"Andy Burns" wrote in message
...
Chris Bartram wrote:

if you have a DSG-equipped VAG car, and it starts refusing to change up
gears

I'm on my second such car, but have not experienced that issue, the reason
for the last one going was that the gearbox was getting "fussy" ...

Do people tend to use DSG-equipped cars in auto or manual mode mainly, I
wonder? I have always found that the big problem with automatics is that
they change down at the wrong time, eg during acceleration, especially when
half-way round a corner or when accelerating out of a roundabout. A
transmission that makes gearchanges more seamless while still allowing the
driver to choose when to change gear (eg during brief gaps in acceleration
when the change is less noticeable) sounds great. I think I'd tend to use it
in automated-manual mode - the best of both worlds - rather than letting the
transmission choose when to change.

Some time I'll have to test drive a VW with DSG and see how easy it is to
drive compared with a) a fully manual gearbox, and b) a
planetary-gear/torque-converter automatic box. At least modern VWs don't
suffer from the problem that (I think) the Mark V Golf TDI had, where the
engine was notoriously easy to stall - rather than being almost stall-proof,
as most diesels are, it seemed to stall even more easily than a petrol. That
Golf is the only car (petrol or diesel) that I have repeatedly stalled when
setting off on a test drive - and the salesman said I was not alone. It's
almost as if the ECU detects that there is insufficient fuel and therefore
insufficient engine torque to be able to accelerate the car so it
deliberately cuts the fuel altogether rather than letting the engine labour
slightly to give the driver chance to increase the throttle a bit. I imagine
that if you drive the car all the time, you soon get used to it, but for
occasional drivers it catches you out.

How easily do people find it is to control the speed accurately at very slow
speed (eg when manoeuvring or when crawling forward in a queue of traffic).
It may be that I've never developed the muscle memory to be able to control
a car's speed solely on the accelerator, when in a manual car I tend to
control the speed also with the clutch, with a more constant engine speed.
For me, the best combination would be a DSG that had a clutch pedal that was
only used for finer control of speed for very slow manoeuvring and which was
not used for gear changes. With a (conventional) automatic, I'm always
scared stiff, especially if the accelerator pedal/linkage sticks slightly as
the car gets older, of the accelerator pedal moving suddenly and the car
surging forwards. When I have driven automatics occasionally (eg as hire
cars on business journeys) I've been very aware of this possibility when
reversing out of a parking space and the need to release the accelerator
and/or touch the footbrake the instant that I detect it happening - a reflex
which I bet elderly drivers who drive into shop fronts haven't got. It's the
only time that I left-foot-brake: as a precaution when inching
forwards/backwards in a car with no manual clutch.