I recently bought an used Octavia mk2 1.4 TSI, and want to learn what's the best RPM to change gears / keep the engine at. The gear change indicator seems to suggest upshifting very early, sometimes I'm driving at 50 km/h in 3th gear and the indicator says I should change to 5th. I imagine the answer to my question is "it depends", so to narrow it down, these are the factors I care about the most:

1. Health of engine / turbo
2. Fuel economy
3. Power / torque.

 

Should I just listen to the gear change indicator? Or keep in mind something like: Never go below 1000rpm, upshift at 2000rpm.

10 minutes ago, anstj said:

Should I just listen to the gear change indicator?

Absolutely not; it's quite capable of telling you to change up just as you're about to start climbing a steep(er) hill. When accelerating keep up with the traffic: when cruising use the highest gear you can without the engine lugging audibly.

I think you might be overthinking things;  light throttle, no labouring, it will depend on the terrain and your desired acceleration. 

Alright, thanks. The only thing I'm a afraid of is not to make a habit of cruising with too low RPMs, causing harm to the engine without realizing.

The 1.4 TSI has decent torque low down so is quite happy to cruise in a higher gear.

 

My DSG will shift into 6th at around 50kmh.

As above I had the 7 speed dsg which would happily do 30mph in 6th and 40mph in 7th,good economy as well 45plus to a gallon.

1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd I generally change up between 2300 and 2500 rpm. 3rd to 4th more like 2000/2100. Above that depends on traffic, road type, speed limits etc. 30mph/50kph could be 4th, 5th or 6th depending on time of day, traffic, road conditions and so on. Like others said, just don't lug it where it is unresponsive or chuggy.