[Arragonis]

Well done for getting it all together - with I had a second car and the skills to do it myself, I would check my clutch (SMF) for its NVH issues.

Your experience with the gears is similar to when I swapped to the Fabia with 6 speeds from all my previous cars (4 and 5). You get used to the extra cogs and one advantage is the greater choice of gears for different scenarios ranging from empty highway cruising (6th) to grinding behind slow trucks on a 2 lane A-road (4th/5th).

You will also find yourself missing out gears on the way up especially if you use the 80% throttle to get to speed asap idea. I sometimes do the journey to work in only the even gears - 2,4,6 with 1st to get moving if I come to a complete stop.

Monitor your instant MPG when using 6th though - I would be interested to know if you think staying in 6th when you begin to lose momentum (hills for example) vs a quick burst in 5th for FE - I kind of feel each pulse on the higher gear is kind of wasted in terms of effect compared with 5th.

One issue that did come up with my gearbox was the case stretches over time making the change a little more tricky. There is an insert or something which has to be pressed in that restores the internal shape and makes the changes much nicer. If you don't have the problem though don't worry about it.