I've always had a concern with the performance of the transmission in the passat b5.5 1.8T. on acceleration, the car would be sluggish to change gears and after turbo lag goes, the car now remembers that you pressed the accelerator about a second before.
i carried it by my mechanic thinking that my tranny had a leak or that it was slowing dying (tranny changed about 5000 miles ago). he said that i don't have anything to worry about but i still did some research.
then i came across the SPORT MODE
placing the key in the ignition just before the starting position and pressing the gas pedal down for about 2 seconds then releasing it before starting and badang; sport mode enabled. took the car for a spin and the up/downshifting of the passat was way more responsive than before. WAY MORE. seemed like the engine and the tranny had telepathic powers. took a spin in the neighbourhood then onto the highway and was total impressed. downside is that gas mileage went from 27mpg to 17mpg, most likely because of how i drove. the pedal-enabled mode has to be re-done each time the car is switched off. the alternative would be to use the VAG-COM and program the transmission.
Anyone else tried this before? AFAIK its for passat b5/b5.5