DSG shifting and being a noob

I know I know I'm one of those dudes that never learned to drive a proper manual cept for those rare high school DD nights where I drove a friends car.

Anyway I got a 2011 DSG GTI loving this thing and the auto let's the wife drive it with ease too. Lately when driving solo I've been pitting it in manual mode by popping the shifter to the right and using the paddles and or the stick to shiv up and down when it matched what it was doing in full auto.

I'm wondering however if there are good shiftpoins for shiftiNg up and shifting down. I'm getting decent at upshifting but downshifting I usually shift down too early and it revs high and does the slow down. Is that normal and or good or bad ( I don't know).

Lastly I've seen some people posting about sport mode and d mode is this the same as auto to manual? Also if people could fill me in on what a kick down button is and why and how I would use it that would be awesome

I understand I should prolly read the manual more and see what it says but honestly I know the people on this forum are a great resource and are super nice to boot

Any help / advice would be awesome

Cheers

Well im a manual trans driver so i think i can help u out....
You said when u downshift it revs loud and slows. Yeah it should do that, thats called an engine break allowing you not to use the break as much when slowing down or it could be used to be more accesible to those higher rpms in the lower gears which have some nice immediate torque.

You shift up at redline or even past it a tad if you are really hammering on the throttle, but when you are driver conservatively you can shift earlier, maybe a round 3-4000rpm. If you want more power you'll find it in lower gears like 2 and 3 on city roads, and 4 if you are on the highway. When you are cruising you should be in 5 or 6.

If you really dont wanna be thinking about all that, just shift when the engine "feels" like its ready to shift. I dont know how else to explain it. But really just keep practicing and itll come to you quick.
Hoped that help man :thumbsup:

Haha noob. Good choice on the ride.

Shift points are relevant to throttle position, speed... Maybe some has a better answer... But are you talking about while wot? (wide open throttle), or for best milage?

Sport mode is fun... The computer will keep revs up, shift up later... Just throw it in S mode and check it out!

The kickdown switch is a button under your gas pedal. If you needed to pass someone for example... You could floor it and if you push a little further on the pedal, you hit the button and the trans downshifts.

Everything else, RTFM!
B.

I drive manual also (personally the only way to drive a car, but not starting on of the manual vs. dsg thing) but maybe this could help you when downshifting: I was taught as a rule of thumb when I first drove manual, that when you're in the 20's shift down to 2, 30's to 3, 40's to 4, and so on and so forth. Eventually you figure out that the say the lower 20's are better for 2nd but once I get passed 25 or so, I usually would downshift to 3rd because it's easier and not as rough. You can totally disregard whatever I just said or maybe use it to help yourself learn the mechanics of driving.

I never knew there's a "kickdown switch".... so that's what that empty space is even after I floor it down all the way. So the kickdown switch is equivalent to pressing downshift on the paddles?

dragon529 said:

I never knew there's a "kickdown switch".... so that's what that empty space is even after I floor it down all the way. So the kickdown switch is equivalent to pressing downshift on the paddles?

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Not sure but I noticed that there was a button underneath the pedal in my old Saab 9-2x aero, but I always thought it was overdrive or something like that

Yea when you kickdown it downshifts

Thanks for the tips.

So is sport mode the same as putting it into manual by moving the stick to the right?

citrin1893 said:

Not sure but I noticed that there was a button underneath the pedal in my old Saab 9-2x aero, but I always thought it was overdrive or something like that

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It definitely isn't overdrive. For some reason, a lot of people think overdrive is like the NOS button for your car. It is quite the opposite. Overdrive decreases torque and increases fuel economy and is meant for long range cruising.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrive_(mechanics)

dragon529 said:

So the kickdown switch is equivalent to pressing downshift on the paddles?

Click to expand...

09vdubgti said:

Yea when you kickdown it downshifts

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Yes and no. Kickdown switch does not equal downshifting as with the paddles. By this I mean kicking down 3 times does not give you 3 downshifts. The kickdown switch is basically a "Yes, I'm sure I want to go fast right now". Typically, the quickest way to do that is to downshift. However, if your engine is already near redline, I doubt it will downshift. The kickdown switch basically ensures you are going as fast as possible at that moment.