Drive Mode Selection - peoples thoughts on Sport mode

[TudorM]

Thirdly, I do not believe that Eco mode can ever disengage the drivetrain. It certainly does not (and cannot) on a manual gearbox, and I doubt it does on a DSG either.

 

Actually the DSG in Eco mode does exactly that when coasting (no throttle input). It puts the gearbox in neutral and you have to do a gentle tap on the brakes for it to re-engage. In a manual car it can't since it's... manual.

[andyvee]

Actually the DSG in Eco mode does exactly that when coasting (no throttle input). It puts the gearbox in neutral and you have to do a gentle tap on the brakes for it to re-engage. In a manual car it can't since it's... manual.

Or accelerate again and it re-engages the correct gear for the speed you are now doing (unless you have a vRS and the DSG box gets seriously confused and cant work out what gear to select)

[themanwithnoaim]

Thirdly, I do not believe that Eco mode can ever disengage the drivetrain. It certainly does not (and cannot) on a manual gearbox, and I doubt it does on a DSG either.

It does disengage the drivetrain, on a long downhill section of road to a visible roundabout 1/2 a mile in the distance with traffic on it, I lift off the throtle, pthers in front of me do the same, I catch them up, its the laws of physics, the O3 is coasting unlike anything else I've followed.  I'd question it too but, its been happening every time I coast behind another car which should be off the throtle too, I've had the car three weeks,its more than coincidence.

 

 

I know, the point I was making is this is my daily journey, and I normally use normal mode. In Eco it took significantly longer for the engine to warm up, and after reaching the motorway I did another 12 miles at 70mph.

 

I can't see any benefit for Eco mode, I returned less mpg than I do normally on the same run.

Andy, I don't think Eco will work well for every journey and obviously your work route isn't one it will work for.

 

 

Correct! In gear, no fuel used at all. In neutral, fuel used as at tick over.

Must be less fuel being used at tick over than engine braking removes from distance travelled when freewheelling then, the same way home in traffic everyday from work & I'll avg. 25mpg in Normal or 30 mpg in Eco, as I blast to work not in traffic in sport mode and only get 21-22 mpg, I run home in traffic & Eco.

 

 

Or accelerate again and it re-engages the correct gear for the speed you are now doing (unless you have a vRS and the DSG box gets seriously confused and cant work out what gear to select)

I think its more just the 6sp DSG that have the worst of this problem.

[andyvee]

 

I think its more just the 6sp DSG that have the worst of this problem.

I have 6sp DSG on the CR150 and have never had the problem that the CR184 drivers report. I haven't seen another CR150 report of it not re-engaging gear properly.

[andyvee]

 

Andy, I don't think Eco will work well for every journey and obviously your work route isn't one it will work for.

 

So what is it designed for then? It was city centre driving, plenty of traffic lights, traffic, coasting up to junctions etc.

 

I just can't see what is the best kind of route for Eco, on the motorway it doesn't return any noticeable difference to Normal, and in town it took an age to warm up as it was trying to keep below 2k revs all the time - you only needed 3 gears, 2nd, 4th and 6th as it was changing up through the box that quickly!

[themanwithnoaim]

I have 6sp DSG on the CR150 and have never had the problem that the CR184 drivers report. I haven't seen another CR150 report of it not re-engaging gear properly.

My mistake, I worked from memory. 

 

 

So what is it designed for then? It was city centre driving, plenty of traffic lights, traffic, coasting up to junctions etc.

 

I just can't see what is the best kind of route for Eco, on the motorway it doesn't return any noticeable difference to Normal, and in town it took an age to warm up as it was trying to keep below 2k revs all the time - you only needed 3 gears, 2nd, 4th and 6th as it was changing up through the box that quickly!

My work route is in between your road types, 11.2 miles each way of A & B roads mainly 60 & 70 limits, the petrol doesn't seem to have the warm up delays your experiencing either this morning was 3.5 degrees and water temp was normal in a mile & the oil a mile later, that might be more the difference.  Eco with DSG suits the petrol engines well but, how could Skoda (marketing wise) make it unavailable for the diesels, it'd be a bit of a come down not to mention add to an already complicated build differencs and probably, more parts bin issues.

 

Dunno for sure but the Eco puts about 5 mpg on my style of driving in traffic on reasonable speed roads, as a Postman I travel 5.30am and 1-2pm.

[Rob123]

I cant help but think the Driving Mode Selection also works on a psychological scale as well as on the engine. For, i assume, most people, knowing your in Eco will make you drive more economically subconciously, as being in Sport mode will no doubt make you more willing to use the entire travel on the accelerator.

