Ok, I don't know much about transmission, gears, or paddle shifters. However, over the past month, I have been driving my E and leaving my S at home. In comparison to the S, my E350 seems to be revving at around 2500 rpm on the freeway between 65 mph and 75 mph. On my S550, the engine revs at around 1000-1500 rpms both on streets and freeways. Why is the difference so much? I hate it when my E350 also revs up to 2000 rpm when I accelerate from 0. On streets, when I accelerate, at 8mph, the revs are already at 2200 rpm, and then it comes down and up again. Are these rpm's normal? Thanks.

 

Perfectly normal. Chalk the differences up to having a lower torque engine in your E350. The rear end ratio in the differential is higher too because of this, hence the increased rpms. My E550 runs about 1600 at 65 mph. My around town rpms are usually between 1000 and 1100. The revs at low speed are just the combination of the transmission and differential allowing the 350 engine to get into its optimum torque curve. The V8 has a torque curve that starts at much lower rpms.

 

The rear end gear ratio on the E350 is 3.10. It's 2.4 on my E550. 2011 E350 engines produced about 268 foot/pounds of torque. It's close to 400 on my E550.

You can't fool mother nature.

 

It's very simple, just a smaller, lower displacement, less torquey motor. 6 cylinders typically have to rev higher to get moving than 8 cylinders, and 4 bangers have to REALLY rev to get moving.

 

In sport mode, the transmission will use gears 1-6 in most driving situations. In economy mode, it will use gears 2-7. Are you in sport mode? If so, once you reach cruising speed, hit the "+" paddle to shift to 7th.