Anyone use Sport mode and paddles for most of their driving? What did it do to your gas mileage??

 

I thought I would when I bought the car but after a few drives using the paddles I realized the software in this ZF transmission is so good it gains you nothing using the paddles let alone sport. So, I use sport if I want to beat someone off the line, selecting 1st, but no need to up shift manually unless you want to short shift as the tranny only up shifts at redline when in sport manual mode.

Fuel economy would be about 10% worse if you used sport in automatic mode, much worse if you tried to shift manually all the time. Really pointless to try.

 

I use sport and manual a fair bit - mainly because I like to hear the exhaust popping but don't want to hold a gear like it does in sport/auto. I might have to resolve this with an aftermarket exhaust. But i agree, for the most part there is no point in doing this. I use the paddles to drop a few cogs if I want to launch it while in auto - better than waiting for kickdown. I never, ever look at the fuel consumption, it is just too depressing! But it stands to reason that the auto software will do a better job than the driver of preserving gas. I understand that cruise control usage increases gas usage too.

 

Cruise is actually best for economy because the cruise never fidgets with the gas pedal, all human drivers do despite what they may think. Cruise optimizes performance.

 

I agree that most of the time I use D but will use the paddles for light throttle passing when I want to drop a gear rather than dip more deeply into the throttle. Is that more efficient? I doubt it. I can usually do nearly the same thing by stepping on the throttle more sharply (quickly press it but not too far) to induce an automatic downshift.

I will use S in auto mode on the track. In street driving S seems to waste too much fuel, as it will wait to upshift long past the time needed or that I even would if controlling upshifts manually. I will use S mainly on that rare occasion when I want to control the gears with the paddles, since in D the transmission reverts to auto mode by itself if you don't keep flipping the paddles. Why do that? Under certain driving conditions I may want instant throttle response and acceleration without wanting to wait for a downshift or without wanting the abruptness of a kickdown. Again of course, that's less efficient, so fuel economy suffers.

All in all, I think the XFR gearbox is one of the better ones out there, if not the best, as its auto programs are relatively smart, it shifts quickly and it allows you many choices of mode of operation.

My only wish would be for a mode that allows you to go into manual mode with D without it reverting by itself to auto. Though I can see why the Jag engineers did that, when I choose manual mode, it's for a reason, so I don't want it reverting on me until I'm ready. While the transmission is usually smart enough not to do that while I'm in the middle of a turn, it does revert sometimes and upshifts at the same time. Then when getting on the throttle exiting the corner, there is a kickdown. It's best to do your shifting before entering the corner and then smoothly apply throttle after the apex while you unwind the steering. The work around is to turn the knob to S after using a paddle but that's an additional task I don't want to do while cornering, and for the reasons above I don't normally want to be in S mode all the time.

 

Cruise constantly adjusts the gas just as much, if not more than a human does. It is wrong to suggest that it does not fidget with the gas, but you are correct in that it doesn't fidget with the pedal! It will do everything it needs to do to maintain the set speed, constantly adjusting the amount of fuel being injected. A human foot won't maintain a constant speed as well, but a sensitive driver will do as near as good a job as makes no matter, and will coast more frequently when able to, back off more readily when traffic or perceived hazards are in the vicinity, travel up inclines more slowly etc. Cruise accelerates harder than most drivers do naturally too, so uses more fuel then too. It is hard to do a scientific test to prove if it is more or less fuel efficient to use cruise. A lot will depend on the driver and the journey, and the differences are probably small on most journeys anyway.

 

I think auto manufacturers agree that cruise is more efficient and that they have tested this idea. I am not sure why I think so.