tanktube67

I agree with you the steering is too light, and it make me jerk right after I drive my BMW but you will get use to it, you have a nice sister that let you drive her new car.

JimPap

Speaking of steering, at first it seems that I had to really work at keeping the car on the road. Glance off to the side for a second and I would inadvertantly be drifting into the next lane. Now at over 4,000 miles, it tracks pretty straight.

e1000

only the C63 will have the rev matching. with that said, the transmission will still downshift on request as long as it won't destroy the engine.

MBTex

Based on this thread I decided to play around with the manual shifting feature last night. It definately will take some getting used to.

When cruising in S mode (I presume it works for C as well), a push to the left will cause it to select the lowest gear possible for that speed and engine speed. That will allow you to step on it if you need to. From there I tried manually shifting through the gears like I do in my Mustang and found that the car lagged between shifts.

Also, the gear manually selected is simply the "max" gear that the car will go in, meaning it will continue to act as an auto tranny up through that gear. Additionally, I do believe that even if you select a max gear, it will shift above that gear if the engine speed gets too high, meaning it won't let you redline the car for too long. For obvious reasons I didn't feel the need to test this one.

Bottom line is that this feature is nice to have, and the former sports car driver in me will use it from time to time, but it is a far cry from a true manual tranny. OK with me though, I wanted an auto and love the smooth shifting 7G tranny, especially in Comfort mode. Still, I would love to try out the C63 and see how responsive that tranny is to manual shifting. Might just drop by the dealer when it arrives in the US.

PoaMike

^ Ya I noticed that the engine speed controls the tranny beyond you command. That has its + & - but i would still like to redline for a second or two at least. That never hurt anyone lol

-Mike

e1000

That's not true. Take it on the highway, get it up to speed and you'll be in 7th. A pull to the left will get you into 6th. Assuming you're traveling at 65-70, 5th is definitely possible, maybe 4th.

MBTex

That is absolutely is true. I said the lowest gear "for that speed and engine speed"....not simply the lowest gear.

I was travelling at 65, pull and hold left for a second and it dropped straight to 4th and the rpms started to rocket up, when I tapped it right to get into 5th while accelerating. You don't think the car can maintain 75 mph in 5th?

AsianML

MB calls it TouchShift iirc.

e1000

maybe this has changed from the W203 to the W204. In the W203, pulling left for less than 2 seconds simply drops down 1 gear from what the car was at.

MBTex

It might be 2 seconds (I didn't count it out) but it didn't seem like it. When you "touch" shift left and right it goes up or down just one, but holding it there for "a second", as I put it, will cause it to shift directly to the lowest gear for the current engine speed.

I've never tried is on a W203 so I'm not sure if it is the same. Also, I am sure that there will be a difference, in the gear selection at least, between the W204 C300 and C350 for obvious reasons.

e1000

oh ok, i think we're talking about the same thing

MBTex

Probably. By "a second" in my OP I meant an arbitrary length of time longer than a simple touch shift. I didn't intend to mean a literal second.

stephensong

Here is the answer from page 144 in the owners manual:

Controls in detail
Automatic transmission*
Automatic shift program
The program mode selector switch is
located on the lower part of the center
console.
Program mode selector switch
C Comfort For comfort driving
S Sport For standard driving
The selected program mode appears in the
multifunction display.
1Selected program mode (comfort or
sport)
Press program mode selector switch
repeatedly until the letter of the
desired program mode appears in the
multifunction display.
SelectCfor comfort driving:
The vehicle starts out in second
gear (both forward and reverse) for
gentler starts. This does not apply if
full throttle is applied or gear
range1 is selected.
Traction and driving stability are
improved on icy roads.
Upshifts occur earlier even when
you give more gas. The engine then
operates at lower rpms and the
wheels are less likely to spin.
SelectSfor standard driving:
The vehicle starts out in first gear.
Upshifts occur later.
!Never change the program mode when the
gear selector lever is out of park positionP. This
could result in a change of driving characteristics
for which you may not be prepared.
iThe last selected program mode(CorS) is
switched on when the engine is restarted.

Moviela

You don't have Tiptronic on your car.

Tiptronic is a registered trademark of Porsche AG. Does your car have a Porsche gearbox?

hyukki

I call it tiptronic for my car. According to Wiki, Nissan uses the term "tiptronic" as well. Since Infiniti calls it "Manuel Shift Mode" I figured it'd be easier to say "tiptronic". People still understand me.

As for the MB, this is the first MB I've driven so I didn't know what it was called.

spotless

I tried the "tiptronic" while exiting the highway today. True, there is no distinctive blip, but there was no engine brake either. 50mph, braking at the last minute, I shift down to 3rd gear, no engine brake, RPM stays at 4000 range, negotiate the turn, RPM is at 3500 range, upon exiting the corner I give it gas and there is enough torque....so I think it works just fine.

And many already have mentioned that the tiptronic is a trademark of Porsche. We all know that. We all know we don't have Porsche gearbox. And we all know we mean touchshift when one says tiptronic.

RLE

<<When you "touch" shift left and right it goes up or down just one, but holding it there for "a second", as I put it, will cause it to shift directly to the lowest gear for the current engine speed.>>

I'm sure you meant "current car speed" which is the governing factor. The trans will not downshift to a gear which will over rev the engine.

<<I've never tried is on a W203 so I'm not sure if it is the same.>>

It is not the same on the previous C Class. If you want to go from 5th to 3rd, for example, you bump the lever quickly twice to the left. I did this all the time on downgrades.

GDawgC220

I would think it'd be pretty easy to program in the blip feature when using touchshift. I'm surprised MB hasn't implemented this yet. It's been done on some other manufacturers as early as 2001.

Evaluate current speed and current engine speed
Evalulate current gear and what the requested gear is
Calculate the engine speed it should be for the gear requested and current speed of travel
Check to see if it exceeds max engine speed
If OK, add throttle (since it's DBW) to appropriate engine speed
Downshift
If not OK, downshift to max allowable gear and do calculations above for that gear

It can be quite jerky sometimes when downshifting manually.