[DrMagical]

Very embarrassing I know: I've owned the car 15 months and just found out last week by accident that the gear stick goes sideways as well as up and down. Happened by accident and I thought I'd broken it getting in the car and noticed a new gear mode I'd never seen before: 'M' mode!!!
Just passing this on just in case anyone else hadn't discovered it or weren't told about it on collection!

 

[phproxy]

There's paddles on the steering wheel too which do the same thing, "M" mode, as shifting the gear stick left, then up and down.

The car decides when it let's you change gear though..rarely used for me.

 

[QTom]

Yeah, once you have pushed it to the side it goes into manual mode and you can change gear by pushing it forwards/backwards, as well as via the paddles. A cool feature even if I never use it

Not sure if it was my imagination but it seemed like it respects your choice of gear better when you do this rather than just when you use the paddles randomly while driving.

 

[TomH]

Yeah, once you have pushed it to the side it goes into manual mode and you can change gear by pushing it forwards/backwards, as well as via the paddles. A cool feature even if I never use it

Not sure if it was my imagination but it seemed like it respects your choice of gear better when you do this rather than just when you use the paddles randomly while driving.

We discovered the manual mode early on when my wife pushed the gear lever sideways by accident then accelerated and asked 'what's that screaming noise?'

That's the engine stuck in first gear!
So we stick to the automatic modes. D for her and B for me.

You're right about it only allowing certain manual selections though. The only time I could find a good use for M was to start in second gear on snow. It refused to let me do that. Not best pleased!

 

[Ste GTE]

I agree would be great to manually select 2nd gear but it won't let you. Although weirdly I seemed to get more traction pulling away in pure EV mode in the ice

 

[TomH]

After an embarrassing episode in an ungritted car park last year, I decided that the tyres were the big problem.
I now have Michelin Cross Climates all round instead of the original Bridgestones. Much quieter!

 

[tom66]

There's really no need to have gear selection for snow. The accelerator pedal on most EVs directly commands torque - so press the pedal less and you will get less torque.

In an ICE the accelerator pedal doesn't command torque but just throttle position. The engine's torque will depend on a wide variety of factors but is much harder to control than an e-motor, so the advice for starting in 2nd makes sense.

I think the only exception will be when the main battery is flat - the car may not have such good torque control. I have found that trying to park with a flat battery is a little harder because it's very hard to creep small distances with just the engine and the DSG's clutches.

 

[Ste GTE]

I think the main point being made with the gear selector shifting to the left though doesn't actually allow full manual control, as it clearly refuses to go into 2nd even at very low revs pulling away. Probably for the best and to protect the engine, clutch etc though.

 

[TomH]

There's really no need to have gear selection for snow. The accelerator pedal on most EVs directly commands torque - so press the pedal less and you will get less torque(QUOTE]

I found it very difficult to apply a small enough pedal pressure to creep away gently on ice. Apart from incompetence in my part, I think that the gears in the GTE produce an unusually high torque at the wheels. I guess the car's with single speed gearing must be equivalent to third in the GTE box.

Anyway tyres are critical!