Paddle shift is now an after sales option

[Lance B]

My local VW new car salesman told me that the paddle shift is now an after sales option for about a $grand$ for all DSG models. The new car salesman told me that they are in the country and ready for fitment.

Just been down to VW parts to order mine and they will contact me about it's cost and availability.

[R36 Dreamer]

My local VW new car salesman told me that the paddle shift is now an after sales option for about a $grand$ for all DSG models. The new car salesman told me that they are in the country and ready for fitment.

Just been down to VW parts to order mine and they will contact me about it's cost and availability.

I dont know what everyones opinion is, but TBH I have not used the paddles more than a couple of times in the R36.

Had em in my GTI as well, and probably only used them 2 dozen times in 2 years, and that was only for novelty value rather than actually having to.

If you want them, I say go for it, but a grand would get you a remap, which would yield more fun than paddles IMHO.

Be interesting to see how many people actually use them on a regular basis.

[Steve]

I use them all the time in both the GTI and the R36 - I never drive either of them in D or S and use a combination of the paddles and the stick to change gears.

[Lance B]

I dont know what everyones opinion is, but TBH I have not used the paddles more than a couple of times in the R36.

Had em in my GTI as well, and probably only used them 2 dozen times in 2 years, and that was only for novelty value rather than actually having to.

If you want them, I say go for it, but a grand would get you a remap, which would yield more fun than paddles IMHO.

Remap? DO you mena an engine remap?

Be interesting to see how many people actually use them on a regular basis.

I use the tiptronic 99% of the time, so I can see a use for it. The beauty of the paddle shifts, for me, is that at the moment I have to take my hands from the shift lever to use the blinker and operate high/low beam(a problem with LHD switchover to RHD). With paddle shift, I wouldn't have to take my hands from the steering wheel.

[Lance B]

I use them all the time in both the GTI and the R36 - I never drive either of them in D or S and use a combination of the paddles and the stick to change gears.

I use tiptronic 99% of the time, so I can also see that the paddle shift would be a great feature. No need to take the hands from the steering wheel to change gear in tiptronic and therefore make using the blinker and high/low beam much easier as well as using the manual gear change.

[Mischa]

lance just get a gti steering wheel off ebay and have the paddles turned on through a vag-com

[Lance B]

lance just get a gti steering wheel off ebay and have the paddles turned on through a vag-com

Thanks for the tip, but looking at ebay, there are none with paddles and none with the steering wheel functions like the audio controls and MFD controls. There may also be airbag differences.

[R36 Dreamer]

Remap? DO you mena an engine remap?



I use the tiptronic 99% of the time, so I can see a use for it. The beauty of the paddle shifts, for me, is that at the moment I have to take my hands from the shift lever to use the blinker and operate high/low beam(a problem with LHD switchover to RHD). With paddle shift, I wouldn't have to take my hands from the steering wheel.

Looks like I am in the minority - I use D and S most of the time.

This is the beauty of a forum, seeing what everyone else does.

What is the advantage of using the paddles/gearshift to manually select gears? I thought the DSG was faster, and besides, the thing overrides my decisions in full manual mode anyway....

[Steve]

I only find it overrides what I want when I want it to do something bad, like over or under rev the engine. The changes are still at the same speed.

Advantages... in D or S, it gets confused by the hill I live up. It can never pick a gear, so I do it instead. Around town, I can modulate the level of noise I want (or not) and get to control the fart noise.

Plus, it's fun

[dangerous_daveo]

I use tiptronic 99% of the time, so I can also see that the paddle shift would be a great feature. No need to take the hands from the steering wheel to change gear in tiptronic and therefore make using the blinker and high/low beam much easier as well as using the manual gear change.

Without trying to be smart. I don't get that...

You shouldn't be chaning gears while trying to indicate or highbeam someone anyway!

[Lance B]

Without trying to be smart. I don't get that...

You shouldn't be chaning gears while trying to indicate or highbeam someone anyway!

In a RHD car designed for right hand drive, ie indicator/high beam on the right, I can use the indicator *and* change gears at the same time, as the right hand can use the indicator whilst still on the steering wheel and the left hand can be used to change gears.

In a LHD car but with the steering on the right(like most Euro cars and US cars) the indicator is on the left and so is the gear change, so you can't do both at the same time. It's not a big deal, it's just that it would be quicker and easier to have the paadle shifts on the steering wheel.

Many a time I have come up to a corner, or need to do a lane change at a moments notice, and I need to change down at the same time as I want to use the indicator, so it is an either/or scenario rather than be able to keep both hands on the wheel and do both at near the same time. Paddle shifts on the wheel would alleviate most of this problem as my hands never need to leave the steering wheel and thus both indicating/high beam switching and gear changing can be accomplished at the same time.

As for high beamimg, ever come up to a corner where you want to change down only to find that a car is coming the other way and you also need to dip your lights? Hard to do both at once when the high beam switch(on the indicator stalk) is on the same side as the gear lever and therefore your hand is required to do both at the same time.

[Lance B]

Looks like I am in the minority - I use D and S most of the time.

This is the beauty of a forum, seeing what everyone else does.

What is the advantage of using the paddles/gearshift to manually select gears? I thought the DSG was faster, and besides, the thing overrides my decisions in full manual mode anyway....

DSG *is* faster, but it is only faster for changing from one gear to the other *when* you compare shift speed to that of using a normal manual gearbox in normal manual cars with a normal manually operated clutch set up or torque converter auto's. DSG is *not* faster for knowing *what* gear you actually require in advance. In a DSG gearbox, the shiftspeed from one gear to the next is *exactly* the same in tiptronic mode as it is in full auto mode, but the auto mode can never *predict* what gear *you* want to use when coming up to a corner or decide to overtake. When I am coming up to a corner, I change down to the gear that *I* want before the car even *thinks* about changing gears and then it may not actually be the gear I require anyway.

I find using the tiptronic mode a much more satisfying drive as an auto gearbox can never know the correct gear all the time as it doesn't know what is coming up ahead.

Using a paddle shift makes this a whole lot quicker and easier, especially when you need to use the indicator as well as change gears using tiptronic mode.

[3Putt]

What About Launch Control

I'm with you Lance, go the paddles for sure!

Only problem is i've heard they are not in a great position, and they are a bit hard to reach (especially if you have short fiongers like me!).

Does anyone know if they are adjustable, like the Shimano RapidFires on my Trek mountain bike?

Don't know about paying $1000 for paddles, but i would shell out for launch control, ala the Golf GTI. Hope its made available, or a mod is found for it. Not likely i reckon, DSG clutch prob couldn't cope with the extra weight / grunt / 4Motion hey?

Does R36 have launch control?

[Steve]

There is launch control available for the R36, and that uses the same DSG box as the 3.2 does. I'm pretty sure it's just an ECU thing.

The paddles... well, they aren't ideal. They're small and fixed to the wheel, so finding them can be a bit hit and miss. We need to borrow the E-Gear paddles from Lamborghini...

[3Putt]

Launch Control

Would be all over the launch control if there was a mod.

The DSG is controlled thru a "mechatronic" unit, which has its own ECU (or similar), so if anyone knows the mod, i'm all ears...