[nitroburn]

Downshifts are painfully slow. When you're in a traffic situation you need to be able to punch it and have the car move immediately. The DSG is incapable of this. Even a good conventional automatic can kick down fast. The DSG is like waiting for an elevator to come down. Also, for some reason the DSG has almost no engine braking.

I traded in my 07 DSG after 2500 miles for a 6-speed for these reasons.

DSG, great for the drag strip, not so great for commuting.

Isn't that partly why we have paddle shifts? As deviltailedfast pointed out, what you say is partly valid in D, but also only if you don't bother to hit the - paddle to change gear. I don't see the need to goto 6-speed based on that situation as its only change is going to be slower shifting and need to control the clutch.

 

[nitroburn]

Yeah, I wouldn't call D granny unless you have an extreme feather foot. The car will respond differently depending on the level of pressure on the throttle.
I love the way D drives in the city. But to each their own I guess...

I was referring to the paddles. Downshifting is too slow. Waiting for the trans to engage a lower gear. It's ready to engage the next higher gear, and takes too much time to engage a lower gear. God forbid you need to downshift 2 gears quickly.

It is not always ready to engage the higher gear. From what I understand the computer makes an assumption about the direction you need to shift, either up or down. When in 6th it will pre-select 5th. If you are in fifth and accelerating, it should pre-select 6th, if you are slowing down, it should pre-select 4th. It makes a best guess, based on the way you drive.

Also, the downshift even if it preselected 6th should not be much, if any slower then a standard manual gearbox.

Just found better info:
"Downshift is less impressive, because the gearbox need to wait for the throttle blip to match gearbox speed with engine speed. Change down a gear therefore takes 600ms. Changing down a few gears could be more complicated. The most complicated is from 6th to 2nd (both are controlled by the same clutch while the distance between the two gears is the longest). It needs to change to 5th (controlled by another clutch) temporarily before 2nd is selected. This takes 900ms."

I can't actually find any info on manual shifting speed, but I would guess it is not much if any faster.

Also, about.com states for the DSG: "the DSG performs double-clutch downshifts and can skip gears (i.e. downshifting from 6th directly to 4th, 3rd, etc)."

 

[nitroburn]

I have 2 gripes about the DSG:
1. Down-shifting while braking hard causes the car to lurch because the RPM matching doesn't seem to take into account the fact that you're breaking. This makes the car seem unstable, especially if it happens while turning.
2. While accelerating from a stop in D-mode the car seems to think that I want to gun it if I depress the throttle just a little bit more than enough to get it going. The only way to get a smooth shift is to delicately press the throttle but the takeoff is painfully slow. Seems like the throttle response isn't optimized for around the town driving.

#1 I will agree with. I experience this when I drive out of my normal style. Generally only does it if I'm driving like a maniac in S mode.

#2 I don't have that problem, maybe it is a result of the turbo spooling up at a certain point in the RPM range and the way you are using the throttle.

 

[nitroburn]

That's what I heard and I suppose part of the problem is that I'm not the only person who drives the car. :-\

Could be.

If you have access to a VagCom cable you can reset the DSG adaption and have it redo the shift points. (or so i read over at the vortex)

 

[nitroburn]

Yes, downshifts are fast if you are on the throttle before you request the shift and this technique works well if you are not in traffic. However, I spend most of my time in city traffic and most of my downshifts are done with the car in neutral or trailing throttle so most of my downshifts are slow. Barry

Why would you be in neutral on a DSG in the city?