I have DSG with paddles, 99% of the time it sits in D. The 1% when I do actually want to have fun, I switch it to manual or sport and use the paddles. Best of both worlds. Use a lot of engine braking during the icy winter, so I do not understand why people say "its not possible" with a DSG. Maybe I have a broken box

 

 

When you say best of both worlds, it's not.

My DSG car has a very nice set of paddles.  It's not the same.  It's not as much fun when you want to play.

 

I wonder if people realise how nice it feels to trailbrake into a corner, do a bit of heel and toe down a gear, get the rev matching spot on, clip the apex and power out the other side.  It's a rewarding experience knowing you did all that.

 

Compared to that flipping a paddle and driving round is a peice of piddle.

 

Of course, we are not talking about typical road driving, for that I do believe the DSG is good.

My problem is that in recent years Ive not driven a normal car that has really nice shift quality and a decent pedel offset; last one was probably a Golf GTI MK5 (seemed to remember than was quite nice), my last Golf was quite notchy, the shift didnt like being rushed and it actually became a bit frustrating when trying to hustle the car along; dont get any such issues in a DSG.

 

That's also the reason we wanted to move away from manual.

 

You have to be on the ball all the time to drive smoothly and the gear changes in some cars can be pretty awful.

 

Even the 2012 Ibiza FR 1.6 CR TDI with 3000 miles on we were driving was horrible. 1st was notchy. Reverse would crunch and sometimes hard to disengage and 2nd gear hard to engage sometimes. Then with fast changes it sounded very clattery!

 

Phil

Under warranty - I'd have another DSG - if keeping the car long term - manual - as there is always the worry of an expensive DSG box failure.

 

I do miss the instant click down a gear using the paddles, I don't miss the paddles being in the wrong place when exiting a T-Junction in 1st.

 

Don't think I'd touch the 7 speed dry box though - that does seemed to have had more issues that the wet 6 speed box.

 

My previous car was a 2005 A3 2.0TDi S-Line DSG.

Nice balanced opinions in this thread.

I also love the DSG box in my vRS TSi...so smooth and calm in most situations with gear changes almost undetectable. Yet use of either the paddles or a heavy right foot can turn the car into a raging beast with massive speeds on the clock in no time at all, still with ultra quick and smooth changes.

A very relaxing car to drive normally though over great distances.

Mine's almost done 30,000mls from new so reliability ok so far.

This is the 6 speed 'wet' box as opposed to the 7 spd 'dry' unit that seems so troublesome.

I've a DSG and would for sure buy another one, if the citigo was a DSG instead of a ASG or whatever it is I would have gone for that.

I've been looking at the new boxter and I'd be happy to get an "auto" version of that.

Wanting a manual over a dsg is like wanting a crash gear box, needs skill to double your clutch, over a syncomesh box its a no brainer unless your into nostalga DSG is the future.

Hi,i own and have owned a Skoda Octavia 1.9Tdi for the last 5 years,it has a 6 speed automatic DSG gearbox,so far it has 320,000 kms on the clock,its as quick and most cars in its range and its very easy on diesel,only problem was last week when the gearbox gave up on me,so a second hand gearbox is on the cards for it,but apart from that i cant fault it,its a workhorse and a family car,and i would recommend it to anyone.

I really like the DSG box, I am getting 52 mpg across a full tank which for an autobox I think is excellent, my only niggle (if you can call it a niggle) D is brilliant for every day use, if I want to cane it I can use the paddles....so does it really need the sport mode? I think in offers more than is actually needed.

I bought the DSG version of the VRS with flappy paddles thinking this would be a good compromise as I tend to get stuck in traffic and hate the pedal mashing in stop start traffic. In hindsight I wish I had stuck with a manual. I love the auto mode but I have issues with the manual mode.

Don't get me wrong, I think the DSG is fantastic but for me the following ruins it.

 

1. On ALL the other flappy paddle gearbox cars I have driven, when in manual mode you get a big gear number displayed in Multi function display. I sometimes forget that I'm in manual mode (my fault I know) and the engine is soo quiet I can be driving along, radio blaring away doing 35 - 40 in 1st.

 

2. As others have mentioned in other posts, you can manually change down when coming up to a junction / roundabout to find the system has done the same thing and you end up being in 1^st instead of 2^nd.

