I tried sport mode on my way home today (had previously only used the paddles for occasional downshifting in drive), and I am not a fan.
The "gears" are so close together! I felt like I was CONSTANTLY upshifting. I've gotten used to how the CVT sounds when it's in its butter zone, and getting it up to 3500rpm sounded real angry!

Here's my measure of ridiculousness: I was in "fifth" going 40mph and holding at 2500 rpm. Back in my neighborhood, I tried to see how I'd have to shift to make it sound like it does in full auto-- at 25mph, the car sounded/felt happy in "fourth" and was running 1500rpm. I know it has "seven" "gears", but 5th at 40mph doesn't leave much room for highway!

Anyone else tried sport mode yet? Did I miss something here?

 

I have, but I'm doing stoplight to stoplight. I agree that it was too choppy.


I've gone the other way and keep it in ECON, not so much for mileage but because it feels more fluid and refined than the standard setting. Maybe I'm just old enough to have considered a Buick.


Give me a winding country road and that would likely change.

 

It was in-town driving, but I managed to miss most of the lights I was excited to try it on country roads, but after this experiment I think it would probably be infuriating. I think I'll have more fun, paradoxically, leaving it in auto and just using the paddles for downshifting as needed.

On the other hand: I tried econ mode recently and turned it off pretty quickly! It made the throttle response sooooooo sluggish. I know that's what it's supposed to do, but it was too much for me. Different strokes, though, so you do what works for you!

 

Tried it out on test drive and no longer interested with it.

 

This is exactly what happened to me. I thought I was going to tear up the road like Lewis Hamilton but it wasn't what I expected. Maybe I'll practice using sport mode one of the curvier roads on the island where I used the ride my motorcycle. But for daily driving I'm just sticking to D.

 

There actually is more room on the highway.

7-Speed Manual Shift Mode page 323 of owners manualSo I guess it has eight gears but you can only shift between the first seven, as if the CVT wasn't complicated enough already.

Try explaining to somebody that you can be in Econ mode and sport mode at the same time, while manually shifting simulated gears in a gearless transmission, to 7th gear which can actually be above 7th gear, and sport mode stays in the selected gear unless you lug or redline the engine or come to a stop, but D mode reverts the manually selected gear back to regular automatic drive mode quite quickly if you drive at a constant speed or accelerate. BRAIN ASPLODE.

 

Very interesting! Thank you for adding (and I thought I had read the manual cover-to-cover!).

 

Thanks for this. I needed a good laugh to start off my Monday and this provided one! Thanks.

 

Thanks

More complications: In drive mode (D), holding the right paddle for a few seconds will force cancel the manual shift mode and return to regular "D", but holding the right paddle also upshifts at the same time.

So holding the right paddle is how you would BOTH SHIFT AND CANCEL SHIFTING AT THE SAME TIME. WTF?

In sport mode, you must shift into "D" to cancel the paddle manual gear selection. That sucks. What if I want to remain in sport mode but not have to manually shift? I wish you could cancel paddle shifting by holding the right paddle just like in "D", I don't see why they had to make cancelling paddle mode in "S" different than "D".

All this paddle stuff described on page 323 of the manual. And it hurts the brain.