HotRodW

Hello, all. I'm pondering an A6 allroad, and I'm pretty stoked about everything except the lower touchscreen and the 7-speed DSG. Although a poor substitute for physical buttons, I think I can live with the touchscreen. I really wish Audi would have offered the wonderful ZF 8-speed, however. I've sampled the DSG/2.0T combo on several occasions, and I've found it both impressive and disappointing. The responsiveness is exceptional when driven hard, but the lumpiness and inconsistency in low-speed/stop-and-go situations is frustrating. I have not yet driven the A6 allroad because there just aren't any to sample, but I thought I'd get some feedback from owners while I wait for the opportunity to kick the tires myself. So what are your honest thoughts on the allroad's gearbox?

John Simcox

Suggest you go and drive a 55TFSi, it is the same V6 engine/transmission as in the AllRoad

superswiss

I've had a 2022 A6 V6 TDI rental in Europe last summer. The DSG shifted like a torque converter automatic. Too much so for me. It shifted like a grandma. Comfortable, but not my cup of tea. I'm used to performance cars and what you describe as lumpiness and inconsistencies is what makes these transmissions lively and interesting. I can understand that for an A6 it's not particularly desired, but I don't think you have to worry. If I didn't know this A6 had a DSG I would have thought it was a torque converter automatic. But yes, best to drive one yourself.

HotRodW

Also surprisingly hard to find nearby. There is one preowned in the vicinity but I haven't been able to schedule a test drive. Hopefully it'll happen eventually, but I'd still like to hear feedback from owners. A 20-minute test drive is no substitute for thousands of miles of real-world ownership.

Dan99

I have had both the DSG and the ZF. I prefer the immediacy of the DSG over the ZF, but the ZF provides more of a typical automatic transmission experience. So, it depends on what you like.

The DSG is not an automatic transmission, it is a manual transmission that shifts by itself without a clutch pedal. It always has two gears engaged and shifts by opening one clutch and closing the other while also rev-matching. Because it has clutches instead of a torque converter, you will have a better experience if you drive it like a manual transmission. For example, while stopped, apply slight pressure to the gas pedal until you feel the clutch engage, then accelerate. If you don't do this and just step on the gas, the engine rpms will increase, then the clutch will engage, and it's a bit like dumping the clutch.

The advantage of the DSG is that it provides a more direct link between the engine and the rest of the drive train. For example, you can poke the gas pedal and get an immediate reaction. The ZF, on the other hand, has to build pressure in the torque converter before the drive train responds. So, again, this boils down to personal preference. The DSG can be a very good transmission, but it is not an automatic and it won't behave in exactly the same way.

veloAR

I, too, would prefer the ZF, but alas, Audi has decided that the DSG is what we get. I struggled with it in my A4 allroad, but you do adapt eventually. It remains quite clumsy in normal, soft driving unless you temper your inputs at initial roll in. You can partly account for this by putting the trans in sport. I found that leaving in sport for most city and local driving helped quite a bit, and then putting it back into normal on freeways and while steady cruising was the way to go. Have only had the A6 allroad for a couple weeks but I am finding the same to be true with this one. It is quite responsive when accelerating hard, but does require that you adjust your driving style for normal driving.

As for the touchscreen, I am not a fan, but again, that decision has been made for us already (wonder who the research sample group for that one was?). I am hoping I adapt

superswiss

I do wanna point out that the programming of the DSG varies widely across models. The one in the A6 is the softest implementation yet that I've driven in an Audi. As I said above, it can easily be mistaken for a torque converter automatic. There is still the fact that the coupling element is a clutch and the idiosyncrasies of a dual clutch are still there, though. For example if you catch the transmission having pre-selected the gear it thinks you gonna need next, but then you stomp on the throttle or do something else that requires a completely different gear, then it will trip over itself. Dual clutch transmissions are very good when shifting sequentially, but the moment they have to shift out of sequence it gets clunky.

I would agree that the experience is best if you are aware that under the covers it is essentially two manual transmissions with a computer controlled clutch and you drive it accordingly then it is a great transmission. However, once more, the implementation in the A6 is very sluggish. Manual mode was very disappointing as the shifts were very slow. Not what I'm used to from a DCT at all.

With a V6 it's also different because there is more torque down low. The 2.0T/DSG combo isn't very good, because the engine is a dog down low. The best thing about the A6 TDI I drove was the low end torque. The transmission rarely had to hunt for a lower gear in normal driving, because the engine made plenty of torque to get moving. With the 2.0T it constantly has to hunt for a lower gear to get moving. The V6 TFSI isn't as torquey as the V6 TDI, so keep that in mind.

Jonathan S.

That was exactly one of my top concerns after reading about it in some reviews.
Fortunately my short test drive was dominated by exactly that kind of driving given the urban location of the dealer (while visiting a friend in NYC).
And I didn't notice it all -- seemed totally smooth to me.

Now with almost 16k miles, fortunately I do relatively little city driving, but still, I just don't feel that is a problem.
By contrast, reading some of the technical explanations here of the DSG and how it can sometimes do strange things, that does explain how sometimes I feel the transmission has done something ... strange.
But it's just a fleeting thought of, huh, what was that?

As for the lower touch screen, I too wish for more physical buttons, but alas that criterion would drastically reduce the available model selection ... at any price point, and for any type of car.
So I just capitulated.
That said, given the various configurations of the lower screen, it is capable of providing a lot of different information and taking a lot of different inputs. The free form handwriting mode is especially cool! (Even if I don't use it often.)

Turboale

The dsg programming is my least favorite aspect of the car. I much preferred the tuning in my A4 AR. It seemed more eager to engauge. A big part might be that I had a way to defeat the *** in the B9. It just seems to me they tuned out all the benefits of the dsg to make it "smooth" and like a wet clutch... Without the benefits of the smooth stop and go. I will be first in line the minute someone offers a dsg tune on these things should that ever come available.

Having said that, for normal commute driving it works fine. Nothing I wouldn't buy another car for. Way too many plusses to outshine the tepid trans tune.

Don't fret about the screen... You will forget about it after a couple weeks. Do I need to look where the garage door button is? Yeah, but it also prompts me on the big screen when I get close so... Not really an issue. Other than that I only use it for occasional radio presets.