Stealth7

For those of you lucky ones who have already received your cars, how responsive is the transmission when you ask it to kick down in automatic mode? In other words does it commonly kick down one or two years at will or does it more commonly stay in the same gear? By "kickdown" I am referring to being in a higher gear and going down to a lower gear when you mash the gas pedal. Thank you for your thoughts!

Bueller

Stealth7

Just fyi, 2 reviewers have mentioned in the reluctance/inability of the 4-matic in the E63s to drop down sufficiently when prompted (Chris Harris on Track and Steve Sutcliffe of Auto Express also on Track). Two excellent reviewers... . Further Georg Kacher of Automobile tested the car vs. the new BMW M5 and found the same thing. In fact, the quicker BMW times in the 1/4 mi. and to 150mph were chalked up to the BMW transmission shifting more aggressively. I believe in cruising when you punch it the BMW will drop down 2 gears verses 1 for the E63s. I notice this in my wife's new 2018 C43 as well. That car is great from a stop and if you time the gears just right, but will not drop down enough say at 60mph when you punch it.

Is it really the case that none of you have experienced this issue? This car is really designed to be dual purpose: every day cruiser and utility mobile; and rip snorting monster sports sedan.

E634Me

My experience is that it depends upon which mode setting you have selected.

If in comfort mode, it does seem more reluctant to downshift and start to get a move on. But in Sport+ it seems much more inclined to downshift and get moving.

The scenario I noticed this in was tooling along on a rural highway behind a slower car in comfort mode and then stomping the go pedal when a passing zone presented itself. The car did seem to think about it a bit before understanding that I did indeed mean to put the spurs to it.

After a time or two of that, I started putting it in Sport+ mode and that seemed to take care of it.

This isn't what I'd call a sport driving scenario. The car is loafing along in 9th, running on 4 cylinders in comfort mode, then suddenly being asked to go from econo lounge to Pro Stock dragster.

My experience doing some mountain road driving in Sport+ was a whole different matter. There I was pushing the car harder and it seemed to figure that out somehow and automagically selected gearing that felt about right. It will be interesting to see how my impressions change as I get more comfortable in the car and pick up the pace without the family along for the ride.

On that note, I think read somewhere that we can create user defined tracks. Has anyone tried that for their favorite limited access canyon road?

Vic55

Ive had/have 5 MCT's all of the 7 speed in nature and this 9 speed variant is the best of the lot. As others have mentioned its all about the modes one use. My car in sport plus will drop 3 speeds if Im in a cruising gear (eg 7th) and running about 70 mph and with a WOT stab it will go to 4 and the rpms will erupt. I firmly believe its all about the software here as the hardware is fixed. My MCT's have progressively become better with the mode options that Benz now offers. My C63S has great response as well and clearly has advanced over the first MCT I owned back in 2010 (E63). These turbos while in the hot V setup pull alot of lag out still have spoil lag which some may assign as transmission lag.

Edit: I only drive the car is S+ Drive mode as hunting up and down 9 speeds manually is overkill for the street.

I also have ample experience with the ZF tranny that is now in the F90 M5 and its a great tq converting tranny. But with the cars Ive had, I again found that the software was key especially in my Bentley GT3R and gen 2 RS7 (I have had 2). Where the ZF wasnt as sharp in shifting was in my Jag F Type R. The F90 M5 is a beast but weighing in over 300 lbs less than the E63S is where the main time differences are at IMHO.

DriveAMG

2012 merc amg

Oh ya it's got 9 speeds vs 7 speeds so a lot more shifting up and down. My complaint is when you get on it some at least in comfort mode and it kicks down it will keep holding that gear even if after you want to drive normal, I dunno maybe this is some thing I should have checked out at the first oil change when the car goes in. It's like i'll accelerate fast, it kicks down, but then I'll catch up to traffic and want to drive normally and the car will hold 4500 to 5000 rpms for a while even though I'd rather have the gears drop down to 7 or 8th or 9th or something. I can correct this by hitting the right paddle shifter and shifting it manually to a lower gear and have done this many times, but I feel like I should not have to do this that the car should just shift into that lower gear because I let off it so much or even just go into glide mode. Other than that I like the way it shifts much better than my 2012 AMG.

limeypride

What's a pedal booster?

DriveAMG

bobblehead

no increase in hp though.

