People pulling away slowly

[Brannen]

Just a bit of a moan... I don't expect emergency starts away from lights or at a roundabout (however, I'd appreciate that more), but the amount of people I seemingly get stuck behind crawling away from a standstill is really annoying me.

[Beany]

I'm still getting used to auto boxes. Pulling away from lights:

EcoPro: anything up to about half throttle, you crawl away like an old granny. A smidgen more than that and it seems to swap maps and locks up the torque converter quite a bit more and sends you up the road in a really rather annoying and unpredictable manner, often dropping back into first to make it extra clunky.

Comfort: As above, but less aggressive change between crawl away and shoot away, at more like 25% throttle. Less likely to drop a gear once you're rolling though.

Sport: Actually predictable and fine as it holds gears longer and seems to have a pretty decent lockup/slip ratio.

Sport+: Actually OK, but the throttle map is quite aggressive early in the travel making it harder to modulate at low speeds.

I approach most junctions/roundabouts in Sport these days. I think I'm just still not quite used to not having a clutch pedal for such things but I imagine I'll get used to it some day.

[mik]

I get really annoyed at drivers that aren't ready to go as soon as the lights change - ones that dither for a few seconds before they pull away. Mrs mik isn't interested, but I keep drumming into my eldest that his focus at traffic lights should not be on "his" lights - he should be locating the one that is currently green and getting himself ready to pull away once it's status changes.... (potentially - depends on phasing of course - in which case you try to locate and monitor whatever light has now become green, and relax until it's status changes etc)

I'm also finding myself increasingly annoyed by shit road positioning. The number of people who correctly position themselves when turning right at junctions for example - and therefore provide room for cars behind turning left to do so without waiting for them to move - seems to be constantly diminishing.

Actually these are related as they both cause a significant detrimental impact on the flow of traffic. And the perpetrators are invariably completely oblivious that they are causing it. And are TAUCs.

[V8Granite]

I'm still getting used to auto boxes. Pulling away from lights:

EcoPro: anything up to about half throttle, you crawl away like an old granny. A smidgen more than that and it seems to swap maps and locks up the torque converter quite a bit more and sends you up the road in a really rather annoying and unpredictable manner, often dropping back into first to make it extra clunky.

Comfort: As above, but less aggressive change between crawl away and shoot away, at more like 25% throttle. Less likely to drop a gear once you're rolling though.

Sport: Actually predictable and fine as it holds gears longer and seems to have a pretty decent lockup/slip ratio.

Sport+: Actually OK, but the throttle map is quite aggressive early in the travel making it harder to modulate at low speeds.

I approach most junctions/roundabouts in Sport these days. I think I'm just still not quite used to not having a clutch pedal for such things but I imagine I'll get used to it some day.

Yeah, best to not overthink it .

Dave!

[Beany]

I fucking overthink it when I pull into a roundabout in Eco mode and the bastard thing sluuuurrrss the lockup in, then when I give it more, it tries to sling me across the roundabout like a rubber band was attached to the car in front

[duncs500]

The combination of dsg and stop/start on the Skoda is pretty horrid for this. You'll have a situation where the stop/start will kick in and then someone flashes you out or you have an opportunity to go, and it takes an age to start and get moving again.

I try to drive around it, but the start stop sometimes kicks in immediately, sometimes after a delay, and sometimes not at all. There is a button you can press to disable it which makes life easier but you just don't remember to do it on every journey. Mind you, even if stop start is disabled and you're creeping it still does react that quickly.

[Swervin_Mervin]

The combination of dsg and stop/start on the Skoda is pretty horrid for this. You'll have a situation where the stop/start will kick in and then someone flashes you out or you have an opportunity to go, and it takes an age to start and get moving again.

I try to drive around it, but the start stop sometimes kicks in immediately, sometimes after a delay, and sometimes not at all. There is a button you can press to disable it which makes life easier but you just don't remember to do it on every journey. Mind you, even if stop start is disabled and you're creeping it still does react that quickly.

