Quote:
Originally Posted by nachob
: ). This is funny.
I bought the first dct on the market in the wife's GTi!
This was even before Porsche and BMW offered it. So I feel pretty confident that it was before you even tried one. Since it seems like you prefer the finer things so you wouldn't find yourself slumming in a VW.
I was excited about it as an alternative to the
Slush box and paid my hard earned money for it. It was ok then and I gave it a try. It's been almost 8 years now so I feel confident enough now to know I still prefer a manual. Even funnier my wife drove my zhp recently and commented that she gets it now why I still prefer MT.
The finer things for me and about 10 other guys in the world is feeling connected and doing something different. Everything is cushy electronic now and I want something different. And yes I drink black coffee not triple espresso machiattos.
I also do other quaint old school things like rotate my own tires and work on my cars for fun! Imagine that!
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I had a DSG GTI as well
Mine was a 2006 MkV 2-door with the first 2.0T. Absolutely fantastic little car. I still miss it sometimes.
I've owned a ton (six) of manual cars. The DSG GTI was the only other automatic I've owned, and I can tell you that I
much prefer the DCT to DSG. DSG is wired up like an automatic. You put the car in D and go. BMW's DCT is a little different in a couple of important ways:
1) The gear-shifter isn't a traditional automatic slider. It's not even the traditional BMW auto-selector. It's a four way, with very tight feel, and great ergonomics. It feels great when you use it to shift gears. It feels so great I find myself using it more than I do the paddles. Why? Same reason you (and I) prefer a manual; because of the extra engagement I feel when doing so.
2) DCT defaults to manual. When you slap the gear selector to the right, you're in manual mode by default. My car was coded by the previous owner, so maybe this isn't the default, but I absolutely love it. Defaulting to manual mode means that the car feels like it's a manual, but with the option to drive auto. I have to go through extra effort to be lazy.
3) DCT does a great job skipping gears. This was impossible with the DSG, and it's another huge difference. For example, if I slap three quick downshifts, the car goes from 7 to 4. It might be hitting the gears in between, but I can't feel them. I hated the sequential nature of DSG. It was one of the biggest reasons I drove it in D most of the time.
4) DCT has five shift programs. I can't stress how important this is. I was generally very pleased with the DSG transmission in my VW, but I found myself using it in auto mode more often than not because there was only one manual shift program. I can change DCT to shift any way I want. I alternate between S3 and S4 programs. When I really want to have some fun, my M-Drive button is programmed to S5.
The difference in all these programs is really significant. It's not just how fast it shifts. For example, in S3, downshifts don't blip if you're below a certain RPM. They downshift lazily like you would in a manual. Bump it up to S4, and you get nice blips on downshifts, but the shift speed isn't so harsh that it makes you cringe with each shift.
All of these factors add up to a lot of engagement. It's engagement of a different type, but as someone who was a die-hard manual addict, I've been really impressed with the DCT in my M3. I'm not sure I'd spec it on my next car, but I don't shit on it like I used to. I can understand why someone would choose it.