I got a 2015 6MT in November 2017. I jumped on the 6MT immediately when I found it in Las Vegas, but a DSG car would’ve been fine too. Been driving it for work exclusively since I turned in my Touareg in February 2018. These are great cars for the road warrior, I’ve only put 10K miles on mine since February. My commute is primarily I-17 between Flagstaff and Phoenix (5400’ elevation difference, so mountains), I run the grades at 72-79 mph depending on speed limit without downshifting. You can see my average mpg in the fully graphic below, 41.3 mpg overall city/highway is far better than my 2006 Cummins truck.
I don’t try to squeeze every mile of range out of my car, in tank fuel pumps are cooled by the fuel in the tank and can overheat resulting in premature failure driving to empty every time (I believe that would be covered by the 162K warranty). I usually fill up at 400-500 miles, sometimes less if I see a cheap price on diesel or if I am expensing a specific trip to work. My longest run was 592 miles, 14.915 gallons, at 39.69 mpg.
As for the tune, I won’t risk the great warranty for a performance increase. I purchased this car to commute ~30K miles per year with a low operating cost. I generally drive the car to not waste fuel, but when I do put my foot to the floor and get the RPM over 3000 the car wakes up appropriately. I’ll keep the car as long as the warranty, maybe farther until something expensive breaks, but I feel that 136K of warrantied use out of a used car I paid $17K for is acceptable value.
The other car I considered is the 2018 Camry. The LE hybrid is rated for around 50 mpg and is very comfortable. My folks got a 2018 XSE 4 cyl, it’s as nice as a Lexus and gets 38-40 mpg highway and 30-32 mpg city. My Passat gets better mileage, is diesel, has a manual transmission, and cost $14K less, so that’s why I don’t have a Camry in the driveway.