 

This could be easily rectified if there was a big gear number shown in the MFD. I know it’s at the top but half the time is doesn't show because something else has precedence over that part of the screen.

 

2. The flappy paddles are totally inaccessible if you hold the steering wheel on the grips (10 o'clock / 2 o'clock). They are just too small to reach. If I hold the wheel at 9 o'clock / 3 o'clock then it's fine but because of the size of the wheel it doesn't feel right. They should be made bigger and put on the steering column.

 

I end up using the gear stick, which I why I think I would go back to a manual next time.

 

To summarise.

 

The DSG Gearbox, I think, as others have said, is bloody brilliant. It is however, in my opinion, massively let down by it's supporting features, paddles etc.

Auto mode – Brilliant, Manual mode – not so good

 

I wanted a drivers car but because of the issues with the paddles and the MFD, it makes it just too much hard work. Maybe I have given up too easily and need to force myself to go manual mode for a couple of weeks to try and get used to it more.

Not sure I understand the last two posts unless..........

 

they seem to say DSG is no good for us because we'd like to make our own personal gear change on occasions - isn't this called manual gear change and hence DSG is not really suitable for you.

 

I dont have paddles because I'm quite content for the DSG to choose the gear change  - only overridden drive mode in  the box on two types of occasion. Firstly in sport mode to hold a low gear going downhill - road sign says "Keep in low Gear". Secondly, when approaching the bottom of steep hill  with a steep gradient ahead -  again put in sport mode to anticipate the gear for hill climbing.

 

Had paddles on an Audi A4 3.0 tdi but never used them - you can't get them on the new Mazda CX5 because the company says noone needs them.

Not sure I understand the last two posts unless..........

 

they seem to say DSG is no good for us because we'd like to make our own personal gear change on occasions - isn't this called manual gear change and hence DSG is not really suitable for you.

Yes and no.

The DSG box is usually touted as a best of both worlds, a drivers automatic gearbox as it gives you almost as much control as a manual (not necessarily by Skoda) and what you describe is what I would consider to be a function of an ordinary automatic gearbox. As I have said above the DSG itself is brilliant, the rest of the package lets it down if you have sporty model, like the VRS and you want to have some fun (where possible and sensible) and be able to control the car better.

Put it this way, if I had a choice of manual or standard automatic when I bought the car, I would have gone for manual. I had a choice of manual or DSG and went for because all reviews have said DSG is the way forward and it's the closest thing to manual control your going to get, hence best of both worlds.

I bought the car with DSG and flappy paddles because that is what I wanted. Every other car I have driven with flappy paddles from the big boys all the way down to my old Brabus Smart FourTwo had a better system in this respect. Granted, the DSG in my VRS is probably one of the best systems I have driven but as a complete package (again I bought the flappy paddles because I wanted to use them) the DSG system is let down by the rest of it. From reading your post, you haven't got flappy paddles because you don't see the point.

What I was trying to say for the OP is he may be in the same position I was (manual VRS' in the past), may have read how brilliant the DSG system is and think, as I did, that this is the way to go.

Coming from a manual VRS background the OP may be slightly disappointed as I am that such a fantastic system is let down by the rest of the package. I bought the VRS with DSG so I could chuck it about and have a bit of fun every now and again with out having the faff of a clutch pedal.

Having taken the car home via the back roads last night, I have to say the DSG seamlessly going thought the gears as you push it always leaves me with a big grin. I think I will look at some paddle extensions or replacements, this should make things a bit better.

If you don't care what gear you are in.  The DSG will work fine.  If you do care, it'll annoy the hell out of you.

 

But you'll still have higher purchase costs, higher maintenance costs, higher running costs and higher chance of failure with the DSG.

 After doing a few track days in a DSG car and driving 45K per year on average and considering myself as an enthusiast, I see no reason not to have DSG.

 

 F1, use a version of it, WRC use a version of it so how enthusiastic would one need to be to want or need to change gears manually?

 

Oh no they don't.  F1 and WRC sequential gearboxes are not DSG in any way.

If you don't care what gear you are in.  The DSG will work fine.  If you do care, it'll annoy the hell out of you.

 

But you'll still have higher purchase costs, higher maintenance costs, higher running costs and higher chance of failure with the DSG.

Yawn - Change the record!

