Just got my 2005 A6 3.2 about 3 weeks ago. Love the car, unbelievable engineering. However, it feels like you have to push the accelerator through the firewall before the car responds, and even then, I need to have just the right pressure or get whiplash. Is this common? Is there a fix for it? Dealer says there's no problem, and said I had all the latest software. Thoughts?

In the late 70's Audi (but not ONLY Audi) developed a system that worked with the then current manual transmission cars that provided the driver with "shift suggestions" that were intended to improve gas mileage. Audi brought these cars to the US starting, as I recall, in 1980.

Cars so designated -- again NOT limited to Audi -- typically had an "E" emblem on their rear deck lids.

The system apparently worked but if you were one of the folks who had -- as did I -- an Audi 4000S "E" you found it often incredibly frustrating to drive since the "up arrow" (a bright yellow indicator about the size of a first-class postage stamp) seemed to always be indicating you were in a gear too-low for maximum fuel economy.

In first gear, from a dead-stop, for instance, the instant you would let the clutch out(and by the time the wheels had made one full revolution) the yellow "up arrow" would come on indicating "NOW" shift to second gear.

The results were RPM's that, to my way of thinking, were just above the threshold of "lugging" the engine. Then, from the moment you made it into second gear, or so it seemed, the "up arrow" would again come on and command you to go to third gear.

Fourth gear was overdriven -- and, I swear, you would be in fourth gear in the then equivalent Audi A4 (called in the US a 4000 and elsewhere an 80) before you got out of your driveway or subdivision at the very latest.

The cars, so driven, always felt as if you were driving a time-delay machine if you even attempted to follow the guidelines of the "up arrow." You would be driving along in a car that had under 100HP in third gear and if you were disobediant enough to ignore the instructions to shift up and pressed further on the accelerator, the engine would indeed lug (or pre lug) unless you downshifted. If you did not down shift, well you can imagine what happened -- a slight, slow, response to your right foot -- the RPM's climbed slightly. The speed, same day, would increase.

Well this was terrifically unpopular as you can imagine -- but if you followed these guidelines as dictated by the "up arrow" the car would achieve greater gas mileage.

Now comes the newer generations of automatics then finally, mercifully?, tiptronic, then tiptronic with the "manual shift gate."

Again, the programmers under strict instructions one can imagine, made the new tips upshift early and downshift late (late, relative to what most drivers would do that wanted to keep some semblance of remaining in the power band of the engine.)

These tiptronics, steptronics and fill-in-the-blank tronics, are very reluctant to be in first gear particularly. They are hell-bent to upshift a few hundred RPM below what some of us feel is "where we ought to shift" either by sound, feel, tach needle's indication or experience.

Conversely, as one slows down, the higher gears are retained too long (too long for ME) and then when modest acceleration is required, and a slight press of the accelerator pedal is made, the car, one gear too high remember, is NOT at sufficient RPM's to accelerate "modestly or moderately" -- then, the hapless driver pressed a micron or two further on the accelerator and then the electronic brain says "wake up, he's serious about this acceleration thing" and downshifts one or two gears which when coulpled with the pressure you have just applied with your right foot, causes a rapid rise in RPM and a lunge or lurch forward depending on how close to a rolling stop you had actually come.

The only way to overcome this partially is to drive in "S" mode, buy an S4, S6, or S8 with the automatic (which seems, in these versions to have a different program for the transmissions) or get a proper manual transmission in the first place.

Oh, never mind, Audi doesn't permit this, for it has joined the ever growing crowd of manufacturers that have seen (or created) the market for manual equipped performance and lux performance cars dwindle.

If you want control and a normal feel (normal IS subjective) only the BMW 5xi's are alternatives to Audi, Mercedes and some Japanese Lux Performance Sedans -- for at this point ONLY BMW offers their AWD variants with manual transmissions.

Me, I am hoping for a 7 speed DSG from Audi across the board, since I realize the dearth of manual transmissions will only worsen.

Keep the damn thing in "S" mode especially around town, adapt your own habits -- i.e., allow the transmission to train you -- or shut up.

It is the way it is.

I don't like it either.

But I do love my A6 3.2 otherwise.

Here in Cincinnati, home of the largest BMW dealer in the state, you can't even test drive a BMW 530xi with a stick -- BUT you can order one if you want.

Drive it like you live.

Dammit!

Our cars have been programmed not to accelerate quickly for the first 5,000 miles. At 10,000 the engine seems to open up even more.

As far as tip lag goes, some have it while others don't. Some have jerky brakes while others don't. Fortunately my car has been free of these two things, but Audi needs to address these two issues for those who do.

I agree with you that at about 5,000 and 10,000 miles the Audi engines seem to have "one of the stops removed" and the car performs better both in go and in guzzle.

Of course there are truths and there are truths, but my dealer swears there is no literal programming that makes this "upgrade" happen.

Heck, stuff is undocumented, so I would not be shocked to find this was a hidden truth. Where did you get the info out of curiosity.

All "normal" tiptronics behave as I have described -- some don't perceive it as a lag.

