Can you go from R to D fast? Is it just me?
 

One of the things i have had since ownership of this car is a ridicolous lag/delay between engaging from R to D, D to R.

Typically when parking, i cannot quickly go from reverse to drive, since there is a delay before the car actually engages and take you forward.

Now the display is quick enough and switches but when the display is showing D drive position, there is a delay before it actually takes you forward. And you need to feel that with your foot otherwise you are not going anywhere.

Are you experiencing this? Or only me? Is it a software issue with my car? Its driving me nuts and passengers/other cars think im really taking my time parking lol.

Had mine updated in summer 2018 and will go to dealer again in two weeks to update after for the recent engine recall.

By ridiculous lag do you mean 1 second?:crazy:

2 seconds maybe to be exact from the moment i wanted the gear. Feels like 5 seconds.. And if you need to park and do it multiple times thats when its frustating.. none of my other cars has this delay, but they are not AMG either.

i actually know what you're talking about and feel the same way about mine. I think we are being a little crazy but there are times were it does bother me.

I don't mind the shift speed I just completely miss the gear sometimes by trying to be too quick with the lever :nix:

Its driving me nuts when parking..

to clarify what i mean; if you try to throttle directly after shifting (and it says R) but not yet engaged, it revs in a weird way and then it ”hooks” up.

The same for D, there is a delay in engaging where you need to keep the foot of the pedal so you dont get that weird middle revving part.

Read somewhere about tranmission slip and the feeling and behavior is similiar.

Ah yes, another reason to miss the manual transmission, when you just put it in gear and instantly go.

I'm pretty sure what you are describing is the normal behavior in modern automated transmissions. So far test driving a couple of 2018 models, and recently a 2019 with the new 9MCT transmission, nothing unusual stood out, compared to my current car with a very fast dual-clutch transmission in this regard. There is a normal delay for the transmission to engage the selected gear. The gear selector is just an electronic switch. Once you selected D or R, the transmission has to actually mechanically engage the gear. That doesn't happen instantly. There are some solenoids that have to move and apply the appropriate clutch and brakes in the transmission. Gear engagement isn't instant in a manual transmission, either. It takes time to physical move the gear stick. It's just not as noticeable, because it involves the driver the entire time. With an automated transmission the involvement ends once you selected D or R, which is pretty much instantly, and then the transmission completes the task of actually engaging the gear.

That's all very well, but I think what we're getting at here - and maybe it's just me - is the concept of a quick response. This is what we want and expect in any high performance car. When I hit the gas pedal, I want a pretty much instantaneous acceleration. I found this very important in heavy traffic. Having a very responsive vehicle made me feel safer. Even if I have to use a clutch and a shifter I like the car to move when I get on the gas and the more instantaneous the better.

Without driving your particular car it's gonna be hard to tell if perhaps yours has an issue, but overall this transmission is very responsive. It uses a wet startup clutch instead of a conventional torque converter for exactly this reason. Immediate response to throttle input instead of a more slushy response with fluid coupling. But completely changing the transmission engagement from reverse to forward and vice versa takes a moment. This is not something that is done often compared to shifting up and down forward gears and starting from a stop with the gear already engaged. When you come to a stop for example, the transmission will de-clutch and engage first or second gear, so once you get on the throttle it should take off immediately as it's only a matter of engaging the startup clutch. Responsiveness also depends on your drive mode. In Comfort it's more lazy and the 7-speed starts in 2nd gear, which I personally don't like as it slips the clutch like hell. The new 9-speed in the 2019 always starts in first gear, except I believe in Slippery mode which kinda makes sense. Maybe go test drive another car to make sure there isn't something wrong with yours. You may also wanna go test drive a 2019 and see how you like the new transmission. It is an all around improvement over the old 7-speed. It was largely the main reason for me to get a 2019 instead of a 2018.

Your response appears to agree with my statement. But there isn't anything wrong with my car, other than having an automatic transmission and a turbo. I never drive in Comfort and perhaps there was something wrong before, but the last upgrade fixed whatever I was unhappy about with the shifting. But I am resigned to the fact that it will never "feel" as instantaneous as my manual (RS4). I must disclose that this is the first automatic I have ever owned, and the second turbo. What I do find annoying is what was alluded to by the OP, which is sometimes failure to engage reverse when I am in a hurry to back into my parking space. Probably due to some safety feature, I dunno.

A naturally aspirated engine like the high-revving V8 in your RS4 is hard to beat in terms of responsiveness. I'll be coming from a '13 RS5. Newer generation of the engine in the RS4, but same deal. The RS5 was my first car with a modern automated transmission. I had only owned manual transmissions before, but had driven various automatic transmissions to know they weren't for me at the time. I really wanted a dual clutch transmission, though, so I was going into it with an open mind. It took me some time to get fully comfortable with it and now I have no interest in going back to a manual transmission anymore. I've also long resisted going turbo charged. This is gonna be my first turbo charged car I'll own, however I've driven many others to find the one I think I can live with. This V8TT is very close to a naturally aspirated engine in terms of responsiveness. Below boost it's still a 4.0 V8, so very close to my current engine in terms of it's naturally aspirated torque and power at those rpms, and it uses a relative low boost level. To be fair, the RS4's and RS5's engines need to be wound out to really get going. Different philosophies, but sweet engines they are. My main concern with the C63/S's old transmission was the laggy manual mode. The delay from the time one pulls the paddle and the transmission actually shifting. It was also inconsistent. That irritated me a lot. The new 9-speed has fixed that. It's still not as instant and fast shifting as the dual clutch in manual mode, but close enough.

Ok so I just found a complete thread on this topic. Describes the issue I feel (although my case is not only on ”very cold”):

https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-c63s-...ry-cold-2.html