I had no idea the shifting took so long. Is this right? On the SL65 I'm hitting the shift buttons and it's taking 3 or 4 seconds to actually shift after the number changes on the display.

Is this expected?

yes, that is how they work on the 722 (5 speed) autos & it sucks. A TCU tune will make it a bit faster, but nothing like the newer transmissions. It has to do with the design of the valve body and how shifts are actually actuated and performed vs other transmissions.

that is not consistent with my experience. The R230 is not the fastest shifting, but it is not that slow.

In my own SL55 (2003), I have a gauge that displays "target gear" and "actual gear" (aeroforce interceptor CAN gauge), and the shifts are faster than 1 second. This is both in manual and auto modes (with an "un-touched" 2004 TCU). I do have the ability to log those 2 parameters, so I suppose I could if I ran out of stuff to do someday
My SLK32 does have a "touched" (tuned) TCU and it might shift a skosh faster.

hope you are enjoying the new ride !
Cheers,
Chris