E-Class (W212) 2010 - 2016: E 350, E 550

Why is that my car starts in the E mode!?

Old 08-27-2011, 12:08 AM
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Originally Posted by dfordham
Others have said that even if you are in 'E' mode, if you hit the pedal hard, the car will start in 1st gear.

This seems to be borne out in the User Manual (pg 159): "Drive program E is characterized by the following: the vehicle pulling away more gently in forward and reverse gears, unless the accelerator pedal is depressed fully."

Regards,
Don
I have a 20 year old 300E that starts in second gear if you start out gently. However, if you are a little more aggressive, it starts in first gear. I believe my E550 does the same thing. As far as merging with traffic, even in E mode, it doesn't take much throttle on the E550 to accomplish this. In normal driving I want the transmission to shift up to a higher gear as soon as possible.
Old 08-27-2011, 11:59 AM
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Originally Posted by BudC
I have a 20 year old 300E that starts in second gear if you start out gently. However, if you are a little more aggressive, it starts in first gear. I believe my E550 does the same thing. As far as merging with traffic, even in E mode, it doesn't take much throttle on the E550 to accomplish this. In normal driving I want the transmission to shift up to a higher gear as soon as possible.
I don't believe that is correct. It starts in 2nd when set to E. I personally always set it to S as soon as I start the car. I would use E only in snowy weather. When I had my 2000 e320, I would use the W setting(same as todays E setting) in bumper to bumper traffic to prevent the tranny from jarring when slipping from 1st to second. I don't have that issue with my e550. Regards. Ned.
Old 08-27-2011, 12:03 PM
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Originally Posted by park423
huge difference when accelerating hard between C and S, car darn near literally jumps in S. This thread started got me started driving in S mode again as I have been content for the last 6 months just leaving it in C all the time, it's like driving a whole new car again, sounds and feels much more aggressive.
Do you mean S as opposed to E? That affects the tranny shift point. The C and S setting is for the suspension which I don't believe affects engine or tranny performance. Regards. Ned.
Old 08-27-2011, 03:16 PM
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Originally Posted by ngerstman
I don't believe that is correct. It starts in 2nd when set to E. I personally always set it to S as soon as I start the car. I would use E only in snowy weather. When I had my 2000 e320, I would use the W setting(same as todays E setting) in bumper to bumper traffic to prevent the tranny from jarring when slipping from 1st to second. I don't have that issue with my e550. Regards. Ned.
I know it starts in second but I thought it down shifted off the line like my 300E if you punch it.
Old 08-28-2011, 12:23 AM
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Originally Posted by ngerstman
Do you mean S as opposed to E? That affects the tranny shift point. The C and S setting is for the suspension which I don't believe affects engine or tranny performance. Regards. Ned.
mines a 2010, it's C and S, they changed to E and S for 2011
Old 01-07-2012, 04:41 PM
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Originally Posted by Edude
I have '11 E350 P2 SPORT with 700 miles on it. The most annoying thing is that my car ALWAYS starts in the E mode and I have to manually switch it to S every time I restart the car. Is this part of the break in period and will go away after X amount of miles? Or may be there is a setting that I don't know of that will permanently start my car with S mode ON.

Cheers,
E-Dude
Same as E-Dude. I must have spent 15 minutes fiddling with various menus and button pushes trying to get the E/S setting to remember S mode on my 2011 E550; only to find out that E is the default. What a travesty. My previous car was E500 and it remembered the last setting.
Does anyone KNOW if the dealer can change the default setting or if there's a hack for it?
Old 01-07-2012, 08:00 PM
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For the regular driver, starting in second also makes for a smoother take off. In E mode, you also get a taller reverse gear. 7 forward speeds, 2 reverse speeds.

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