David, its a great car both to drive and to own i had an lx and loved it but mine was a 6 speed manual. i know own a seat alhambra 05 plate tdi again with the six speed manual box, i only swapped the galaxy due to the fact that it felt a bit underpowered towing my van which weighs 1640 kg fully laden, my galaxy was the 115 bhp version. i test drove the tiptronic auto and found the car very relaxing and would definately have bought it if i was able to have it with 130 bhp but seat told me the box is not strong enough to cope with the torque produced by the 130 hence it being only available as a 115 bhp engine. this would obviousley give you problems if you chipped the engine as you would almost certainly damage the box, do a search on the vw tdi engine and you will see loads of posts regarding chipping including some eye opening information about the effects chipping has on parts like the dual mass flywheel which apparently is engineered to be only 5 % tolerant of the designed torque limit, in other words if you have the 115 bhp engine the flywheel is only tolerant up to about 121 bhp, you then run the risk of severe and very expensive damage. In the past i have raved about the benefits of increasing a tow cars power with these chip boxes but having read and researched the issue in depth i would strongly recommend that you think very seriously about the concequenses and make up your own mind if its worth it. from experiance if you do not wish to chip the car and your van weighs more than 1400 kgs then do not go for the tiptronic auto 115 but definately try the 130 manual it is truly superb. any further info just ask.
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