Most of my driving is around town with the occasional burst of 40mph limited roads. My DSG rarely stays in E6 for long and never sees E7, in sport mode it is either S4 or S5. If I select the gears manually I can get into M7 at about 43mph which will stay until the speed drops to about 32mph.

 

My question is why doesn't the DSG change up sooner and can it be tweaked to do so?

 

I've also noticed that the 2 cylinder mode is active most of the time during local driving. I thought the car wasn't in 2 cylinder mode often until I realised that it only shows in Maxidot if the Average Consumption window is displayed.

It changes for Economy. most so in 'E', & if you boot it in 'D' it will change as needs must, & in 'S' it will hold longer up the rev range.

All about the Economy, as to tweaking, everything can be tweaked, but best learn all the tricks it has first before voiding a warranty.

Even in E I think it sometimes holds the gears still. I tend to manual shift mine most of the time. 

 

Yes it can be tweaked, but you'll need a TCU remap and one written for economy.

I won't be tweaking any performance settings this side of my 5 year warranty.

Not sure about the petrol but in the diesel with economy or normal mode, it gets up the gears fairly quickly and will change to E7 or D7 as soon as 42mph. I am sure your dsg will be making good use of the gears based on what mode you are in and how you are driving, could it also be that when the car is in 2 cylinder mode that being in E7 to soon would actually be less economical, a bit like when an engine is labouring and you would be better to dropping down a gear, I think that is why many dsg models are more economical than the manual versions, as the dsg knows what is the best gear to be in for best economy or to give more torque for heavy acceleration.

What do you mean by "2 cylinder mode"

I didn't know the Octavia's (or any VAG to be honest) had engine cylinder management, for shutting down cylinders for economy?

4 hours ago, spinifex said:

What do you mean by "2 cylinder mode"

I didn't know the Octavia's (or any VAG to be honest) had engine cylinder management, for shutting down cylinders for economy?

Latest 1.5 does.

Don't forget that the Highest gear isn't always the most economical for the speed that you are driving. It may well be that the DSG Programming is selecting the most economical gear for the speed / revs / engine load. Also with cylinder deactivation it may be more economical to run the engine at higher revs and in two cylinder mode than at lower revs and in 4 cylinder mode. 

10 hours ago, spinifex said:

What do you mean by "2 cylinder mode"

I didn't know the Octavia's (or any VAG to be honest) had engine cylinder management, for shutting down cylinders for economy?

As mentioned above the new 1.5tsi has it though ACT was first put on some variants of the 4 cylinder 1.4tsi. Only Skoda fitted with the 1.4ACT was the Superb.

It was fitted to other VW group vehicles though.