I like the DS mode but it feels like I am waisting gas when I run out of room (other drivers in the road). I was thinking of trying DS first when I autoX the car. First time out I'm going to take it easy and see if it does ok in F stock class. I want to find the car's limits, Maybe second run DS with VDC off. Will it get real tail happy?

 

I too love the DS mode. It's much more aggressive then the "sport mode" in my previous 540i. However, I don't like the fact that it doesn't want to shift out of 4 to 5 during highway driving. I find myself upshifting to 5th which throws the transmission into "manual" mode. And yes, I like DS mode on the highway, the shifting response time is better for eating 330i's!

 

Love the DS and manual shifting w/ the paddles. The DS does seem a bit less controlled than BMW's (coming from an e46 330xi), but the DS feels like it "gets going" faster than regular auto.

Also - I didn't buy this car to think about fuel economy. :-)

 

I have HFC's and I went to Technosquare for a "reflash". I drive DS mode all the time now. I use the paddle shifters from 0-80. Once over 80, I quickly flash it to D mode and back to DS and let the engine do the rest from 80 to 160. After the reflash, shifting is a BLAST.

 

DS mode is handy when in the turns and you need to down shift; mine seems to always go to 5th gear when i ease off the accelerator and i have to use the paddles to bring it back to 4th to maintian a decent RPM's. I have noticed using the paddles it is a little slow to up shift and the RPM's getting away and I have to ease off of the gas which sucks.

 

I don't think DS operates in 5. I think it's 1-4 if I'm not mistaken.

 

But what do you do from 160 to 250?

 

when i drive in regular automatic and I hit the( - )paddle it shows 4 on the display. so Im in DS for a limited time or as long as im hitting the + or - paddle and after a few seconds (4 or 5) it goes back to Regular automatic and D is displayed

 

To counter the delay in upshifting from 1- 2 just click at 6900. It will hit redline and shift on time.


To counter the delay in downshifting, hit the gas first or "double gas" it.

I like DC mode but sometimes it is a little bit too aggresive. I like full manual mode especially in the twisties.

 

OK, I feel really stupid here. Generally when I want to shift manually, I move the shifter to the left and then the "DS" appears. Then I just downshift it until the "1" appears. Are you guys saying that you can drive while the "DS" is appearing? Help me out here!

 

yes you can and it will shif at red line everytime for you.

 

yup, once you upshift or downshift you're in the manual mode. If you leave it at DS Mode, then it's at a full automatic mode.

 

So this is what im understanding...

D mode - you can use paddle shifters, tiptronic, etc.
DS mode - more aggressive fully automatic. No need for paddle shifter?

 

not quite.

D mode (Drive), the car is fully automatic, but you can intervene with paddle shifters. after a couple of seconds of you not shifting with the paddles, the car returns to full auto. you can also force the return to full auto by holding either an up or down paddle for about a second.

DS mode (Drive Sport), the car is fully automatic, but shifts are quicker and the car likes to rev more and downshift more under moderate braking. if you intervene either with paddles or tiptronic, you'll be in manual mode only. manual mode makes use of the quicker shifts though. in order to return to DS mode, you would have to slide over to D, then back to DS.

make sense?

 

yeah! thanks for clearing up alot of things haha. I always drive tiptronic on other cars so ill just use DS instead of D on my g37s