S mode has been wasted I feel. Should have been better utilised by skoda, not just redline every gear

It only redlines it in every gear if thats how you choose to drive it & floor the accelerator.

You have the choice to not floor it in 'S'.

If you are using it differently & using it to decelerating, you get engine braking & you can drive quickly on hilly or steep roads & descents or ascents without braking,

(as you can in Manual Mode)

& 'S' is very useful in wintery roads when driving conservatively & not giving it welly.

Handy IMO since there is no 'Snow Button',

& the manual changes are their if you want to use the gears that way.

? What would you actually want from the 'S' Mode other than shortening the gears,

from a 7 speed box to a 6 speed one.?

There are certain types of road on which you can achieve better economy with it left in 'S' rather than in 'D' or

doing manual changes your self.

Roads with short and steep undulations,& being in 'S' acts a bit like an 'Overdrive' button acts on a traditional

3, 4, or 5 speed autobox,

Found out by trial and error on roads i drive almost weekly & i know to the litre how much fuel i use & how long the journeys take.

'S' mode suits my needs perfectly.

george

S mode is frustrating to use unless you want to travel at full pelt; think VAG could have been a little cleverer with programming its gear selection based upon throttle load. Also they may as well just set the maximum revs to 6.2/6.5k, 7k red line all well and good if there's useable power in that range but what's the point otherwise; probably extend the service life of the motor as well

I have just been out to the shops, driving on black ice in the vRS.

(it was -6*C & no roads Gritted or Salted since its the Weekend)

Was never above 30mph & was using 'D' & then 'S' to slow down without braking,

that was not at full pelt and was in no way frustrating.

Below 2400 rpm the car can be as tame as you want, & 'S' is just fine IMO.

Avoiding cars with no windows cleared and being blinded by the sun when they do have nice clean windows after driving straight out the garage is interesting.

A few BMW's this morning are getting no place fast.

Tyre centres will be busy around here this week.

I spotted a 62 plate Evoque that had slid nicely into the kerb and a driver that seemed surprised that their 4x4 had not performed as expected.

george

As if having 4x4 drive could somehow defiy the laws of physics and provide with friction where there is none lol.

I find "S" brilliant for either banzai runs or not so banzai ones. This combined with paddles is perfect! in "S" auto hrough corners as it keeps the gears as I want them and then upshifts at 6k rpm. It takes approx 500 rpm at full throttle between me pressing the upshift paddle and next gear with clutch disengaged fully.

? What would you actually want from the 'S' Mode other than shortening the gears,

from a 7spd box to 6

Hi George, what do you actually mean by 'shortening' the gears?

To my mind the ratios are all fixed in a DSG box (compared to a traditional auto). The ecu just chooses not to shift into 7th in s-mode. Only difference between D and S is the timing of changes and how high the car decides to hang on to each gear etc.

Furbytom.

What i mean by 'shortening the gears', is not in the true form of say with a manual & motorsport and running different gears/ratios for different events, 5 speed or 6 speed box.

More like the effect of driving a standard Torque converter Automatic where on back roads i would switch off O/D, Overdrive to stop the box going up and down the gears.

(Thats limiting it to a 3 speed & not a 4 speed, & yes its the same 3 lower gears, not different ratios)

I use 'S' when driving Economically, like we are talking in the 'MPG Thread',

no braking,shift back to 'S' & slow down, the box comes down 2 gears, say in 'D5' it drops tp 'S3' and slows.

i go straight back to 'D' and continue, no Brakes used, & good smooth driving and economy.

(obviously if i needed to use the brakes i would, but i also have engine braking'.)

(Then like this for Hillclimbs, Sprints, not on public roads obviously..)

Driving fast & getting a shift on, 'I count this the same as shortening the gears.'

Asyou say, by the way the box is programmed to.

Then, Same thing on the road, i 'do not use 'S' to overtake' because i do not want to red line it,

& in practice its slower in my car.

I do, or may, do a 'double kickdowns' tho.

Or before the overtake, drop to 'S' and come down the gears,

then straight back into 'D' before the overtake, to let the box do the changes that suits me, &

Importantly, No or less Torque Steer, or loss of traction..

I do use 'S' when reducing the gears being used, 3rd, 4th, 5th & not up to '6th', (& importantly No 7th)

& keeping the RPM where i want it @ 3500 - 5500 rpm of so.

But thats knocking back to 'S' , or short straights and corners,

back 2 gears, a quick boot of throttle & back up to 'D', then ready to know back to 'S' into the next corner.

*I do not use paddles* I do knock across to manual and decelerate in single gears when i do not want to drop 2 gears at once.

But i let the car do all the upshifts almost all the time, it does them better than me.

Be that in Economy driving or Spirited driving.

This is on windy roads & humps, yumps etc.

To me it keeps the Twin Charger on boil & is not Redlining it other than on Deceleration.

'Thats what i mean by shortning gears.'

Also i have a DSG that goes to 7 in S (flat out) or D'.Its a gearbox programme thing.

My other vRS was just a standard 7 gears in 'D' & limited to 6 in 'S'.

(same top speed & same max rpm)

I drove both DSG's the same at National Speed Limits,

& the ratios were both the same below 120 mph or so,.

george