If you don't care what gear you are in.  The DSG will work fine.  If you do care, it'll annoy the hell out of you.

 

Or just move the shifter to + - and change gears yourself?

 

 

higher maintenance costs

 

In the normal life of a DSG the only maintenance costs is a fluid change every 40,000 miles. In the normal life of a manual you'd have to budget for at least one new clutch. So I say the maintenance costs are about even......or perhaps slightly cheaper on the DSG.    

A month ago I purchased  a March 2012 Octavia vRS diesel.  I wish I had bought it sooner.  In my car the DSG does provide engine braking when slowing down and does changes down on down-hill sections (often plus an extra gear down if the brake is lightly applied).   As my car has the steering wheel paddles I have rarely used Manual mode on the gear selector.  The paddles can be used to over-ride the DSG in D or S and the gearbox put back into auto by waiting for 15-20 seconds or by holding the right-hand paddle - great for changing down a couple of gears just before overtaking with an easy return to D or S - all without taking my hands off the steering wheel.

 

However, I will probably go for the extended warranty when the car is 3 years old.

 

Two of my friends have already decided that their next car will have DSG.

Having changed my 1.6cr manual to a 1.6cr DSG in March I wouldn't rush back to a manual. I can't comment on the reliablity of the box, but the mpg is only around 2 mpg worse than the manual.

Having driven myriad cars with 'old-fashioned' auto boxes I quite looked forward to driving a DSG Fabia when I was given one as a courtesy car. And, it was dreadful. Slow response on pullaway, erratic changes. I'll stick to manual thanks!

Having driven myriad cars with 'old-fashioned' auto boxes I quite looked forward to driving a DSG Fabia when I was given one as a courtesy car. And, it was dreadful. Slow response on pullaway, erratic changes. I'll stick to manual thanks!

 

It was a faulty one (probably why it's a courtesy car).

 

My DSG does not even remotely behave like this  

That's the problem with automatic gearboxes in general. Some drivers and some gearboxes just don't play very well together. A manual gearbox obviously obeys your every move, but an automatic is pre-programmed to behave in a certain way. For example, some people don't like how the DSG seems to always pick the tallest possible gear. Personally, I don't mind. I always use tall gears myself anyways and the TSI is so flexible that it doesn't matter. On the other hand, I can't stand when some people with manual cars insist on using low gears. :lol: 3000rpm down the road for no good reason.

 

And I'll need a very good reason to buy a manual car ever again.

DSG Fabia 7 speed. DSG Octavia 6 speed boxes are completely different 6 speed good 7 speed iffy.

7 speed not iffy at all.  I speak with experience of owning both (not guessing as some on here).  They are both infinitely superior to manual.  Those who think they know better which gear to use can switch to manual and make perfect gear changes without having to press a clutch pedal.  There simply is no downside.

Strange this macho thing about manual boxes that we Europeans seem to have.

 

Having driven my first auto box on holiday in the US in 1988, it just seems a no brainer - what's the point of having all that extra work changing gears manually and having to hold the car on hills with the handbrake at traffic lights, there are better things to do with your time I think.

 

My last 4 cars have been auto, this is my first DSG and I'm very impressed with fuel economy. My petrol Ford Galaxy managed 22 mpg average, my petrol Vauxhall Zafira managed 30 mpg, but my diesel 1.6 Octavia 2 estate is getting over 55 mpg - that's a huge saving in fuel for me of about £125 a month.

 

The only thing I notice that's slightly different to my previous ordinary autos is that it's very slightly hesitant when I set off from stopped - soon get used to it. 

timsharp03  -  "having to hold the car on hills with the handbrake at traffic lights, there are better things to do with your time I think"

 

Many modern cars with manual gearboxes also have a 'hill hold' function, e.g., some BMWs.

I think the key with the DSG is that there is some adapting of driving style to be done.

 

I have learned to anticipate what the box is going to do and I have learned at which speeds it will be in which gear etc. Also knowing at what point on the throttle pedal etc it will change down on.

 

An example was today pulling onto a slip road. It's a long one so wasn't gunning it. It was in 5th gear at just over 30 mph. Instead of just stabbing the throttle and being annoyed with a down change the key is to push gently and it will stay in 5th and then once the speed has increased a little you can put more pressure on the throttle without it changing down.

 

Phil