This is a VAG thing. And it is IMMENSELY annoying. Only way around it seems to be sport mode and stop/start off. See also when you approach an incline at say 30mph and it thinks it's fine to stay in 5th or something ridiculous, before it eventually realises it's closing in on stalling speed and drops 2 cogs and off you fly like a total dickhead.

At junctions though it's just downright dangerous and seems to be a function of it wanting to set off in 2nd. Even in the Superb with the 272 and all its torque it just doesn't work when you want to go for a gap.

[IanF]

I always pull out quickly

[240PP]

The 7 speed auto in my 2019 A5 is worse than the one in my 2012 A5 in every aspect.

Pulling out of a junction is dangerous, kickdown takes way too long and the changes are more noticeable in general.

[Rich B]

Just a bit of a moan... I don't expect emergency starts away from lights or at a roundabout (however, I'd appreciate that more), but the amount of people I seemingly get stuck behind crawling away from a standstill is really annoying me.

double when they’ve gone into the right hand of two lanes.

[Matty]

The combination of dsg and stop/start on the Skoda is pretty horrid for this. You'll have a situation where the stop/start will kick in and then someone flashes you out or you have an opportunity to go, and it takes an age to start and get moving again.

I assumed everyone just turned off Stop/Start the instant they got in the car.

I've had it hard-coded off in the Up, and recently discovered a £20 cable for the Giulia to disable it as well. It's a fucking nuisance.

[Jobbo]

Start-stop must have been a thing in cars for the best part of 2 decades now - surely people are used to it? I hate feeling like I'm using fuel simply sat waiting.

[Rich B]

it works fine on my M2 - it starts the engine so quickly it is no issue whatsoever. it’s a bit slow on the 320d though and can sometimes be a little annoying. both are manual though, so it uses the clutch pedal to give it a few milliseconds to react before you need the power. i imagine any delay is pretty annoying on an auto.

[Beany]

Stop Start on the M135i (auto) is actually fine - by the time you've taken your foot off the brake, the engines already spun up and ready to go when you get your foot on the gas, and the auto-hold, er, holds the car till you give it a poke.

I was expecting to hate it, but other than occasionally being overeager on lights that are changing (just bad luck) I don't have a massive problem with it.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Stop/start on the VAG cars I've driven is far more clunky and slower to react than the BMWs we've had with it. In the event I haven't turned it off though, just a slight movement of the steering wheel will restart - in fact that restarts it quicker than applying any throttle.

The main issue with the VAG vehicles I've driven is the DSG - they seem to always want to be in the highest gear and they're extremely dimwitted at reacting to any response to not be, and the main way around that seems to be to drive it in Sport mode all the time. Some have had a gearbox map. They don't even seem to have an incline sensor for example - even my ageing E91 with it's ZF6 slusher has that and will drop into lower gears at steep inclines, either to help getting up them, or to give some engine braking on the way down.

[Mito Man]

The dumbest car I drove for that was the XC60. Utterly useless automatic which was always in too high a gear labouring the engine. Don’t think I’ve ever been in a bad BMW auto.

[Swervin_Mervin]

The dumbest car I drove for that was the XC60. Utterly useless automatic which was always in too high a gear labouring the engine. Don’t think I’ve ever been in a bad BMW auto.

I've never been a fan of the ZF8 but apparently that makes me weird. Too much fussing about all the time.

[V8Granite]

The dumbest car I drove for that was the XC60. Utterly useless automatic which was always in too high a gear labouring the engine. Don’t think I’ve ever been in a bad BMW auto.

I've never been a fan of the ZF8 but apparently that makes me weird. Too much fussing about all the time.

You are not wrong, I’d be happier with a nice 6 speed in almost anything. Just make 6th much longer for most cars.

Dave!

[integrale_evo]

Merc 7 speed is pretty good, although I think it only actually uses 1st in sport, so really it’s like a 6 speeder with a tall 1st

[V8Granite]

Ours always uses 1st, sometimes seems to not want to use 7th but I’d happily miss a gear out in the middle.

Dave!