Some folks do come to a full stop and the car does shift to first gear when this happens and the appearance of a delay is virtually if not literally abolished.

In "S" mode the banishment of the early upshift and delayed downshift is accentuated. The S cars, (not SLINE) too, seem to have a transmission programming map that upshifts a tad later and downshifts similarly earlier.

If you do not notice tip lag or "doin' what it is supposed to do" -- well, it may be that you have been programmed, you have been trained by the tiptronic programmers to act, react and proact according to what you know and how you know the transmission will uderstand.

Of course the transmission does learn from you as well -- but left to its own devices in "D" the current 6 speed tip as deployed in the A4 and A6 (and A8) 3.2 and 4.2 (not S6, not S4 or RS andything) is wont to upshift (for my tastes) early and delay the downshift especially at speeds below 20kph.

I would be damn glad if the downshifts happened earlier and just leave the upshifts the hell alone in "D" mode.

For, as I have said, there is always "S" mode.
BTW, tip has trained me -- or at least I know when it is going to "lag" and I compensate for it in advance either by a quick tap on the stick or coming to a full, not rolling stop at a deserted 4way stop even when the common practice would be to come to "almost" a full stop.

Mine stays in second gear almost literally unless I get the wheels to stop turning.

This car can creep in second gear better than any I have ever had (but truth be told, I have had almost only all Audis and almost all stick shifts, so my truth is relative.)

I have 30k+ and I no longer notice the early upshifts. The tranny is "adaptive" and 1st is always available, even in Drive. When in Tip, you learn to anticipate when to up or down shift due to the normal tranny lag. I also have a new A4 that my wife drives and my foot has certainly not adapted to the early shifts when in Drive. Again, Sport is the way to go until you and the tranny and you adapt to each other. It will finally be a good marriage.

DSG is the ultimate answer. The A3 shifts magnificantly!

I've complained about this exact same problem. However, there seems to be two different topics listed in these posts.

First of all, I've had my car for 3,700 miles now, and I do agree that the transmission seems to be shifting better than when brand new(holds gear longer during upshifts, downshifts more readily). Posts have suggested driving in "S", which obviously helps in regards to the "upshift happy" transmission. However, here is where I think the true problem lies: After I come to a complete stop and the car is in 1st gear, I touch the accelerator to go and there is a very annoying lag before the car takes off. Of course my dealer says this is normal.

I start getting used to it until I get in my wife's '06 Accord V6 and am amazed at how smooth the takeoffs are on her car. You touch the accelerator, and the car instantly goes. Is this too much to ask for in a German luxury car?

It seems as though not everyone has this problem, but it sure sounds like some do. If anyone gets through to their dealer and gets some results, please let me know. I love my Audi except for this very annoying trait.

Volvo S80 T6. Real touchy, and would jump when you touched the accelerator. But this seems responsively slow even compared to the wife's suburban.

It's based on the 17,000 miles I've driven with my 3.2. I think you and many others have felt the same thing. I remember being quite upset when I first got my car. Accelerating onto highways was extremely disappointing if not downright dangerous. I even contemplated getting rid of my car in the beginning. After the initial break in I remember trying to get the engine to rev at 4 or 5000 RPM and it refused to get there unless I forced the issue. At 5,000 miles on the odometer I felt the car start to come alive and at 10,000 even more. I'm going to assume they must have programmed the car that way :)

Back to tip lag. I've had it in my last two Audi's and this one definitely does not have it. Mark, I'm not the lone ranger out there who doesn't have tip lag. There are others who will agree with me on this. Why do some have it and others don't? I really think Audi needs to address this issue. Same thing with jerky brakes. I haven't heard you complain about it while others do. My brakes are fine, in fact at 17,000 miles they feel even better. They are in fact the best brakes I ever had.

Did you say that I'm trained? Trained I am but only by my wife - at least that's what she thinks;-)

My brakes are great. I am trained both by my wife and by my Audi.

The lag for me due to S mode is an issue on a scale of one to ten of about an eleven at this point.

It (the tip) now acts and reacts just about like every other recent vintage auto I have driven from several mfgs, Cadillac, BMW, Infiniti, Chrysler. There is some "slight" delay that I have always attributed since my first automatic a 1963 Chrysler Newport with TorqueFlite 3 speed automatic to be the delay that is inevitable in a fluid transmission.

I do not doubt anything (well, virtually anything) that is said by anyone here on AW.

My 1997 A8 had a 5 speed non-tiptronic transmission (the only year this dubious transmission was offered.) It had some serious lag, but it too, trained me.

If I forget and leave the car in "D" and come to the end of an exit ramp that has a light that is red, and before I come to a full stop the light turns green, the A6 is often still in 3rd or 2nd gear and when I need the power to reaccelerate the car pauses, downshifts then lurches ahead due in no small measure to the fact that when the pause, ever so slight it may be, happens, I press down a bit further which with the gear change exacerbates the situation and the rush or lurch or lunge happens.

If you have ZERO, ZIP, Nadda such things happening to your C6, color me slightly envious.

It is, regardless of how slight it is, there for me and I assumed there to some degree in them all as a "nature of the beast."