After a few days driving (have driven the same route 3 times) I can say it is a lot better.
the first drive wasn't so pleasing, it still seemed to be not to what that 15 plate car was, but over the few days (most likely the ECU adjusting) it is way smoother, I only notice jolts the odd time and when I do they aren't half as bad as they were.
For example - on this drive I do, I could notice it jolt perhaps 6 times. Now it's once.
The vibrations do seem to be there slightly, it's mainly noticeable if you leave it in a gear at lower speed, (I noticed it in 1st/2nd) and your doing 2.1k revs it sounds like your going over a rumble strip - I still think they can tweak it and get it better still, and I am confident they will. if they don't however, I won't be too gutted, but I think to prevent the vibrations at higher revs at lower speeds they should lower the max revs it comes in at speed, I mean, personally it shouldn't come in at all in 1st gear. it's 90% better than it was anyway, i've also noticed my MPG improve. It is a lot slicker changing from 2 to 4 cyl, and I rarely notice it's in it. The car feels smoother when accelerating in 4 cyl too, especially when reversing into a parking space. I found mine would vibrate at very low speeds with not much acceleration, now it's perfect it feels like a different car. Very impressed.
Just to say, this update is actually across the board now. I believe when people take their car in for a service or like me, ask for the update they will apply it. My Service advisor told me it was a mandatory update, he didn't even have to search for it, it just came up. So even if you don't notice these vibrations you'll get the update anyway.
- Actually, something i've just remembered. Mine still sounds quite nasty in 2 cyl, that 15 plate sportback sounded a lot less noisy. (This is with the window down, not the noise in the cabin)
I think things they need to consider is that it shouldn't go into 2 cyl at all in 1st gear. half of the time when it does it vibrates very noticeably. People with s-tronic probably won't notice because the car changes gear before it happens, but us with manuals we are too lazy to change to 2nd gear every moment for a second or so before traffic comes to a stop AGAIN! I can't see how 2 cyl will save a lot of fuel in town, because half the time it's coming in and out of it and thats how jolts happen if you counteract it. I hardly ever notice vibrations at 70mph, and thats where I can see it'd save more fuel because it's cruising. I think at lower speeds it just messes about with it. I could be wrong though, because I thought it was bad that it was in 2 cyl mode at 30mph, I always noticed vibrations/jolts but now I hardly do, and the switch between 2 and 4 is a lot better at that speed. So we can only wait to see what happens.
The update has made it so it won't come into 2 cyl mode as often, and it seems as though it doesn't take as much throttle now to make it go back into 4 cyl, but as I said, I think improvements can still be had and I have confidence in them, they'll get it in the end. It's a fantastic engine.
Just a question, when do your cars come into 2 cyl mode from a cold start? I read that it shouldn't start deactivating the cylinders until the engine is warm, I literally drive down the road and it comes into 2 cyl, thats a problem too because I always notice it when it is stone cold. I can't understand why, when it apparently shouldn't do.