I would normally never drive in Sport+, preferring comfort, but I tried out all of the drive modes for extended periods of time just for my own edification and one thing became very apparent to me: the transmission shifts better in Sports+ mode by far versus Comfort or Sports. I drove around like I normally do for all three modes, not racing, but just cruising around and while it held gears longer, the delayed “I-don’t-know-what-gear-I’m supposed-to-be-in” shifting disappeared: it was way smoother and faster, with no hesitation that happens so often in comfort.

Sports was the same as comfort with poor shifting.

Anyone else notice this?

 

I have noticed the same thing. Plus, Sports+ disables Start/Stop by default.

 

I been saying it... Everyone thinks I'm a stupid Porsche fanboy and Ii don't know what an S Class is supposed to be but... I still maintain the shift programming, throttle tip-in, and steering effort are broken. In my opinion, no car should shift this badly. The throttle tip-in on comfort is ridiculously soft; so soft I think it probably hurts smoothness and certainly doesn't help. The steering is so over-boosted in comfort it feels like the wheels are connected to the steering with rubber bands. Some of that is that I have 10 degree so it makes everythig feel a little "squishy" but IMO it feels vastly better in individual sport steering and even there is still so boosted a 98 lb asthmatic octogenarian grandmother could still steer with one finger.

That ain't right!

 

@crabman, you and I are on the same page. As I said before, I had to put the S Class loaner I was given during one of my recent service appointments into S+ just so it drives normally. Not sporty mind you, just normal. Anything below S+ seems to have been designed for 80+ year old with the reflexes of a sloth.

 

I've read all the comments here and really appreciate all the contributions. This is my first post. I've had my 2023 S580 since January and I drive almost two hours a day in light to heavy commuting highway traffic, so I've had 6000 miles to think about E, C, S, S+ and I. As others have said, this is not a sports car, but it is very fast in a straight line, has great brakes, and it is by far the most comfortable car I've ever driven. I have a 981 Porsche Boxster Spyder and I love it when I want to drive a sports car. I've spent weeks driving the S580 using each of the different modes. With E, I've gotten as much as 30 MPG and it is interesting to experience the car coast with the engine off, but it is more appropriate in light traffic on a long trip. With C, the car has the comfort and it is less jerky than E to accelerate from a standing start. People have complained that it drives like an old Lincoln Continental in comfort, but I think that's the beauty of it. It drives in a good way like the old Lincoln, but it isn't that bouncy. My old Macan Turbo in comfort was bouncier. In Sport, the suspension is still very comfortable, but you can feel the road and you have much more power (wiith a light touch on the pedal) at a standing start with a much smoother ride. In S, the V8 gives me a nice sense of power; its still there in C, but you have to put your foot down, so it is not has comfortable driving in a more spirited way. I can lightly touch the pedal and there's acceleration when I need it. Nevertheless, this doesn't feel like a Porsche PDK experience with a large vehicle trying to turn into a sports car - Mercedes AMG's do this well, but this isn't an AMG. This is a cruising sedan, which is actually exactly what I want. If I wanted a sports sedan, I wouldn't have bought the S580. Finally, S+ and S are not that much different; both are comfortable and enjoyable, but I wouldn't consider them a "sports car" mode. Interestingly, I can get pretty good MPG in S if I drive gently. In conclusion, the difference between all the modes is a matter of emphasis. It is different than other sedans, which often dramatically change the shifting, lower the car, and dramatically change the suspension (or at least feel that way). For a real sports car, you need acceleration, braking and most importantly, cornering. Mercedes could have done this in the S580, but they didn't (I assume) because you need a stiff suspension to get better cornering and it would conflict with the core purpose of this car. I have another car with a stiff suspension that corners amazing, but I don't want to drive that to work every day.

 

Agree, I like the S for the way it is. I keep it in comfort and use eco on long drives, haven’t touched sport once. I don’t mind the over-boosted steering or longer throttle, reminds me a lot of how my W211 E drives.

 

I agree js cls…Same here….and I’m not quite 80 yet (getting close tho). Superswiss came up with a rather insensitive ageist remark above:
”Anything below S+ seems to have been designed for 80+ year old with the reflexes of a sloth.”
I mean, seriously? In 2023?

