hyukki

My sister got a C350 and I got to drive it quite often. She let me mess around with the car so the first thing I tried was the tiptronic. In my car, the tiptronic works just the way I want it to (probably becuase I am used to it) and feel like I have a lot of control of the car.

In the C350, however, it feels utterly uncontrollable. I'd be in 6th gear, cruising 65mph and if I floor it down to the point right before the click and the RPM jumps way up and the car went way faster than I expected. Even @ lower speeds, the RPM jumped up a fairly good amount.

I also noticed that it doesn't automatically shift down for me... I didn't really know what was going on, I just put it in D1 and just went up as I would in my car...

But overall, a great car. Not as powerful as my car, but definitely more luxurious feel. The steering is a bit too light for me and made me jerk a little bit on the ramps from turning it a little too much.

PoaMike

First off, Welcome to MBworld! The steering wheel is very light and its actually very nice once you handle it for a day or two. But ya, the tiptronic is odd on the C class. im not shur if its the v6 or the trans. Im not really a car guro so Iv wondered the same thing.

hyukki

Thanks. I'm sure I'll get used to the steering.

Also, the click on the accelerator pedal is for ignoring everything and going WOT, I assume?

e1000

the click on the acelerator will put you in the lowest possible gear and WOT.

the number that you set the tiptronic at is not what gear it stays in, rather, it is the highest gear that you allow the car to operate at. So if you're cruising with a "6" on the display at 25 mph, you will not be in 6th gear.

pulling 2 seconds to the left will go to the lowest possible gear for that speed.

pulling 2 seconds to the right will go to "D" or 7th gear.

lastly, the car will upshift if you accelerate past redline for a particular gear

oblu

Why would you expect it to shift down for you in tip mode? Maybe I'm mis-reading the post. The point behind tip mode is to have the transmission not do any shifting unless you tell it too (so that people too lazy to drive a stick can still feel 'sporty'). It will shift up for you; but that's a stupid design decision imo, it should bounce off the limiter until I signal an upshift.

hyukki

Ah, I see. Thank you so much for your help.

So it works rather much like a conventional automatic's with 1-D4... Got cha.

hyukki

So that I wouldn't have to move the shifter 4-5 times or hold it for 2 seconds to go back to 1st gear... or any of the lower gears.

My car automatically shifts down to 3rd gear when I slow down and to 1st gear when I come to a complete stop. When I'm cruising though, it just stays in the gear I have selected until I shift up/down.

e1000

it will downshift for you, so if you're going 65 and have it in "5" and slow down, it will downshift but the display will continue to say "5".

The AMG cars have a manual mode "M" that does not upshift and will let the engine bounce off of redline but the normal MB's do not.

oblu

Yeah, I'm just not getting it. You just said it automatically shifts down, but then says it doesn't shift for you unless you tell it too?

And I'm with you, the tip doesn't make a ton of sense to me. Just give me the gear I ask for and quit messing around.

hyukki

Yeah that's why I was confused, the manual mode. I assumed the C350 had a manual mode... oops.

PoaMike

I agree you should beable to bounce your rpm's

e1000

After driving my car for a bit, I like the MB setup.

I can drive through cities and leave the car in 3rd or 4th. It will take care of the shifting, but I won't find myself in 6th gear needing to pass someone.

The 2-second shift feature is also very usefull because the car has so many gears. On highways, it's not unusual for the car to go from 7th to 5th or 7th to 4th when I need the power.

hyukki

Sorry, I edited it after proof reading it.

When I'm in "Manual mode" the car won't shift on it's own. I have to shift up manually through the gears and if I want to go WOT, I have to manually select the gear and floor it, because the car won't change gears on its own. The only time it shifts gears on it's own is when the car slows down.

hyukki

I'm sure I'll grow into it in no time, I just wanted to know how the thing works... I don't wanna pull some stupid stuff with my sister's new car you know.

e1000

yeah, each car has it's quirks. I agree with you guys, the two things I'd add to the transmission would be the manual mode from the AMG line and i'd love it if it would blip the throttle to match RPM's on downshifts....... guess I'll just have to get a C63

hyukki

PoaMike

Maybe dumb question but what do you meen 'blip' the throttle?

AsianML

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/youngd...3/article.html

I wish I had it on the ML too. TouchShift downshifts are so jerky

e1000

when downshifting, your engine will be at a lower rpm than required by the lower gear. So for example, you're cruising along in 7th and you want to be in 5th to pass someone. Right now, the car will go into 5th and use the momentum of the car to bring the engine's RPM's up. What would be ideal is that it would disengage 7th, give the engine some gas while in neutral, and then engage 5th gear at the appropriate RPM, resulting in a smooth transition and an intoxicating noise from the engine.

PoaMike

O thanks. I learned something today!

-Mike

Krytech

Bummer, I thought I had read that the engine matched rpms while downshifting. That is something that has bugged me w/ the sportronic in my current car. Oh well, for me it's one of those features that is cool to have but I don't use it too often, although I probably will use it more often in the C350 than I do now.

RLE

[<< But ya, the tiptronic is odd on the C class. im not shur if its the v6 or the trans. I'm not really a car guru so I've wondered the same thing.>>

I would point out that the only cars with Tiptronic are Porsches, a name coined and patented by them. Same with Targa, by the way.

All of these other cars have transmissions that operate in a similar fashion but use other names.

spotless

Are you guys saying 7G does not rev match when down shifting manually? I haven't been to the twisties yet so there wasn't a need to use the manual mode. But if this is true, it is very disappointing.

The whole point of having a tiptronic is to be in proper gear before the turn so there is no shifting delay when you jab the throttle when exiting a corner, not to engine brake.

JimPap

What's tiptronic?

stephensong

It is what Porsche calls its automatic transmission. It has (as many cars now a days have) a manual mode so that the driver can shift gears somewhat like a stick shift. Our cars have this but it works a little different than most.