I've had a few rolling-start races lately which were *much* closer than they should have been, for one reason: the $*#& car doesn't always downshift all the way to first when I nail it! This is at 20mph, and it is very annoying, because sometimes it works flawlessly, while others it simply stubbornly goes to 2nd.

Try this: from a dead stop, take off normally, until you hit around 20, and then *nail it*. It is sporadic, though, and does not happen every time, which makes it even more frustrating.

I had some bozo in a CL500 trying to show off, and this happened...and then, to make matters worse, even in 2nd I was rapidly reeling him in, so what does he do? Nail his brakes! What should have been an easy kill was a hollow victory, as he wouldn't even give me the satisfaction of catching up and blowing by!

Can you tell I'm slightly competitive by nature?

Improviz - I to suffer from the auto tripping on my Beast, at times when I raced my brother (03/M5) or another friend (02/M3) sometimes I have good runs and then, BAM, the **** happens. I had my local MB dealership look into it, and of course they found nothing wrong. It does not happen every time, but when it does, it blows. The only thing I could advise is not to kill it quick, I changed my start or burst runs with a slight press on the throttle, once in motion I then slam it, works most of the time. Hey, what can you say, it's a auto - to bad to manual for the BEAST.

I understand the surge of boiling hot "competitive" blood. At the same time, I try to take it easy on my car in hopes of making it last! That being said, anytime someone is in the vicinity who makes my "radar" I drop my car into manual mode at the light so I KNOW for certain she'll start out in 1st. Not always practical when someone sneaks up from behind after you have already initiated a "rolling" start, but I figure that's why the tranny has a "manual" mode.

I think the "problem" of different shifting patterns is a function of the adaptive transmission.

I find that if I have been driving "quietly". the transmission go into economy mode. If I then floor it, the transmission thinks Ireally don't mean it, and is not as responsive as it would be if I was driving hard for a period of time.

Mike that would be true if My driving style was normal, But I drive it like I stole it daily, no kidding, I jack rabbit on every light, braking hard and cornering.

I had the same problem. It felt like I was stepping on **** and the car did not downshift. It also took way to long to shift on manual mode.

I tormented to dealer and they replaced my tranny control module and reset the tranny ECU.

It is an amazing difference.

I will try hitting the car from a 20mph roll and see what happens.

They finally told me that some cars may be driven to lightly for the first 2,000 miles and the car will never shift hard.

I bought mine with 20,000 miles and I do not know how the car was driven. Based on the fact the original tires were still on it, I would have to guess not to hard.

I just tried rolling the car to about 20 mph. It went into 2nd or 3rd. All four times it dropped into 1st.

It NEVER did that before.

Just 'tap' the shift lever to the left which resets the parameters in the transmissions brain. Your readout below the speedometer will now read 4 instead of 5. Now stand on it and I think you'll be pleased. I don't recall if 'tapping' again to 3 further resets the parameters. Perhaps someone from the old days on this forum remembers and can explain more fully. Hope this helps.

Interesting. I'll give this a shot. I did a search of posts, and someone else had posted somewhere that this works and is actually in the manual. And since fourth goes all the way up to 150 mph, don't have to worry about bumping the rev limiter!

I'll try this later today, and report back w/results.

i've had that problem with each of my three CLKs, including my most recent, a 2002 55.

i, too, believe the culprit is the adaptive transmission. it may be a bit too smart for itself.