I bought a 2005 1/2 Audi A4 2.0T manual and this is my first German car, though not my first manual tranny. I have noticed that the clutch is a little more "binary" than I'm used to (American cars from Chevy and Dodge). I know I'm not supposed to ride the clutch, but when starting out in 1st or going in reverse it seems almost necessary without popping the clutch and flying out of control in 1st or reverse (especially bad in reverse). Is this little bit going to cause a noticable problem? Up shifting and down shifting is easy as I can both pop it into higher gears or even accelerate just past the friction point but I want the tranny to last as it should, and the greater Seattle area is home to many steep hills.

That's the other problem I'm getting used to, but once I did heat up the clutch to the point it smelled but only very briefly. I'm hoping this short spurt (only smelled for about 30-60 seconds) won't hurt anything. The car behind me left me no room [:@] and I got the revs up too high while letting off on the parking break.

 

"binary?"
Your clutch needs some breaking in, for starters. And you'll probably have to get used to the touch-and-go reverse.