For people who dont think too much about it, like we clearly do, they may think 'I'm going to have an fuel friendly drive today, put it in Eco and will no doubt get significantly better MPG than the time they do the same trip thinking 'sporty' thoughts, in Sport mode.

The car will, and does, make changes to help with this economic or sporty driving style, and for people unlike us who are happy that the car 'just works' and arnt bothered about how, the driving mode selection probably 'appears' to make a huge difference, making the system a big success for maybe 95% of drivers

Edited 22 March, 2014 by Rob123

[ccosmin]

So, one question in the end, was asked before, here but no answer:

 

If you select a driving move, what happens after you stop/ start he car? It seems to go back to D each time.

 

I'm in sport mode, it shows this in the infotainment and on the maxi dot S. After starting the engine for a new journey, on the maxi dot it said D while on the infotainment it still said Sport.  DO I need to activate this button each time for a new journey? Actually the button is still activated, but sport mode on the gearbox is not :(

 

This is really stupid!

 

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

Edited 30 August, 2017 by ccosmin

[themanwithnoaim]

The car will not start in Sport mode as the higher revs the DSG will cause damage to a cold engine.

[ccosmin]

OK, understandable for sports mode, but what about ECO mode., or individual. Whatever I select, it will always start in D mode, and I have to manually select again my preferred driving mode. It's frustrating.

[Hemulen]

I'd love to have a mode that is sport on everything except the shiftpoints, but sadly the shiftpoints are decided by the same setting that changes the throttle response. The "Linear throttle" VCDS-mod made it a bit better, but I still have moments when I try to accelerate out of a roundabout or corner and nothing happens for a short moment. I know that a pedal box fixes this problem, but why is such a thing needed on all new VAG's to make them driveable? I had an Audi S7 a few years ago and that thing was if possible even slower to react on throttle input then the Octavia in normal driving mode, and sportmode of course made the car cruise along at 3500-4000k rpm. I did also testdrive a few Passats and Golfs before i decided to buy my vRS, and same problem with them.
On the other hand I've also owned some cars outside of VAG lately (Two MB w212's, E220d and E63-AMG and also a Maserati Quattroporte) And none of them had throttle response issues. Sure, there was less pedal movement needed in sportmode, but the response times were instant in all driving modes... It's a shame VAG can't make cars like that anymore  because my 2008 Passat R36 is waaaay quicker to respond than any new VAG I've tried!

[LemonLime]

As someone asked earlier, it would be very interesting and useful to know what actually happens between the modes. I've got mostly motorway-like road on my 30 min commute everyday and tend to stick to Eco. Simply down to the lower throttle response makes me less likely to gun it. But if you really stab it the car wakes up and hauls.

I use Normal as a pre-sport mode when I want more responsiveness. Sport mode is for traffic-light drag racing (chopped a mk3 ST last week :D) and fun weekend drives.

Being the vRS 230, the sport mode really does bring everything to bare, to does make the anti-burnout thing go crazy through gears 1-3 though.

 

Up until this thread I didn't know non-vRS Octavias got a sport mode :P

[ahenners]

35 minutes ago, Hemulen said:

I'd love to have a mode that is sport on everything except the shiftpoints, but sadly the shiftpoints are decided by the same setting that changes the throttle response. 

 

Unless I've misunderstood, this already exists? Put it in sport mode and pull back on the gear lever to switch it back to D mode. Throttle response is good, but no silly redlining every gear when driving steadily.

[ccosmin]

it seems that many wants what I actually consider a problem. Have the gear in S/E saved  as a driving mode, and not re-enabled it every time.

[Ootohere]

There are no higher revs in Sport mode to kill a cold engine than starting a cold engine and revving it higher in 'D',   same thing...

[Hemulen]

On 2017-08-30 at 23:15, ahenners said:

 

Unless I've misunderstood, this already exists? Put it in sport mode and pull back on the gear lever to switch it back to D mode. Throttle response is good, but no silly redlining every gear when driving steadily.

 

Unfortunatly not, pulling it back to D again also puts the throttle back to "normal" since those are linked together. Atleast on my Pre-facelift 2017. 

[Auric Goldfinger]

On 30/08/2017 at 21:50, LemonLime said:

 

Being the vRS 230, the sport mode really does bring everything to bare, to does make the anti-burnout thing go crazy through gears 1-3 though.

 

 

My 230 ( Manual ) must be broken I can't seem to get it out of Sport Mode and the sound in the cabin at full chat in third is rather nice..........

 

 

Edited 2 September, 2017 by Auric Goldfinger

[TDIum]

Driving mode is Sport most of the time but I find uses for all the others. Eco in stop/start traffic queues. Individual setup for use the motorway. I also use Normal sometimes. 

The DSG is between D and M nearly all the time and only in S for brief periods.