DSG: Problems, Questions, Likes and Dislikes

[Voora1ZN]

After all the talk about DSG, how quick the gear changes were, etc, I only wanted DSG. Now that I have a car with DSG, I promised myself that if the next car doesn't have 3 foot pedals then I'm not getting it. In my opinion, I feel like I don't really have control of the gear changes like I would with a true manual gearbox. Long story short, I dislike it.

[blutopless2]

Thanks HPSOV, Ryan_R and AdamD for your responses.
Looks like this is across the Golf range then and a normal characteristic.
Cheers

Jetta is the same. it will shift into second almost as soon as you get moving and not go back into first unless you pretty much come to a stop.

[Tux]

I love..absolutely love the DSG.. It has it's little problems but the positives completely outweigh the negatives. Depending on the situation I will just leave it in 'D' but I regularly use all the various modes including changing with the stick. I've been driving for a long time and most of my cars have been manual until now...

[rs73]

agree ... I also came from driving manual cars for over 15 yrs to the world of auto, tiptronic, and DSG. For those who felt getting caught in 2nd and not dropping back when slowing down to re-accelerate, it only takes a moment of 'driving awareness' to just flick the steering wheel flappy paddle down to get that full control... just need to get used to it, not something that is worth whinging about and regreting the purchase decision.

as with any gearboxes, auto or manual, DSG will shine if it's used properly... a car with manual gearbox does not make it a better car to drive if the driver is in the wrong gear.

[GTI mk6]

agree ... I also came from driving manual cars for over 15 yrs to the world of auto, tiptronic, and DSG. For those who felt getting caught in 2nd and not dropping back when slowing down to re-accelerate, it only takes a moment of 'driving awareness' to just flick the steering wheel flappy paddle down to get that full control... just need to get used to it, not something that is worth whinging about and regreting the purchase decision.

as with any gearboxes, auto or manual, DSG will shine if it's used properly... a car with manual gearbox does not make it a better car to drive if the driver is in the wrong gear.

As I am the one who raised the issue of “getting caught in 2nd......." Dont believe I
was whinging about it and def.don't regret my purchase decision?
Only had manual gearbox vehicles for the first 10 hrs of driving.

Was just an observation which has been kindly answered by Forum members
and good to know it's not something with my DSG only.
BTW it is a “small niggle" for me.

[MkVIGTI]

For those who felt getting caught in 2nd and not dropping back when slowing down to re-accelerate, it only takes a moment of 'driving awareness' to just flick the steering wheel flappy paddle down to get that full control...

Or you can floor it

[SuperHans]

just to clarify, you can use the paddles even when not in triptonic mode?

so can you bump it up and down when in normal D or S mode?

[MkVIGTI]

That's correct. But if you use it in D and use the paddles, it will only temporarily go into manual mode. It will go back to D if you leave it for long enough.

[benjmin]

Yes thats exactly what I copped. Cruising at maybe 40-50 in 5th, go over a speed bump at maybe 30km/h.. and vrrrrroooooom, revs jump through the roof.

Hasnt happened again to me, but I gotta say, its not the safest thing in the world - probably worthy of a toyota recall

All jokes aside if that did happen in the wrong situation you could quickly find yourself in a really bad spot.

Have had my R for 12000 kms now and generally been qiute happy with it. The dsg box ,i must say ,has been dissapointing in D mode. I would say that i use the m mode 70-80% of the time. I had the overreving thing happen on 4 occassions and quickly took it back to the dealer. I am no mechanic/technitian but was told that this was a software problem and that VGA were aware of it. My car was left for the day, it supposedly had its software updated and I have not had a problem since! I dont think that it is in my head.
Why didnt I get a manual you ask?
1. The wife has my ex mark 5 GTI DGS which hangs onto the gears better ,i believe, than the R and I expected the same.
2. I sold my r36 dgs because i missed the golf and to be quite frank the dsg was never an issue in it
3. She loves to drive the R but cant drive a manual!!!!!!

[rs73]

That's correct. But if you use it in D and use the paddles, it will only temporarily go into manual mode. It will go back to D if you leave it for long enough.

Yes, a handy feature to overtaking manouvre....

or once you finished temporarily controlling the gear with the paddles, just hold the '+' paddle for a few seconds it will go back to 'D' again so you don't have to wait for the time delay to resume D...

[Capercat]

Why didnt I get a manual you ask?
1. The wife has my ex mark 5 GTI DGS which hangs onto the gears better ,i believe, than the R and I expected the same.
2. I sold my r36 dgs because i missed the golf and to be quite frank the dsg was never an issue in it
3. She loves to drive the R but cant drive a manual!!!!!!

Can you not teach her how to drive manual? I've taught three women to drive manual & they have never looked back

[blutopless2]

For those who felt getting caught in 2nd and not dropping back when slowing down to re-accelerate, it only takes a moment of 'driving awareness' to just flick the steering wheel flappy paddle down to get that full control... just need to get used to it, not something that is worth whinging about and regreting the purchase decision.

that's fine if you have the paddles..... but more importantly i shouldnt have to intervene....

DSG will shine if it's used properly... a car with manual gearbox does not make it a better car to drive if the driver is in the wrong gear.

used properly? isn't that what "D" is for?
when driving a manual I know what gear to be in.... why can't the computer figure it out? would this not represent a flaw in the programming?

[Corey_R]

There is no flaw in the programming. It's doing exactly what it's been told to do - which is provide the best economy possible.

I really don't understand what all the complaints are here. Didn't people test drive the cars before purchasing? Surely you would have noticed during the test drive that whilst in D, it shifts economically?

[weewilly]

There is no flaw in the programming. It's doing exactly what it's been told to do - which is provide the best economy possible.

I really don't understand what all the complaints are here. Didn't people test drive the cars before purchasing? Surely you would have noticed during the test drive that whilst in D, it shifts economically?

this is going to be a topic of discussion for quite some time. I didn't pick it up during test drive, but I wasn't looking for this issue either. and even if i had, i would have still purchased the car. the gearing issue doesn't always manifest itself, sometimes shifting through the gears is seamless and acceleration is smooth as silk, other times I have to depress the accelerator three quarters way down to get the car moving when shifting into 5th and sixth gear. quite often the car will slow during the shifting process, this is an issue plan and simple. I've never driven a car with so LITTLE power. doesn't make sense and clearly there is an issue.
there should be an economy mode, which would be the 'D' mode we currently operate in. and of course keep the very aggressive 'S". there needs to be 'D+' mode. VW can still claim their 'green' ness and we won't waste valuable bandwidth.

[Capercat]

there needs to be 'D+' mode.

Posted this earlier, D+ can be found even with VW greeness! haha: HPA Motorsports Inc. - DSG Performance Programming