MShields

The beauty of the DSG is it does a better job at economy driving than I could, then when driving 6/10th plus on a winding road manual mode is quite fantastic at keeping pace.

I tried "S" mode, but I see no need to rev the motor that high in road use with the torque of the 2.0T. VR6 might be a different story.

Craig3Q

99% paddles. Use 'D' only when warming up engine. Rarely use 'S'

SpeedTriple

Live in LA, so there's little reason for me to keep the engine in the higher rev range. If anything, I shift to engine brake rather than accelerate (live on a 30 mph hill). Most of the time I just downshift with the paddle, so I rarely touch the shifter (love this feature). Maybe I'm just growing...dare I say it...old.

JimR

D and manual with the paddles when needed is the ticket.

LWNY

..since in regular driving, it is in 6th gear by the time I am around 40mph or so. If I was shifting manually, I would most likely shift at 3k rpm and get worse fuel economy out of it.

"S" must be for sporty drivers who never drove a manual, since they don't know when to downshift, or how to use engine braking in corners.

Zetetic

Smoke, drink your Starbucks or Big Gulp, work the iPod, adjust the stereo, put on makeup (females), answer your cellphone, give rude hand gestures, etc. all while using the DSG manually??? ;-)

JeffreyL

Ditto

dlmil

Manual 95% of the time. Makes me enjoy driving -- isn't that the point? Plus even after 2 year of owning the A3, and even with a 2 liter 4 cylinder, I still can't get enough of the blurp on the downshift, or the sound of the engine around 6000rpm.

Katran

I am here as well

Just Gizmo

Unless the R32's DSG program is different from the A3, the S mode knows exactly when a corner is approaching since you're probably braking right before or letting off the gas, which is when the DSG will downshift.