Scirocco Central

Hi everyone, I'm new here so hope I'm posting in the correct place etc.!

Got my 09 'Rocco about a month ago, 2nd hand from a private dealership. It's a 2.0 TSI GT with DSG.
Been loving it, except the other day whilst driving in manual mode it came out of gear and the 'PRNDS' symbols in the dash started flashing, and I had to completely turn off the ignition and back on again before it would move again.
I've seen a fair few posts about this, with some people calling the PRNDS flashing a dreaded problem, others saying they had it once - it went away - don't worry about it, and others saying that it's covered under warranty and so can be fixed for free (which includes a handy dsg fluid change). The car's generally been fine, except not exhibiting *entirely* smooth downshifts 3rd->2nd, 2nd->1st, especially in manual mode at slow speeds/low revs.

What should I do? I should still be within the 3 months statutory warranty from the dealer I bought it from, but he's skirted around issues before by being all 'reasonable' and appealing to my nice side so it'd be a job to get his company to sort it for me. Is there a way to find out for free if it is covered under VW warranty so I can take it to them to fix?

I'm reluctant to just wait and see if the problem continues due to only having 2 months left of the standard dealership warranty. The car's driven fine since.

Oh and the free dsg fluid change would be a bonus , as the car's done 42,500 miles and I was planning on getting it done out of my own pocket as soon as pos.

If it's not repeatable you may struggle to prove a fault, unless you have a fault code listed, have you had the car scanned for codes?

For the down shifts you mention , make sure you aren't confusing engine braking for poor changes. In drive at low rpm (1200ish) for the lower gears you will feel a little bit of engine braking as the lower gears/clutch engages, if you use manual mode and change down around 1500-1700rpm is the change smooth?

It's my impression that I'd have to use an expensive vagcom thing to get the proper codes, not just an OBD lead. Can this be done for free at VW places?

I know what you mean about feeling engine braking kick in, but it seems like the system should know I'm going to downshift due to the fact I'm braking, meaning it should be able to smoothly transition into the lower gear in the same way it does with upshifts. Instead engine braking disappears for a second and then reappears with more strength in the lower gear, less smooth than I'd casually achieve in a manual. It's not a huge issue though, just a niggle.

You need to understand what it's doing, you can't compare an up change wi a down change in these circumstances, if you tried to down change at the same revs with the same change speed you would get the same result. In a manual you may feather the clutch in or skip a gear. If you flip the gears down manually at a slightly higher engine speed the forces involved change and the changes should be smooth,