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Friend of mine just drove the GTI with DSG and here is what he wrote me:
"The DSG...
It's brilliant, it shifts seamlessly, by far the best AT I've ever driven. BMW wishes their SMG was this good. Not one hint of bucking or downtime, you don't even realize it's shifting unless you're really getting on it. Even when you're hammering on the throttle you have to pay attention to realize you just went up a gear. No early shifts here either, the car fully utilizes its powerband. In sport mode using the paddles, it's just as smooth and won't try to dictate what RPMs you're in, even allowing you to go past the redline before it shifts for you. Like I said, it's brilliantly executed, I however still felt detached. I felt like I was playing a videogame rather than driving a car, the smoothness with which it carried out my little clicks of the paddles enhanced that feeling. In fact the car is so good in auto mode I don't even see the point of the paddles.
If I owned this car I'd play with the paddles for the first week or two and probably never use them again unless I did a track day. Even then the benefits of the paddles would be minimal, and I'd question my own sanity for buying an auto if I intended to do track days.
On a side note, the shifts are so quick and seamless the DSG did feel faster than the MT. A very well driven MT would still be a tick faster in my mind, but not consistently so. Average 10 1/4 mile times between the two cars and the DSG will come out the victor. Both cars also had some wheel spin when getting on it in low gears, but no typical torque steer or wheel hop."
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Kurt V
No more Porsches, but a revolving number of motorcycles.
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