neezer

I don't see what all the fuss is about. The A8's transmission isn't any slower responding than most other automatics. It is just fine that you can't shift it down to 1st gear, so what? 2nd is good enough for very low speed, and if you need to really move, all you do is press the pedal a little more, past that "nudge" which is found in all German cars, and it downshifts.

So what if it's not really fast? It's fast enough. If you don't think so, you should get a car with a manual transmission.

I find at least with my car that when I am in TIP mode, a nudge up or down has the same response time that I remember when piloting a 540, 528, X5, 740, Benz C320, Benz S500, Benz E320, ML500, Audi S4. Same thing!

Also, I actually appreciate the tall gearing. I love flooring it when in 2nd gear and it shifts to 3rd by the time I'm merging on a nice straight highway. 3rd gear just goes and goes and goes...so smooth...and then in shifts to 4th...and I'm going like...uh...real darn fast...and the FIVE OH's are all over me. =)

PaulW

...the quick upshifts, wait a couple of weeks, you'll want just a little power, not 300 HP, and in order to get it, you need to mash the gas, it revs the engine up, then thinks if it should go down 1 or 2 gears, then loads this power on.....then you have about 150 more HP than you wanted.

Recode the tranny to 00012 and you'll find it's much more eager to downshift and much lazier when upshifting. That's it...

neezer

I should just get myself the VAG-COM software I think. I'm one of those that always changes his mind, so a good thing to get. Not too much $$ anwyay.

neezer

Actually, I stand corrected. I definitely know what y'all are talking about. You have to push in the pedeal a lot more than other cars to induce downshift. A little annoying, yes, but then again if you have Tiptronic...moot point really.

Now...I guess since this is a car weighing under 4000 lbs, with a sizable V8 engine, no big deal. I'd rather have the gas mileage payoff, and if I ever need to pass, don't worry, I know what to do. =)

PaulW

If you recode, won't change your mileage, just your smile!