DriveAMG

limeypride

DriveAMG

limeypride

For those that have this kind of device, do they really do something you can objectively measure? If so, that would likely help with "the sluggish feel" that this thread opened with.

Is the installation plug-n-play or ...? My interest is definitely piqued...

DriveAMG

Vic55

Ive used this type of device once: on my 2012 R8 V10 which is notorious for lack of throttle input. The E63S does not suffer from this IMHO as a relatively light depression of the throttle creates good movement. I had sprintbooster and all it did was take a "dull" pedal and create more throttle with less depression. It basically shortened the amount of time from depression to reaction but it was needed in the R8. I would never have done this on my M's as those cars are so throttle sensitive up front. In reality it creates a heavier foot because, as stated, there are no tangible gains in hp/tq but the feel of increased speed with less throttle can definitely create a more lively car feel.

Owning the cars I have now, each has different throttle feel and compression to reaction that is noticeable. The GTS and the E63S in Sport Plus modes are touchy but not overly so. Mind you I am just talking about the rpm run ups via similar compressions because torque cars can create a better feel.

limeypride

Thanks for the input, guys.

Since I've driven the car only 200 miles or so, I'll hold off getting this until I think it's necessary.

FWIW, the issue I'm personally trying to address (based on past cars) is this: I want to reduce the delta (time-wise) between a stomp & go launch from a light and a brake-torqued launch. I'm certainly not expecting the two to be the same but the time from stomp to wahooo approaches and possibly exceeds a second--this seems too high and I've experienced it with reasonable consistently across 3 x F10 M5s, 2 x F06 M6 GCs, an X5M and an RS7. Throttle response can, of course, be dialed-in with all of these cars but even in their Sport+ or Dynamic or whatever setting, it's still there. Time will tell...

Stealth7

Just for clarification: my post (this thread) is not about a pedal booster to increase throttle response; instead, it is about the 4-Matic Transmission in the 2018 E63s and its ability to aggressively drop down to a lower gear or gears when the throttle is mashed--passing, merging or other "all-in" situations. The new C43 9-speed 4-Matic my wife has simply stays in the gear it is in in many situations and does not go to a lower gear. Reviewers Chris Harris, Steve Sutcliffe and Georg Kacher ALL have remarked on this lack of responsiveness.

This issue is not related to the 200lb heavier weight of the E63s related to the F90 M5, and just flicking the E63s Mode selector does not solve this issue. The E63s has more torque and slightly more hp than the M5 (and yes, I understand the difference between hp and trq). If you look at the comparative E63s and M5 Speeds up to 150mph you will see the difference.

One poster above pointed to software and I believe this is closer to the answer. It may be that AMG will come out with some updates on this matter--especially with the GT Sedan which I believe uses the same transmission.

Thank you for your thoughts and input!

ronin amg

Just set the personal settings to engine sport+ and everything else to comfort..
As for the opinions of auto journalists I only listen to those that own the car they are talking about.

Vic55

Exactly and stop making sense LOL.

Im the one who stated there has been excellent changes in software but I doubt there will be updates as there never were in the past. As for the M5 reaching 150mph faster in the Automobile test, it was clearly stated because of the one extra shift that E63S took. The car is great and I own it and no one state side has taken delivery of an F10 M5 yet so Ill wait for the head to heads at the exact same time.

The 18 C43 does not have the same transmission as our E63S either so thats apples and oranges.

Quickburn7

Vic55

Yes real ownership feeback.... I have alot of experience, as mentioned above, with the ZF tranny and look forward to hearing your thoughts of how fluid it is vs the 9 speed. Ill bet its very strong as it was in my RS7 and Bentley.

Shellbmb

Vic, how does the 9 speed compare to the dual clutch in your GTS and the DCT you had in your F10?

Vic55

Good to see you here man!!

There are days where I swap cars and its really not that easy to discern. If Im thinking about the shifts and have an expectation of the most fluid of shifts then one can tell. But lets face it, hardly any of us are tracking these cars and Ill even fathom that most rarely go over 100 mph on a repetitive basis. I really like to push my cars, traffic dependent of course, but I drive the cars aggressively and this car really has a very improved transmission in smoothness of shifting and response, when used, of the paddles. If this transmission is an 8 out of 10, then the F10 and GTS are 9's. Its really that close IMHO as an owner of the cars you asked about.

My favorite DCT has been in the 6 Porsches and Ill say this again, its in the software as almost all DCT's are equal from a mechanical perspective.

Quickburn7