It’s pretty much a round 100 mile trip home, mix of: motorway, dual carriage way, A and B roads. Here’s my initial feedback. The whole of the shifting setup – up shifts/down shifts/ shift timing and smoothness of shifts, is much more how it should be with a DSG.
So what does that actually mean, and what can you observe….it holds on to gears rather than constantly trying to select the highest gear. At 50mph previously it would have chugged along in D7, and then if you want to accelerate it would drop down to D5 with a significant lag, and then eventually pick up. It now sits in D6, with only the one downshift plus the engine is already sitting a couple of hundred rpm higher, so with just the one downshift and the higher rpm it picks up much better. Similar on deceleration, whereas the standard s/w tries to hold the gear too long, the TVS is more dynamic and making shifts that seem to match the speed and engine load. Combine that with what feels like a smoother shift operation, it’s much more ‘driveable’ and pleasant to drive, which is exactly how they market it.
My biggest bug bear with the standard set up was always mini roundabouts, it always felt unpredictable, sometimes if would downshift, sometimes not – with very little speed variation. So coming out of a roundabout you always sat in the wrong gear and would then give a ‘clunk’ on the double (and sometimes treble) downshift. Now downshifts are smoother as you decelerate, and on the 5 or 6 that I negotiated on the way home, it had the right gear selected for exit. Only once did it downshift one gear, but no clunk and was very smooth and predictable.
I normally sit in Drive for everything, I tried Sport for a few miles and its more of the same. Probably shifts at lower RPM than standard Sport mode, but super smooth shifts up and down through the gears. No noticeable difference in MPG.
For me on this trip I’m happy with the way that the TVS s/w works and think that it’s an upgrade worth doing. Since I had the Stage 1 Revo done, I have felt that the engine and gearbox weren’t in sync, due to the poor shift decisions from the standard DSG s/w. The TVS has changed this as well as the smoothness of the shifts themselves.
If you aren’t particular about the way that the standard DSG setup shifts now, then you might not notice it so much, but if you have owned other VAG DSGs and feel that the T6 set up isn’t quite right, then get it on your upgrade list.
Oli's team
@BognorMotors did a grand job, I had the Cambelt and Waterpump done as well, plus Inspection Service so it was an expensive couple of days holiday in Bognor for my van. But it's really nice getting back in your own vehicle after an upgrade and you can feel that something is noticeable different.
