After using the TouchShift almost exclusively since getting my car.. I had decided to give the auto a chance to redeem itself. Previous experience with the "auto" mode.. was less than stellar.. and found it not to be suited to spirited driving.
Here are some observations I have made....

* Give the auto tranny about a week to "learn" your style. Apparently the TouchShift interferes with it's ability to learn your style. Also, under heavy throttle the Auto takes over.. and shifts despite using the TouchShift lever (delays in gears). Avoid using the TouchShift during the learning cycle. It might take less than a week.. but you'll know when it's right.

* After a learning period.. the auto tranny is almost telepathetic.. and I am VERY PLEASED with it. I have had several occassions where under hard acceleration.. I had to lift off throttle and add brake (damn Sunday drivers).. change lanes and press on.. ONLY to find the tranny held the last gear and I picked up where I left off. Without upshifting in the process. Zoom!

* The TouchShift seems MUCH better suited to "downshift" for various manuevers or driving situations.. but to accelerate.. the Auto is defintely the way to go (esp when it's learned you style).

* Throttle response is DEFINTELY instantaneous now. Previously it was a tad sluggish. Now if I give it some throttle she's off hard. I don't usually "floor it" I usually only put down about 1/2 throttle unless I need to pass or move quickly... the car's learned what I want.. when I want it.

* I had tried to establish a relationship b/w the airmatic settings and the "tranny" profile.. and have not come up with a definte conclusion yet. Same for the key. I have only tested my own key. I am working on those two next.

Anyways, for those of you wondering about "throttle response" there you have it. If you want it sharp... you have it. Drive like a grandma... you can have that too.


Peter

 

Your car seems to be a better learner than mine! I have 10K miles on my car, am the only driver and have complained since day 1 that this car, as quick as it is, has a real bad lag when floored. Almost dangerous. The initial response was actually better on my 2000 E430. This proabaly my biggest complaint with the car.

 

This is the same experience I have had. However, after careful reading of Nitro's post I wonder if the problem is that if you drive "grandma" (maybe due to traffic and roads) much of the time you will never get the quick response that we are looking for. How can we train it to have both. It is impossible for me to get on it most of the time.

Maybe Nitro can help us out here. If we train it for quick response for a week or more...will it slip back into Grandma if we don't keep it up? Give us an idea of how aggressive you have to be to get it to learn a fast response.

 

I've only recently started paying attention to this. I have driven in Normal mode 99.9% of the time since I took delivery in October 2002. Sometimes it's a little sluggish on fast acceleration. Other times (when I've been weaving in and out of congested freeway traffic), it seems more responsive.

Last week I set it on Sport 1 and drove it that way for a week. I like fast starts anyway, but I must say that there was more power, the transmission held gear longer, and all in all, it was very different driving experience. No sluggishness at all that I remember.

I don't have enough data to make conclusions, but at least I have some stuff to experiment with.

 

Follow up to etenn:

During my week of "training" I was mostly running alone to work and such.... very little wifey and son riding with me.

Over the weekend, we had some family errands to run... and as such.. I drove like a "good boy."

After dropping them off.. I got after it again.. and it did seem to lose something.. but after a few drives alone.. she's back to responsive again.

Also, when driving with my family.. I set airmatic to Comfort.. and when alone.. usually Sport2.. sometimes Sport1.

from what Chris said, and my suspicions.. there may be a link to the airmatic settings afterall.

 

A week seems a bit long for the "training" of the transmission.

I was always under the impression that it resets every time the car is started?

 

Your impression is what the MB shop foreman told me a while ago.

 

Perhaps it doesn't need a full week to learn.. but I honestly do not think it resets itself. I defintely seems to "remember" how I was driving it last.. and if there's a change.. it begins to change it's behavior according....

This "memory" is why I am hoping to test the "key memory" and the airmatic settings too. I think they MIGHT be tied together somehow.

Peter

 

Love this thread because I love this tranny. My experience has been the same as Nitro. You don't have to floor it and drive very aggressivly to train the transmission. On the contrary. If you just give it a quick foot to half throttle then it learns to down shift there. I think it might have to do with how quick you are on the gas and not how much you are on the gas that trains it.

I trained my in comfort. It does have a tendancy to fall back if you chug it around but that's fine. It doesn't take that long to retrain and besides as Nitro is learning I really believe that there is a difference in the shifting in Sport Mode. As a metter of fact I mentioned this to my salesman and he confirmed that in his materials it says that the tranny holds a gear longer and downshifts quicker in the Sport Mode. I haven't been able to see a difference in Sport I and II though.

 

My experience is the same as Nitro. My car knows when I want to downshift - I dont have to press full throttle. I only press full throttle to kick-down 2 gears if I wanted really hard acceleration.

 

Don't you EVER call me "Grandma" again or i'll have to do this seriously, though that's why i'm confused about this. I drive REAL aggressive all the time. I'll have to try leaving it in sport mode for a while and see what happens.

 

I must agree that I have noticed the same learning patterns in my transmission. The only complain I have is that, it seems as if the transmission “unlearns” faster than it learns.
Question: If I keep my transmission in “C” mode (comfort) for slow driving and in S mode (SPORT) for fast driving will the transmission learn two patterns?