 

Yeah, I get that perspective. I'd say that somewhere between very few and none would describe the number of people who bought a vanilla S Class thinking they wanted something sporty. The problem I see is not that the car lacks a sporty demeanor; essentially, no one bought this car wanting that, it's that some fundamentals are not well done.

Lets start with the inarguably broken, which would be the shifting. This car has easily reproducible shifting problems. An example: When going up a steep hill it downshifts with a bang. I mean a hard, no one intended it to happen, bang. The sort that sounds like something might break. I can reproduce this on every hill on the way up to the city house. I rent a lot of cars as I'm coming and going out of town and a few of those will also have shifts that wouldln't be described as smooth, but nothing like this car. We're talking about Honda, Toyota, Mazda, whatever cheap rental Enterprise gives me to take to the airport and get back home in. Torque converter lock up is very poor and easily perceptible, this can also hit with a bang which is unusual enough I've never encountered it. I can go on but IMO this transmission is not well sorted and easily bested by pretty much anything I get into that might even remotely be considered a competitor. Consider this; the PDK in the Panamera shifts vastly faster than this car does if you wish it, very fast, very firm, but it never bangs. Put it in normal mode and it isnt' as smooth, it's significantly smoother. And it's a dual-clutch, you know, the transmissions that are supposed to be all thumbs.

The steering... Try leaving everything else in comfort and putting the steering in sport in the individual mode. What you're going to find is that it's still one finger. Not figuratively, literally. You are still completely isolated from road feel, realistically almost any feel at all. It does one thing though, at least you can tell that the steering wheel is in some fashion connected to wheels. In comfort only time and experience can tell you how much turn you need to turn the steering wheel to get the car pointed some other direction. One last thing here. I was there, back in the day, with those Lincolns, Caddies, etc. At that time, something said by no one was, "I hope this steering is still here in 50 years." I don't know where to go with this one; I readily admit it's probably just me but I simply do not understand why you would want both zero effort and zero feel. I get why zero effort would be desirable in this car, zero feel, not so much, because you can still have isolation with feel.

The throttle; again probably me, But...I don't believe for one second this car is smoother due to the throttle. Chauffeur mode and all that? Nope, no buying it. If you have to learn how to drive smoothly, if it takes practice, there is something up. I can get into almost any car and drive it smoothly in terms of throttle input in a few blocks; this one you have to learn how to work around it to get anything done. Let's you want to leave a stop sign at an ordinary, even stately, pace? You have to feed in a lot of peddle, back out of it before it downshifts in an unseemly way (remember that poor trans shift tuning) then as it gathers speed you feed back in throttle. None of this is doing some fancy maneuvering; this is just leaving a stop. Of course you can give it a little throttle and wait an interminable period for something to happen and eventually it does; but not before the other guy decided you must want him to go first, or one of the cars behind you stands on their horn, or you get shot by an irate Uber driver. Next time you drive this car, pay attention to what you're actually doing with the throttle; the car taught you to do that, you had to learn it. Why is it wrong? Because you can get into one of those rental cars I was talking about and make a smooth roll away from a stop without doing anything but gently pushing on the throttle. Gunfire avoided.

I do like this car, it's quite a splendid place to pass time, but I think it could be better at what it does if it was better tuned. I've become accustomed to it just like everyone else but I'd submit that isn't really the best answer: You could probably become accustomed to being raped in prison every morning; that doesn't make it right.

 

So well stated, Crabman, as usual. I had my share of fast, unforgiving cars. That’s not what I was looking for here. That said, I like the S500 as it is. Perhaps it’s tuned a bit differently than the S580? I have no complaints about the transmission.

 

I think it's me, I'm not just saying that. It would appear most see it the way you do which is fine. I just have to put up the good fight for a while before I can go back to annoying Mrs Crab again!

 

I don't know how to drive in anything but Sport+.

 

I always felt MB’s 9-speed was complete trash. BUT, if it is more a matter of trashy programming, then they need to fix it and move the sports+ transmission shifting to comfort because the transmission doesn’t shift well. It hesitates, hunts and is not smooth in some gear changes. To me it’s bewildering MB’s own staff isn’t aware of these issues unless they turn off their brains while driving their own cars OR have become essentially “nose blind” to it where crappy shifting feels normal to them, lol.

 

Great great post, the car is supposed to learn our habits, not ours. If isn't learning correctly, it needs to be taught again, properly.