New 2012 E350 Cabriolet - E vs. S Driving Mode
08-01-2011, 06:56 PM
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2012 E350 Cabriolet
New 2012 E350 Cabriolet - E vs. S Driving Mode
I just drove a new 2012 E350 cabriolet off the lot yesterday (Palladium Silver/Almond/Black top, P1, Appearance, Parktronic). Traded in my 2008 CLK550 Cabriolet. I was initially going to get another 550, but the extra horsepower in the 2012 makes a significant difference, so am very happy with the 350, with one particular annoyance...
The car always defaults to "E" (economy mode) whenever you start it, even if you had it set to "S" when you last drove. My CLK550 kept whatever mode you last had set.
Does anyone know if the service department can use the STAR system (or whatever it is) to re-program this feature to default to "S" or at least retain the last setting?
A few other pros & cons of 2012 for anyone who may be interested...
Pros
----
-Great torque for a 6-cylinder, that extra 20-ish horsepower made a real difference
-New steering wheel an improvement over the 2011 standard wheel
-The color display in the cluster looks more up to date
-COMAND system very intuitive (perhaps didn't change much from '11 to '12, but a nice change from my old one)
-AIRCAP thing really does make a difference with wind/noise when the top is down
-The appearance package lowers the car a bit, definitely looks sportier
Cons
-----
-No more sunglass drawer in dash (perhaps already gone in the '11 but I really miss it from my CLK)
-Separate button to raise/lower all four windows, whereas CLK would do it if you held the roof open/close switch. So now it's a two-button exercise. Maybe nit-picky on my part, but it just felt easier/slicker before.
-For the Parktronic, I wish they had come up with some other indicator than the two black LED bars on the dash and between rear seats, just looks a bit clunky IMO
-The rearview mirror is smaller than in my CLK, perhaps I'll get used to it over time, but I definitely notice it a lot
-The steering wheel angle relative to the instrument cluster is weird - setting my seats the way I want them (about mid-way in height adjustment), in order to still see the top of the speedo and the turn signal arrows, I have to raise the steering wheel to what seems like an un-natural height - feels like I'm driving a bus. So I'm dealing with just not seeing the top of the cluster at this point.
All-in-all, a great car. Just a few things I personally would change.
If anyone knows about the E vs S mode adjustability, would appreciate hearing back.
The car always defaults to "E" (economy mode) whenever you start it, even if you had it set to "S" when you last drove. My CLK550 kept whatever mode you last had set.
Does anyone know if the service department can use the STAR system (or whatever it is) to re-program this feature to default to "S" or at least retain the last setting?
A few other pros & cons of 2012 for anyone who may be interested...
Pros
----
-Great torque for a 6-cylinder, that extra 20-ish horsepower made a real difference
-New steering wheel an improvement over the 2011 standard wheel
-The color display in the cluster looks more up to date
-COMAND system very intuitive (perhaps didn't change much from '11 to '12, but a nice change from my old one)
-AIRCAP thing really does make a difference with wind/noise when the top is down
-The appearance package lowers the car a bit, definitely looks sportier
Cons
-----
-No more sunglass drawer in dash (perhaps already gone in the '11 but I really miss it from my CLK)
-Separate button to raise/lower all four windows, whereas CLK would do it if you held the roof open/close switch. So now it's a two-button exercise. Maybe nit-picky on my part, but it just felt easier/slicker before.
-For the Parktronic, I wish they had come up with some other indicator than the two black LED bars on the dash and between rear seats, just looks a bit clunky IMO
-The rearview mirror is smaller than in my CLK, perhaps I'll get used to it over time, but I definitely notice it a lot
-The steering wheel angle relative to the instrument cluster is weird - setting my seats the way I want them (about mid-way in height adjustment), in order to still see the top of the speedo and the turn signal arrows, I have to raise the steering wheel to what seems like an un-natural height - feels like I'm driving a bus. So I'm dealing with just not seeing the top of the cluster at this point.
All-in-all, a great car. Just a few things I personally would change.
If anyone knows about the E vs S mode adjustability, would appreciate hearing back.
08-02-2011, 06:28 AM
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B8.5 Audi S5 3.0 TFSI Coupe
I don't think you can change it, it's down to the emissions regulations that MB have to adhere to, it's the same on all the models now, I'm pretty comfortable driving around in E but when I want to have a bit of a blast around I switch to S and enjoy it.
Hope you're enjoying your car, sounds very nice you should get some pictures up on here.
Nab
Hope you're enjoying your car, sounds very nice you should get some pictures up on here.
Nab
08-02-2011, 10:24 PM
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14 E 550, 14 RS Spyder, 23 GT4
Congrats, last friday I returned my 2009 350CLK convertible and picked up my 2011 E350 convertible. I like everything in the E350 except the accelaration, I feel that the CLK was faster and more energetic, I hope with some miles and usage this condition changes. I see you will not have this problem as the extra 300HP will take care of it. Seriously, the first thing I thought of when I came home was how and who will tune my ECU, something I never thought of when I had my CLK.
