To the guys and gals who own the automatic transmission, do you drive on the comfort mode or sport mode? What is the major difference between the two? Thanks!

From what I was told at the dealer, the sport mode is for "normal driving" in this mode the car starts in 1st gear and changes gears at approx. 2K rpm. In the comfort mode, the transmission starts out in 2nd gear and changes gears at a lower rpm usually around 1400-1500 RPM.

In both modes, if you only casually depress the accellerator the car shifts at the above points, in either mode when you kick down the pedal it will downshift between 1 and 3 gears and go almost to redline in each gear before a shift, AKA faster accelleration.

Personally i find the Comfort mode better for tooling around town and stop and go traffic by that is just my opinion.

Now you got me wondering. I have had it in comfort mode and never really looked into the sport mode (slowly working on those miles).
Next time out I will try both..... every trip is a new experience!!!!

in the owenr's manual it says that in the break in period they recommend you driving in the comfort mode rather than the sport mode.
i currently drive on comfort mode... ^^

I read that and decided to wait... soon.

Thanks for all the information. I recently tried both the Sport and Comfort mode and I gotta say it's alot more fun to drive in the Sport mode. When you step on the pedal you can feel alot more power and the car feels much more torquier, I assume due to it starting out in a lower gear. It almost feels like a different car. Even stepping on the gas pedal lightly jolts you forward, unlike when in Comfort mode the power band seems alot more evenly leveled.

My SLK is a stick, but my ML430 is an automatic with a similar sport/comfort configuration. According to its manual, the guys and gals at the dealership had it dead backwards...

The ML starts in First in Sport mode, for quicker takeoff. The comfort mode starts in second so you don't get that jerky 1-2 shift at about 15 miles when you're not pushing it.

It's my understanding that the Sport mode can be bad for the transmission, but when you're about to run a Mustang it's the mode to be in...

Just some thoughts...