Originally Posted by Cypren

I guess the question that pops into my mind is, "why are you requesting it when you need it, instead of before?" The shift paddles just control the maximum gear the car can shift into. If you turn on ECT-PWR mode, it'll pretty much redline the engine and then upshift quickly on its own, so the only real advantage of using the shift paddles is to force a downshift for turns. As soon as you drop the car into the lower gear, you should be able to "upshift" again without the car actually upshifting until it needs to -- and it does so very quickly at redline.

The automatic is absolutely no match for a good driver with a manual transmission, but just on my personal observation, it does a better job controlling the shifts than most drivers I've seen trying to use the tiptronic. If you haven't tried it yet, just turn on the automatic and ECT-PWR and see how you do -- you may be surprised.