TheFranchizeSLB

hello all...

Glad to have joined this forum. I have a 2012 e350 sedan and I may be crazy but, why isn't it 7speed? when I'm paddle shifting, it only goes to 6th gear. Am I crazy or missing something? LOL... thanks in advance!

davidjohnbamber

The transmission starts off in 2nd IIRC.

TheFranchizeSLB

Meaning 1st is really second, and ultimately 6th is really 7th? lol Every other car that I have driven that says it is 7 or 8 speed, you can see when you are in 7th and 8th gear when you are shifting.

Diesel #2

When you paddle shift are you in Sport Mode ? Because if you are in Sport mode the transmission will keep it in 6th (even on the highway) in order to have your RPM around 1800-2000. Once you switch over to Economy mode, it will shift up to 7th gear and drop your RPMS under 1500.

TheFranchizeSLB

Shouldn't it be available in sport and economy mode regardless if the car sells w/ 7speed shiftable transmission? but to answer your question, it isn't available in economy either..

thefisch

It's there when the car is in automatic 'D' mode. This paddle system isn't real manual control anyway. Mostly just for downshifting.

jumpman726

You have 7 gears. If you're paddle shifting, after 6th gear the display changes to "D". It won't show the number "7" on the display, but you're in 7th gear.

In "E" mode the transmission starts out in gear "2". In "S" mode the transmission starts out in gear "1".

blegthbloo

I think even in "S" mode it still starts out in 2nd gear... I'll be at a light in "D" and "S", then tap the down paddle and I can feel it shift and then it displays "D1" ... so I'm thinking 1st gear is really only for semi-Auto mode. I think I read somewhere that we also have 2 reverse gears, although it's probably rare that anyone gets into the second one (that I know of)... don't quote me on that though lol

drwolf

this is correct, when i would drive on "S" mode plus D, on the freeway it would say in D6 mostly for RPM reasons as mentioned above, S isnt really useful on the freeway though, more for street driving, get more power of out of it

flipstah

I've always wondered when I had the car for the first month, then I noticed the rev got lower on the invisible 7th gear, so it is 7 overdrive. Basically 6 + an OD.

But it's an automatic and not a DCT, so don't expect paddle shifts = lightning fast. It's sluggish on both modes IMO.

SteveE400

Not all, if any. When I'm stopped, in gear, as long as it is in 'E' it will show '2' but as soon as I put it into Sport Mode, it downshifts and indicates '1'. If you are in motion when you put it into 'S' then it may stay in second. Any time I start from a dead stop in 'S' mode, it is always in first.

jumpman726

Yes, that's the same for me.

Also, there's a trick with the paddle shifters you can use when downshifting. Let's say you're in 6 or 7th gear and you want to downshift to 4th. Instead of clicking the paddle several times you can simply hold the downshift paddle for a couple seconds and the transmission will automatically downshift to the lowest possible gear.

belarus27

didnt know about automatically switching to the lowest gear. thanks. will try it out

Diesel #2

My display shows the 7th gear, not just the D.

Tump43

Same thing here. My 2014 E350 starts in 1st gear and often displays "D7" on the highway.

blegthbloo

2014+ I think is when they display what gear you're in all the time... for my 2011 and 2013 they only do that when you're in semi-auto mode with the paddles, from "D1" to "D6" (otherwise it's just "D", but you can feel the transmission shift to 7th).