Two problems related to transmission slip out of gear have been reported for the 2009 Volkswagen GTI. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Purchased used 2009 vw Gti with dsg transmission on 03 Aug 13. On 06 Aug 13 upon braking and turning a corner the transmission seemingly dropped out of gear, engine revved freely, the transmission re-engaged with a loud clunk in the driveline. Over the next week the frequency of this same problem happening increased until 12 Aug 13. On 12 Aug 13 the transmission would take several seconds(upwards of 30) to engage either 1st or reverse and in doing so would again clunk on engagement. Also, while driving on a state highway at 55 mph the transmission downshifted to an unknown gear, the lights on the shift indicator started to flash, and the transmission would not shift. Had to pull to the shoulder and turn off the engine and restart to continue. Within one mile the same process had to be repeated. This continued for the rest of the 10 mile trip to my home. This car is one that was affected by the recall. The recall has been performed on this car but obviously still has issues. Car will be taken to a dealership on 16 Aug 13 to have it diagnosed.
I bought my 2009 vw Gti in January of this year (6 months ago). It now has 5100 miles. At about 2500 miles, the dsg automatic transmission started slipping out of gear at seemingly random times. It only happened a couple of times before my 3000 mile checkup. At that time, vw could not replicate the problem and told me that the car was "operating within specifications. " in the last couple of weeks the problem has become a lot more frequent -- happening several times per day at seemingly random times (in parking lots and on the jersey turnpike). When it happens, it acts like I am holding in the clutch on an automatic (no gears at all) and the prindl light on the dashboard flashes. Once, the shift lever also froze and I could not shift out of drive. The only way to get back into gear is to restart the car - and vw tells me that this also resets the fault indicator so that they can diagnose the problem. This problem causes a safety hazard -- losing all power to the engine when I am trying to merge into traffic or in a crowded place where I cannot coast to a safe place to stop and restart the car is extremely dangerous. The general shifting of the car in low gears is also somewhat jerky, but this problem pales in comparison to the complete loss of power at random times.