damage.

Might be the end of a PCP or similar - I've seen them picked up / delivered that way before

 

[Skomaz]

...

This will last right up until it breaks out of warranty when you will realise there was not one but two premiums to pay. The first is paid to match the Civic spec point and the second is the one that they fail to mention to you until much later.

...

Interestingly though I've been a long time Skoda owner (17 years now across two long term cars) and can honestly say I've had more niggles and problems with the one Civic in three years than I've had with both Skoda's in 17 years!


Prior to the Skoda's we had two Mitsubishi's in the family and again both of those had less niggles and problems over 11 years than the Civic...


Have you all forgotten things like dodgy clutches, clutch pedal squeeks, Mitsuba A/C relays, fried ECU's from using the wipers when stuck to the screen, key coding lost when changing the battery, poor rear axle alignment leading to uneven tyre wear, poor headlights... ???


There are others issues as well but I have to say some people on here do seem blinkered at times...

 

[nturnb]

Interestingly though I've been a long time Skoda owner (17 years now across two long term cars) and can honestly say I've had more niggles and problems with the one Civic in three years than I've had with both Skoda's in 17 years!


Prior to the Skoda's we had two Mitsubishi's in the family and again both of those had less niggles and problems over 11 years than the Civic...


Have you all forgotten things like dodgy clutches, clutch pedal squeeks, Mitsuba A/C relays, fried ECU's from using the wipers when stuck to the screen, key coding lost when changing the battery, poor rear axle alignment leading to uneven tyre wear, poor headlights... ???


There are others issues as well but I have to say some people on here do seem blinkered at times...

You forgot corroded fuel lines on the 2.2 as well.. A lot is how they're driven and taken care of too.

 

[logician]

As said in my earlier link...

Interestingly though I've been a long time Skoda owner (17 years now across two long term cars) and can honestly say I've had more niggles and problems with the one Civic in three years than I've had with both Skoda's in 17 years!

Prior to the Skoda's we had two Mitsubishi's in the family and again both of those had less niggles and problems over 11 years than the Civic...

Have you all forgotten things like dodgy clutches, clutch pedal squeeks, Mitsuba A/C relays, fried ECU's from using the wipers when stuck to the screen, key coding lost when changing the battery, poor rear axle alignment leading to uneven tyre wear, poor headlights... ???

There are others issues as well but I have to say some people on here do seem blinkered at times...

...
"From much direct personal experience; the medium to long term reliability of VAG cars is very poor indeed. If the reviewers took this into account then their articles would read very differently. We all know that anyone can be unlucky; but too soon, too often, too much goes wrong with these cars. Usually starting just after the warranty expires and continuing till the day you get rid. Were these likely costs lumped in and explained up front; then particularly for private ownership; I can only assume the story would make the Civic a lot more attractive."
...

Please accept my apology for being somewhat over exclamatory in expressing a personal perspective as in some way representative of fact. Even if it is? Obviously, you were one of the lucky ones. Perhaps that's your sole basis for assuming others are less than succsesful in their attempts to avoid being petty or small minded? As individuals, each of us constitutes a sample size of only one and therefore alone are not statistically significant. So why not research elsewhere for factual corroboration or rebuttal of either experience and maybe let us know what you discover to be true?

However, please keep in mind that my comments were regarding ownership of a 9th generation Civic and directed more towards genuinely substantive post warranty VAG repair costs rather than any relatively minor annoyances. Here, we have well over 20 years of combined VAG ownership and all of that, except for a VR6 Corrado Storm, were punctuated by such. None of those cars were particularly high mileage and all were well serviced and maintained.

My personal preference runs more towards the odd bit of early morning clutch slip rather than, on several different VAG cars; a failed turbo, an exploded gearbox, an expired enigine management computer, a broken waterpump, a major sump seal breach etc ect. ad nauseum.

Past a point though, enough is enough. Despite one good VAG car out of half a dozen or more, at the moment, I can't imagine running another

YMMV
...

 

[Skomaz]

...
"From much direct personal experience; the medium to long term reliability of VAG cars is very poor indeed. If the reviewers took this into account then their articles would read very differently. We all know that anyone can be unlucky; but too soon, too often, too much goes wrong with these cars. Usually starting just after the warranty expires and continuing till the day you get rid. Were these likely costs lumped in and explained up front; then particularly for private ownership; I can only assume the story would make the Civic a lot more attractive."
...

Please accept my apology for being somewhat over exclamatory in expressing a personal perspective as in some way representative of fact. Even if it is? Obviously, you were one of the lucky ones. Perhaps that's your sole basis for assuming others are less than succsesful in their attempts to avoid being petty or small minded? As individuals, each of us constitutes a sample size of only one and therefore alone are not statistically significant. So why not research elsewhere for factual corroboration or rebuttal of either experience and maybe let us know what you discover to be true?

However, please keep in mind that my comments were regarding ownership of a 9th generation Civic and directed more towards genuinely substantive post warranty VAG repair costs rather than any relatively minor annoyances. Here, we have well over 20 years of combined VAG ownership and all of that, except for a VR6 Corrado Storm, were punctuated by such. None of those cars were particularly high mileage and all were well serviced and maintained.

My personal preference runs more towards the odd bit of early morning clutch slip rather than, on several different VAG cars; a failed turbo, an exploded gearbox, an expired enigine management computer, a broken waterpump, a major sump seal breach etc ect. ad nauseum.

