Driving Tig in Tiptronic mode, what do you think?

[gstrouse]

Many of you may have seen my rants on the poor mpg's that I'm getting with my new 2012 SEL 4Mo. I live in an area with rolling hills. So I have been trying to drive in Tip mode.(had a '99 Passat and '07 Jetta Wolfsburg both with Tip). And what I find is that this tip does not let you do want you want very often. Very different from my previous two vw's with tiptronic. In order to maximize mpg, when I am going down hill, I want to shift into the highest gear as soon as possible. We all know that shifting into neutral on an auto, and then back into drive, is not a good thing to do with an auto. Hense trying to upshift as soon as possible. But this thing will not let me shift into the higher gear unless I'm going a certain speed. Almost just the opposite of what everyone is complaining about when in fully auto. It's frustrating telling the trans to shift up to a higher gear, and it just ignores you. Why even bother having tip if they have taken control out of our hands. I can see up shifting automatically if you hit a certain rpm to protect the engine, but it ends up with engine braking because it won't up shift when I want. Just another rant about this transmission that Motor Trend loved.

[shawng]

In the past few months i have been talking to different people with different brands about this very same issue and no one likes or uses the Tiptronic mode, be it BMW, Porsche, VW, Nissan, and so on. So it's not only VW that has a useless feature. That said, I do find the auto transmission one of the smoothest shifting out there. It's really is a good transmission, if you accept it for what it is. I have driven a whole lot worse.

[VR6Now]

Don't think using the tiptronic is going to buy you anything. The shift program is probably as optimized as you're going to get. If you want to hold a gear longer, the Tip will do that for as will the sport mode.

The biggest variable in mileage besides temperature, average speed, terrain, octane rating, and fuel blend is the driver. I can go over a fixed 40 mi route and get a MFD mileage reading of 22 mpg to 27 mpg. It all depends on how fast I accelerate, how often I coast, and what my top speed is over this route. This is with a summer blend of gas.

The tip won't make much difference.

[hazy450]

I use the trIptronic way more than I ever use the sport mode so I can shift at 5500 instead of letting the ecu shift at 7000. There is no usable power up there with the k03. Dyno proven and 1/4 mile proven.....

[C Jayhawker]

I use and really like the tiptronic. Although with the hilly issues you mentioned I can see your frustration. I think though, that your particular use is different than most. I use it to either accelerate faster, or when I know I have to accelerate ahead, such as on-ramps where I get up to 50 before I need the passing acceleration to finally get around gramps on the highway and before the dick going 90mph in a 65 zone hits my ass.