Moving from manual to automatic

[fredgroves]

BMW normal autos are horrid nasty things using very old fashioned auto boxes,  lurchy and car sick inducing only the true M's have a DSG box. The normal BMW (I drove a 1 series on a test drive) is a boring A to B machine.

I drove a M3 on the track... amazing is all I would say. Lack of engagement my a$$... I was able to perfectly concentrate on my lines and braking.... it was a simply stunning experience.

Not that I'd recommend driving like that on the road! But its there if you want it.

I'd say to the OP though that a test drive won't really help much though - you will be a little out of your depth and not really getting it for the first few goes.

Actually - I did drive a DSG GTD on my first Golf Mk7 test drive. Like any car new to me on a test drive I was concentrating too hard to really tell much from the experience!

[Yusee]

Yes, you can’t tell much from a quick spin round the block, which is all most dealers allow.
My initial thought was dsg, I test drove it, then ordered manual
It will be interesting to see if these boxes become more or less engaging as they become increasingly sophisticated

[Jim_mk7.5]

DSG for everyday. Manual for weekend fun.

[kmpowell]

DSG in 'Auto' mode for everyday duties.
DSG (or a double clutch equivalent DCT/PDK etc) in Manual mode for weekends and having fun.

I've had my fair share of manual 'sports' cars (M cars, TVR etc), but in the same way I wouldn't go back to cassette tapes and Halogen headlights, I wouldn't go back to a manual if there was a double clutch alternative and I was buying a sporty/sports car.

I'd consider a manual over a slushy single clutch (ZF8 etc) though.

[Booth11]

Sometimes on daily morning work commute I just stick to D and let it do it’s thing, but other times I’ll use Sport or S manual for a more engaging drive.

Does your commute offer opportunities for an engaging drive, or are you just changing gear manually for the sake of it?

Poorly worded on my part.  No, my daily commute straight from home to work (office) doesn’t offer opportunities for an engaging drive, it’s usually congested city traffic, so that’s done in D, sometimes using S at roundabouts and other bits. Depends on how heave the traffic is. Where I live it’s never quite the same any one morning or day!  But little point in driving in manual through congested city traffic.  What I meant was other daily work trips often do allow for an engaging drive, I use the car quite a lot for work and that takes me to various places, and I often drive to sites from home, some of places those are on routes where manual is the more rewarding drive.

[Jim_mk7.5]

Sometimes on daily morning work commute I just stick to D and let it do it’s thing, but other times I’ll use Sport or S manual for a more engaging drive.

Does your commute offer opportunities for an engaging drive, or are you just changing gear manually for the sake of it?

Poorly worded on my part.  No, my daily commute straight from home to work (office) doesn’t offer opportunities for an engaging drive, it’s usually congested city traffic, so that’s done in D, sometimes using S at roundabouts and other bits. Depends on how heave the traffic is. Where I live it’s never quite the same any one morning or day!  But little point in driving in manual through congested city traffic.  What I meant was other daily work trips often do allow for an engaging drive, I use the car quite a lot for work and that takes me to various places, and I often drive to sites from home, some of places those are on routes where manual is the more rewarding drive.

Sounds exactly how I use mine 

[monkeyhanger]

VW is definitely on a mission to phase out manual boxes on the nippier engines, and also seem to want you to decide you need one by fitting chocolate clutches in the manuals.

The ridiculously high geared 1.0TSI units that VW are saving the planet with are also having chocolate clutches fitted that burn on even a slight hill start, because you have to rev the nuts off them to pull away.

Give it 5 years and VAG might have phased out manuals altogether.

Never wanted a DSG, but now find myself in one as a daily driver in my Polo GTI+. The wife has the manual R 95% of the time, and VW UK decided not to bring the manual box for the Polo to the UK, despite it being available in many other European countries.

So I find myself in a DSG because the car is excellent for the money. I don't dislike DSG as much as I thought.

I'd say that 80% of the time, when not wanting to press on fully, the car can react the way you want it to ' moderate amounts of throttle can reliably translate in what gear you want the car to be in when in auto mode. In traffic it is handy too...and yes, you do get lazy.

Full manual mode just isn't intuitive for me to use the stick. Pushing up to go up a gear and pulling back to go down sounds logical, but it just feels wrong to not be doing the opposite. The paddles are pretty pointless in non-manual mode because your throttle response overrides your desire to be in a certain gear - and therein lies my main annoyance with DSG.

Why can't you have an effective bout of manual selection from within auto mode?

I don't want to have to slot over into full manual mode for one drop to 3rd from 6th to hammer it at 45. That takes a lot more forward planning than seeing an opportunity to get from 45 to 70 and just pressing the downshift 3 times and burying the throttle. Bury the throttle in auto mode (regardless of your paddle input) and it will drop to the lowest possible gear - even if that is at 45mph to go 6th to 2nd, for all of 500 revs before the red line, where there's no torque left anyway, before picking 3rd.

Wish VW has designed it so manual paddle input is respected in auto mode (within self protection limits, changing up at red line) independent of throttle input.

I'm sure someone will say "but if you're putting your foot down at 45, you can just give it 3/4 throttle to avoid dropping to 2nd". Yes you can, but it's pointless if you want full throttle 3rd acceleration.

VW could have quite easily treated paddle operation as auto mode override and chose not to. The car would've been so much better as an auto with that in place.

Do facelift Golf's with DSG have the ACC fire up the car in stop-start mode when the car in front moves off? That's highly annoying on the Polo when it's just cars bunching up a foot or so in static traffic.

[Guzzle]

Dunno about dsg Golf's but my manual 7.5 GTD has the auto restart function when stop-start is active and i agree it's highly annoying.

Without wanting to completely hijack the thread, what are thoughts on the Polo GTi and the lack of independent rear suspension? Does the car suffer unduly for it, or have torsion beams moved on somewhat in recent years?

[fredgroves]

Monkeyhanger.... I wonder if the DSG tuning software makes any difference to your frustrations?

I've still to hear anyone say that they have done it...

[dubber36]

DSG tuning is supposed to give you nearly full control in manual mode. It will hold the chosen gear and bounce off the limiter like you can in a manual, but will still not let you select an unsuitable gear that could cause damage.