Advanced Driving Hub

We're getting a car with a DSG auto box.

Any hints, tips, thoughts on using it?

[Other than "Just stick it in 'Drive"', which would be my default ]

Stick it in Drive until you get used to the feel, then never ever use Drive again, (except when in slow moving traffic).

Avoid letting it creep against the brake (either be moving fast enough to be feet off, or be stopped).

Otherwise have a play. In "Drive" it's likely to hunt very high gears very quickly. Sport might be better for progressive driving. All depends how the mapping has been done. I have two autos. A french DSG and a german torque converter. The French DSG is mostly driven in manual - auto does the high gear thing too much, while Sports is the opposite (eg under braking it will often try and drop to the lowest gear possible for the road speed, which is often lower than needed/desired). The german car mapping is so good I've barely bothered with the paddles - auto a lot of the time, sports mode where a little more responsiveness is wanted.

Ditto what Jon said. My only other comment would be that the throttle response in my German manufactured auto is quite muted in Drive whereas in Sport it sharpens up dramatically - the difference in mapping is more than noticeable. I tend to use Drive in towns and villages (which also closes the exhaust flaps) and Sport in NSL

jont- wrote:Avoid letting it creep against the brake (either be moving fast enough to be feet off, or be stopped).

One of my pet hates is people sitting in gear, dazzling those behind. I'll either be driving, or not.

jont- wrote:Otherwise have a play. In "Drive" it's likely to hunt very high gears very quickly.

TBH I don't know what mode was selected. Whichever, it never felt 'wrong' and the kickdown worked swiftly.

Horse wrote:We're getting a car with a DSG auto box.

Any hints, tips, thoughts on using it?

[Other than "Just stick it in 'Drive"', which would be my default ]

What make/model is it?

Some have dry clutches, others wet. Whichever you should avoid sitting in gear with the handbrake on (especially dry clutches) and don't let the car crawl along in creep mode for long lengths of time. Better to hold back then drive forward in chunks (if that makes sense).

Around town, "just drive it" and also out on the open road. In the twisties a sport mode may be advantageous. Remember HOW you use the accelerator pedal is as important as how much you press it. YOU really control the gearbox with your right foot. Sure it will have kickdown, but sensitive use of the throttle will affect when it changes up/down. It takes a while to develop that touch, but once you do you won't want to go back to a manual.

Horse wrote:Any hints, tips, thoughts on using it?

Take the opportunity to learn to left foot brake?

GTR1400MAN wrote:YOU really control the gearbox with your right foot. Sure it will have kickdown, but sensitive use of the throttle will affect when it changes up/down. It takes a while to develop that touch, but once you do you won't want to go back to a manual.

Oh no? What about the satisfaction from accurate rev matching, double declutching and or heel and toe? Other things being equal, I get more pleasure from driving cars with a clutch pedal.

In paddle shift cars I rarely use sports modes - if I want to drive in a more energetic fashion I prefer manual. Using the paddles manually, you can use the torque without the gearbox kicking down and you can get a lower gear engaged before a hazard rather than it changing when you start to accelerate. In high torque cars when driving gently I often leave the box in drive. In lower powered cars I have used manual to avoid the choice in auIo between revs so low the engine feels like it's labouring and unnecessarily high revs in sports mode.

My main advice is to investigate how the different modes operate. As a Masters Mentor I find mentees often don't know the functions of the gearboxes in their own cars. How long does it hold a lower gear if you pull a paddle from drive, how do you change backwards and forwards smoothly between auto and manual, as well as how it behaves in the different modes in auto

GTR1400MAN wrote:

Horse wrote:We're getting a car with a DSG auto box.

Any hints, tips, thoughts on using it?

[Other than "Just stick it in 'Drive"', which would be my default ]

What make/model is it?

SEAT Ateca. So the VW group DSG box. That comes in both dry & wet clutch versions. The one I drove would creep when I took my foot off the brake, with no throttle.

Like I said, my normal manual driving style is to apply the parking brake and select neutral.

Remember HOW you use the accelerator pedal is as important as how much you press it. YOU really control the gearbox with your right foot. Sure it will have kickdown, but sensitive use of the throttle will affect when it changes up/down.

Well, Gareth and John taught me better throttle use for corners, so that's what I was doing.

I'll need to play more to see how much road distance / time it takes to change gear and react, to get the car balanced.

Only tried kickdown in a straight line, that was swift. Hopefully it won't be like the VTec VFR800 where the power could change mid-bend!


LOL @ JonT

Horse wrote:Hopefully it won't be like the VTec VFR800 where the power could change mid-bend!

It really doesn't matter with a DCT. The power never drops out. The way the two clutches change/blend the transition from one gear to another means continuous power/drive. Think of a quick shifter on a bike on steroids. It always make me laugh the number of bikers who rave about their QS but turn their nose up at DCT. Yet DCT does it all better!

My new Clio doesn't have a clutch at all.