Gasgoo.com (Shanghai May 24) - Volkswagen officially apologized today for the mishaps its DSG gearboxes have been causing in China, money.163.com reported. VW acknowledged the issues that the DQ200 dual-clutch transmissions have been causing in Chinese vehicles, and agreed to extend the warranty for DSG gearboxes to ten years and 160,000 km.

Consumers have constantly been reporting having problems with VW's DSG gearboxes since last year. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine's (AQSIQ) Defective Products Management Center sent a request to the manufacturer in March, urging them to find a workable solution for the problem, which they worry poses a potential safety risk to consumers. However, in its apology VW did not mention the safety concerns brought up by AQSIQ and many consumers in the country.

VW's attitude regarding the issue has disappointed several in the industry. As early as February, the manufacturer refused to accept that the problem constituted a real safety risk, choosing to implement a dealer-installed software update to resolve it.

According to a statement made by VW Group China Vice President Yang Meihong at the time, the scope of the gearbox issue was very limited, and did not warrant a recall.

The 30 minute software update was installed on around 500,000 VW and Skoda vehicles from FAW-VW and Shanghai VW. However, soon after having the update installed, the problems resurfaced, with new issues also beginning to appear.

A survey done by auto quality website 12365auto.com earlier this month found that VW's faulty DSG gearboxes remained the most complained about problem among automobile owners.

Source:gasgoo.com