Past a point though, enough is enough. Despite one good VAG car out of half a dozen or more, at the moment, I can't imagine running another

YMMV
...

No apology needed! - I can see your point of view based on experience which differs from mine. I accept and have no issue with that.


I wasn't having a go at you personally, or saying that you were incorrect in some of what you were saying... What I was trying to do was present a balanced view, point out that experiences do differ and that Honda and the Civics do have their own share of issues that many on this forum complain about but then choose to ignore in threads like this.


We all have our own views and experiences - it's what makes life interesting - and I'm sure yours of VAG have been significantly worse than mine. I have simply had the opposite experience.

 

[cavalrystu]

I've had company cars from VW, and my Golf (1.6 Bluemotion) broke on a number of occasions. DPF issues (even though I commute 40 miles a day, including 9 miles of clear motorway).... it has alternator issues, i had to TAPE the boot shut when it decided to open randomly... quite a few issues.

I got a 7 year old Civic, and have done 85,000 miles of trouble free motoring, on what is now a 10 year old car.

The CIVIC is truely miles better,

It more efficient (1.6 Bluemotion did 45mpg, 2.2 Civic does 52 mpg)....

It's FASTER, more POWERFUL and LIGHTER

It's got much more SPACE

It's got a nicer speedo / dash

It's got better handling

.... who would want a useless 1.6 Diesel Golf... only those suckered in by press bias!

 

[Haltamer]

Twice to memory I've driven past 17 Plate Mercedes (Both C class? they all look the same ) on the side of the A13, and chuckled to myself as I've gone past.
I've got to echo the above in that German cars seem rather unreliable, especially in comparison to others.
It's fairly common to see VW's and Audi's, even recent models belching out black smoke as they pull away from the lights or drive up bridges.

That's not to mention the emissions scandals of late. A monopoly certainly isn't healthy; and I'm hoping to see it reduced, especially now people see through the German == Quality expectation:- They could, and would get much better value elsewhere, not only in lower maintenance, but also in initial outlay - It's very common for the Japanese, Korean manufacturers to have a far more tech'd out base spec, which is something I personally prefer.

 

[Arsenal]

Well this is my 8G trouble right before it's getting replaced (2008 2.2 Sport):
- slipping clutch: it comes and goes on an irregular basis, so I didn't get it fixed
- squeaking clutch pedal: I don't care about, enough rattles elsewhere to keep me busy
- corroded fuel line: that one was quite annoying a week ago (6 weeks before my new car arrives -.-)
- failed A/C relay: I was lucky it failed open and not closed, so only relay replacing helped
- failed left wing mirror LED and heater: probably some kind of corrosion because of water inside the wing mirror because of hail damage (so not really the cars fault)
- rattles: around 1,7k rpm some part of the dash rattles horribly, driving over a bump makes a strange glassy noise as if the windshield is going to jump out
- dampers: after 230,000 km they are dead (started leaking and are probably dry by now)
- broken radio: the CD player wouldn't read any CD anymore and the CDs got really hot, so I replaced it with an Android HU
- DPF: it chooses the worst times to do a regeneration and had to take it two times to the dealer to get it cleaned and no I'm not just driving 5 km...
- battery: died at some point, but that is to expected

A major issue was with my front brakes getting really wobbly after around 10,000 km. But that was because the right wheel got two really hard hits. One hitting a curb with around 60 kph (was hidden behind some grass on the inside of a curve) and the other hitting something lying on the road with 80 kph, probably a stone, which ruined the tire so hard it had to be replaced. But can't really fault the car for that one.

That being said, there was no major issue costing horrible amounts of money. I've done roughly 100,000 km in the past five years I own this car. I had to pay around 4700 € for repairs and servicing during that time. Because it has a horrible hail damage it was very cheap. In total I have to pay around 0.20 €/km which is a great value, so although the last month has been horrible (DPF, dampers and fuel line) overall I am very happy with the car. Ultra practical, fun to drive and yet still economical.

 

[RA108]

Might be the end of a PCP or similar - I've seen them picked up / delivered that way before

Could have been. Like I say I can't be sure of the cause here. I have seen plenty of Golfs and a Jetta broken down though.

Interestingly though I've been a long time Skoda owner (17 years now across two long term cars) and can honestly say I've had more niggles and problems with the one Civic in three years than I've had with both Skoda's in 17 years!

I might suggest you've been lucky. My next door neighbour has had Skoda Fabia for the last 10 years. Whilst the 1st couple were pretty good, although he had a couple of engine issues, the last one has had in the last 3 years, quite a few serious issues including more recently the recent emission scandal issues, which after compulsory (?) re-tuning at the dealership result in a need for a new EGR valve dues to clogging within months, at a cost to the customer of around £900! Reading around the web, I gather this has been a common problem:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/mar/25/vw-volkswagen-audi-skoda-seat-emissions-fix-left-car-undriveable

He's also separately had a few issues.

I've also had 2 neighbours with Golfs, one of which required a new engine at huge cost, the other which broke down quite a lot in the few years he had it.

Yes Civics aren't built as well on the inside, with niggle such as rattles. However, they are far less boring and 100% reliable unless you're very very unlucky, especially if you keep away from the older diesels.

 

[flashy]

I had the Fn2 over 2 years and faults cost me £40 in that time, new battery.
I had a cooper s for 6 months prior and that cost me £1600 in faults. New turbo and shares in oil due to drinking 1 litre every 400 miles :laugh2:
I've never owned a VAG car and have no intention to.