ahering

Ok, granted, Comfort starts on 2nd gear and Standard (or wrongly called Sport) starts on 1st gear, my questions is more towards the stress on the gear-box/transmission, I read somewhere it was recommended to switch on to S mode when in city driving. Is this true? Should we primarily drive on S mode not in terms of a driving experience but in reference to having less stress on the gear-box/transmission?

CastorTroy

I leave my car in S all the time, as I really don't like the power delivery/feel of C (7 speed)

mtrevelino

I also leave my cdi in "S" all the time. My old way of thinking is it is not good for the car to start out in second. Just old school thinking!
Mike T.

ahering

I am having the same thought, it does not look like a good idea to always start on 2nd, but I am not knowledgeable on the subject... thanks for the comments.

kajtek1

It is alway a compromise.
1st gear often gives abrupt movement, what gives high stress to drivetrain. Than additional gear change brings additional clutch wear.
I'd tend to choose fluid mixing on 2nd gear, even my E250BT is not giving me such choice.
But on older SL500 starting on 1st gear was creating headaches, unless I feathered gas pedal, so I kept it on W mainly for that reason.

ahering

Mine is an E500, starting on 1st or 2nd does really make no much difference other than changing gears at higher revs when on S mode, but for that very same reason it is confusing to me.

Matteo Sukic

I've noticed that when I keep in s and go a bit harder uphill with acceleration it holds gear much longer,also with pedal to the floor when i release it holds gear much longer,i leave mine most of the time in s but when that happens i just go in comfort then it shifts early.

ahering

Yes, and especially on first gear it really rev up more than I would like, yet I wonder if this is still better in terms of putting less stress on the transmission... somehow I feel like Comfort is more suitable for highway driving for the matter, but on heavy city driving I wonder if it is way better to keep it on S mode.

Matteo Sukic

they designed it probably that you can't damage it so use what you most like

Strigoi

I kept my E63 in C or M 99% of the time. First gear was just annoying when not using the paddle shifters so I rarely used S mode.

ahering

On my E500 on C mode, second gear feels like a first lol, love these engines 😎

Fantomas

I use comfort mode 90% of the time on both of my cars, they have plenty of torque and feel much smoother with a 2nd gear start, almost electric. Sport mode is handy for drag racing though, put it in S, select first gear and it won't upshift until redline even if you feather the throttle. Manual mode is useless because it's so slow, shift at 5500 and still hit the rev limiter.

TheFranchizeSLB

these cars are built this way for a reason.. it is highly unlikely they would even have the car default to Comfort and start in 2nd gear if it would cause strain and ruin the tranny... it just a matter of preference.. once you get a tune, comfort begins to feel like sport used to feel ... thats my recommendation!!

ahering

That is a really good point. It probably make a bit of a difference to use on or the other, but at the end it may very well be as minimum to even bother, so yeah, agreed. Thanks!