Manual driver to Automatic DSG

I switched over to DSG when I got my current car in March, sometimes I've been naughty and have to the drive the wife's manual but there's no way I'll be going back for my daily driver.

It's just like driving a big go kart.
 
pc-guy said:
Drove a few different auto gear systems.

DSG - hesitant and not very economical ie shifts a little too late and got the annoying pause or lag when pulling away unless you really step on it a bit. If you got cruise control, it is quite fun watch the car automatically gear up to the speed as fast as it can be.

CVT - on some Mitsubishi Nissan hire cars; they are smooth. Really good power delivery you don’t feel the annoying over rev when cruising. Only issue with CVT is that they are prone to breakdown

Ford Poweshift - had it on a focus for years and it was really really good. Very gusty on pulling away no pause or hesitation. Power delivery is smooth. Also very economical. Manual shifting couldn’t match the economy of the auto shifting.

For me the power shift was the best out of the 3 overall
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Just a shame those power shifts tended to blow up very easy.
 
Stick your left foot under your right leg whilst driving. You'll learn to not need it.

There's really nothing to it tbh. I don't see the point in manuals these days, unless it's a non-daily sports car for fun. But there's no fun being in traffic going from 1st - 2nd -1st - 2nd - 3rd -1st, in the space of 200 yards on a daily commute, that's for sure.
 
Grim5 said:
That pause is so annoying; I know how fast my GTI can pull away, but I have to still wait for a big gap because once when I tried to quickly merge into traffic the gearbox decided to have its pause causing the car to take 1 second longer before going

The pause seems to be worse in sport mode than drive
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Can't that be mapped out?
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
This was the issue for me.

I’m no petrol head but I was certainly a ‘manual is best’ kind of guy. I spent 3 weeks and a few k miles with an automatic and it basically ruined manual gearboxes forever more.

Going back to a manual ‘normal’ car afterwards felt like a complete retrograde step for normal daily driving.
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Yeah especially in traffic, manual is is a chore. When going "for a drive" then manual is great, for everything else, auto please! As long as it's a good auto paired to a decent engine.
 
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My thoughts are similar to others
I would only go back to manual if vehicle choices were limited.
Made the switch to a Diesel Leon Estate with DSG in 2019. Immediately regretted I had not done it sooner. As for the worse economy statement, I saw very little drop off compared with the previous Diesel Leon with the same engine.
I appreciate that was not always the case, and with a long commute, it was actually one of the reasons I did not make the switch sooner.
In 2023, I Changed to a Petrol Ateca with DSG which I also enjoy. There can be a pause at junctions, especially with stop/start, but its easily overcome. Biggest problem with the petrol 1.5 version is 1st gear tends to spin the wheels up at junctions, even on dry roads. The Ateca is not exactly in the "performance" bracket. :p Maybe its just because I have driven Diesels for 20+ years.
I made the change when diesel prices went through the roof. Although my commute is quite mileage friendly, I have no problem getting 40-45 mpg out of the petrol.

My wife was fuming when I bought the DSG. I clearly remember her saying "Well, I will never drive it"....
She took delivery of her car with a DSG box in March this year. :cry:
 
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All of my cars apart from 2 have been manuals.
I had a proper torque converter auto Peugeot 508 GT, and my current car is a Corolla hybrid CVT.

My previous car was a manual GT 86, so going to the Corolla was a massive change. Biggest being no more slides
 
Countcussy said:
My thoughts are similar to others
I would only go back to manual if vehicle choices were limited.
Made the switch to a Diesel Leon Estate with DSG in 2019. Immediately regretted I had not done it sooner. As for the worse economy statement, I saw very little drop off compared with the previous Diesel Leon with the same engine.
I appreciate that was not always the case, and with a long commute, it was actually one of the reasons I did not make the switch sooner.
In 2023, I Changed to a Petrol Ateca with DSG which I also enjoy. There can be a pause at junctions, especially with stop/start, but its easily overcome. Biggest problem with the petrol 1.5 version is 1st gear tends to spin the wheels up at junctions, even on dry roads. The Ateca is not exactly in the "performance" bracket. :p Maybe its just because I have driven Diesels for 20+ years.
I made the change when diesel prices went through the roof. Although my commute is quite mileage friendly, I have no problem getting 40-45 mpg out of the petrol.

My wife was fuming when I bought the DSG. I clearly remember her saying "Well, I will never drive it"....
She took delivery of her car with a DSG box in March this year. :cry:
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I have started turning off stop start on my Ibiza for this reason, because there's no clutch action to kick it back into life I don't want to wait for it to start up and then wait for that little pause while it figures out what's going on as well :o

Although if I give it a good boot from a stop the pause disappears and it just heads for the redline asap, not always suitable though :D
 
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I drive both a manual and a automatic, fiesta is one, my partner's, and my m235i, I have zero issues with driving either.
Auto's don't creep either if they have auto hold.
 
tom_e said:
I have started turning off stop start on my Ibiza for this reason, because there's no clutch action to kick it back into life I don't want to wait for it to start up and then wait for that little pause while it figures out what's going on as well :o

Although if I give it a good boot from a stop the pause disappears and it just heads for the redline asap, not always suitable though :D
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I do not know if this is common knowledge, (It probably is), but moving the steering wheel will also bring the engine back to life. So if the engine has stopped, and a gap approaches, a quick movement on the wheel and then a boot full of throttle gets the job done.
 
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Grim5 said:
That pause is so annoying; I know how fast my GTI can pull away, but I have to still wait for a big gap because once when I tried to quickly merge into traffic the gearbox decided to have its pause causing the car to take 1 second longer before going

The pause seems to be worse in sport mode than drive
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I guess that's why they cheat and do 0-60 times with a one foot rollout lol. Add an extra second for the gearbox to wake up for the real 0-60 time.
 
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The whole pause thing is very odd because I never noticed any such behaviour in my vRS and feedback on it online seems very mixed too.
 
Countcussy said:
I do not know if this is common knowledge, (It probably is), but moving the steering wheel will also bring the engine back to life. So if the engine has stopped, and a gap approaches, a quick movement on the wheel and then a boot full of throttle gets the job done.
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Interesting, I did not know that. Learn something new every day :D
 
Grim5 said:
That pause is so annoying; I know how fast my GTI can pull away, but I have to still wait for a big gap because once when I tried to quickly merge into traffic the gearbox decided to have its pause causing the car to take 1 second longer before going

The pause seems to be worse in sport mode than drive
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I had the exact same problem in my old C300. Great car otherwise, more than enough power when moving, but in any mode other that Sport+ the gearbox was a slow, dim-witted POS which completely ruined how the car drove.
 
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tom_e said:
Interesting, I did not know that. Learn something new every day :D
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You can also slightly release the brake pedal to restart the engine, without completely coming off the brakes. Also if you brake gently enough to a stop without fully depressing the brake, it won't cut the engine in the first place, which I found the easiest thing to do when navigating roundabouts etc.
 
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