Rave

DSG has a level of intelligence. The box knows what gear you're going to shift into and the second clutch is waiting for it to happen. That's great but what if you have a complete a$$'ole at the wheel? I took an A3 out with A$$'ole 1 (me) at the wheel and A$$'ole 2 (my son) in the front passenger seat. He shifted the stick and I shifted the paddles - at random. We still couldn't confuse it. Now that's clever. With the high proportion of a$$ 'oles who drive Porsche's nowadays, it's inevitable that they have to introduce their own version.

Alan Smithee

DSG is not a traditional automatic with torque converter like Tiptronic.

DSG is like SMG in that it is a manual transmission. However, DSG has two clutches, making it more advanced by providing even quicker shifts and eliminating the learning curve required by SMG to exorcise its inherent jerkiness.

Rumor has it that BMW is developing a similar dual-clutch gearbox to replace SMG.

Alan Smithee

Well, DSG does of course remove the mechanical interface, so you may never warm up to it.

Personally, although a luddite, if technology works flawlessly, then I'm all for it. For instance, I hate variable assist power steering...I can't stand having different feel artificially transmitted to me, even if I'm parallel parking...yet the 997's variable ratio steering is near perfect. Same with SMG vs DSG...with SMG, you have to think, lift shift...like with a manual...but the left foot sits idle, there are all of the settings to deal with, and there's the jerky automatic mode. But DSG responds immediately with perfect shifts every time, whether driving moderately, hard, or in automatic mode...with no extraneous interface...hard not to appreciate that.

ltc

Porsche's DSG (PDK) is still having some reliability problems at the higher hp levels.

I've always enjoyed a manual transmission (half the fun of driving is the eternal quest for the perfect downshift).
However, I was recently invited to Road Atlanta to spend a full day driving a new Maserati Gran Sport, equipped with their CambioCorse (Ferrari F1 style, single clutch, paddle shift transmission).
It has manual and auto modes, with a sport setting to alter shift timing and sport exhaust (similar to PSE).

I realized very quickly that you can quickly drive these cars faster since you can downshift just about anywhere and not have to worry about TTO due to a mismatched downshift. I actually enjoyed driving this style gearbox much more than I would have thought.
I've driven the DSG in a new Audi and preferred the CambioCorse over the DSG.

dstrimbu

Doesn't the newly announced, reskinned Audi TT have a true dual-clutch sequential trans? I thought I read that in Autoweek...

Alan Smithee

Yes, that's DSG...same as it has been for years now in the original TT, and currently in the GTI and A3 (they're all built on the same platform and share drivetrains).