I haven't found any hesitation on entry or leaving roundabouts and am very sensitive in noticing anything like that happening.

With regard to the up-hill parking alleged issue I can say that one of my relatives lives on the steepest hill in our town and I regularly reverse uphill into a tight space to park close to the kerb without any issue. All you need to do iskeep foot on brake and/ or hold handbrake, engage reverse and wait for a second or two whilst very gently pressing accelerator whilst releasing hand or footbrake (prefer handbrake as when releasing footbrake only , if not quite enough revs are applied the car can drop forward 6 inches to a foot or so which can give you a fright when it happens the first time!!! i.e., Phew... nearly hit the car in front!

Once you've mastered this once or twice and know how the car reacts, no problem at all.

It is different to the auto BMW 3 I owned in that when I put that into reverse on a hill, it never dropped forwards on a hill but just held there until slight revs were aplied then it smoothly reversed. Just a different box to get used to thats all. No great issue. Perhaps the latest DSG's are better than the earlier ones or perhaps there can be discrepencies with set ups?

The later DSG boxes definitely have better software. I notice a big difference between the DSG of 2006 and my 2010 DSG.

With reference to the roundabout and also junction issue, what you are doing is what the IAM teach. Brake, change gear, onto gas & round junction.

Much smoother in DSG, manual or slush box auto.

Regarding the DSG using more fuel, Octavia brochure states

1.4 tsi combined 44.8 mpg

1.4 DSG combined 44.8 mpg

The 1.2 it is slightly less econmical than manual 49.6 v 47.9

The 1.8 is MORE economical than the manual 40.9 v 42.8

So it depends on the engine.

Vectra, if you want to test drive a DSG without worrying about upsetting a salesman, drop me a PM and you can rag the s##t out of mine.

Its not a Vrs but it has a little grunt left in it.