LaRRy

Hi,

Does anybody like using the manual part of the automatic sports drive like me on the p5's?

Is there things we should know about that so we dont mess up our engines or anything? Like pointers of things we should do or watch out for.

tonkabui

i drive my autostick about 90% of the time. in order to save gas, i granny shift at about 2500 rpm unless i feel rev happy that day. i've found that i get about 3 more miles to the gallon this way than straight D mode.

anyway, the only thing that i have noticed about the sport auto mode is that it doesn't shift quickly. like tonight, there was this saturn sc2 (with dual exhaust and making awful sounds from the one exhaust that is actually functional) totally tailgating me, so i changed lanes for him to pass. he did, but cut right in front of me and started going really slow! so at the next light, we both go and he's still going reaaalllly slow (pretty sure it wasn't by choice, but nonetheless), so i changed lanes and downshifted from second to first. i revved to about 4500 rpm and upshifted but nothing happened! so the tach kept climbing... all the way to 6000 before i let off the gas. whoa... almost redlined! it took another two attempts at upshifting before it actually caught. just don't downshift and upshift too quickly, especially in the lower gears. (oh, this all happened within about two seconds).

other than that, i like the sport mode. i often think of myself in a sequential shifting rally car to make myself feel better about not getting the manual tranny. oh well... damn girlfriend! have fun with your car!

MrEdz

my suggestion is not to drive the car in first gear in manual mode, it feels like the car wants to grinds to a hault if you let off the gas...

dficken

But I don't use it too much unless i am on the back roads. On tight turns and such its quite fun to play around with.

I also ran into the same situation where it doesn't seem to go into second when you floor it. Not all the time, but sometimes. I wasn;t sure if it was my error or not since it seemed to go into 2nd just fine when I tried it again. Strange really. Seems like when you floor it and pop it into 2nd, it sometimes doesn't acknowledge that you upshifted. Maybe its a flaw in the computer that controls this upshift. Anyone else have the same problem? If its a common problem throughout, maybe we can get a fix for it.

Last, I had a question about gas milage since you all should have p5's with sport AT's. WHat kind of gas milage have you been getting? I am getting a rock solid 22mpg. I drive a clean mix of city and highway and i don;t get on it that much. I have tried various qualities of gas from 89 to 93 octane. All the same. It's like its hard coded for 22mpg.

I had my friend calculate his mpg in his regular protege (which is a stick) and he got 31 mpg. This is getting on it and also in Chicago where he sits in traffic a lot. Thats almost 10 mpg more than me and i don;t sit in much traffic at all.

Anyway, If you guys (p5 owners with sport AT) can give me some of your averages, i would appreciate it. I saw that someone else took their car in to the dealer because of bad gas milage and they got better mpg afterward. I am just wondering if i need to do the same thing.

btw, I have the roof racks and my car has about 2100 miles on it.
Thanks,
Dale.

kosmicride

It is basically the same gas milege if you drove manumatic shifting or granny driving it will shift only after certain rpm's and speeds.
If you drive fast in either it will use the same amount of gas.

MrEdz

I was able to go over 400 miles on the last tank of gas (freeway/city mix)... However I'm not too concerned with the miles per gallon i'm getting anyways... my job supplies me with a company gas card

douggie

I'm pretty sure that you are pretty much safe no matter what you do because I believe that the 'auto' shift is still has a wee bit of control even if you shift into 'manu-matic' mode.

That probably explains why the car doesn't shift into 2nd when you floor it while in 1st. It's just guessing that you want to shift at a higher RPM.

The other case is to prevent accidental downshifts that might blow the engine. (like downshifting from 2nd to 1st at a high speed). A 'smart' system would override the drivers command and will downshift only when the rpms are in the safe range.

Maybe you guys can try this. Shift into "manu-matic" and redline all the way while in 1st and see if it auto shifts to 2nd. If it does, then you know that you're not really 100% in control.

i've driven the MB C class in the step-tronic mode and there was one time i floored it and forgot to up-shift. The fuel cut off system actually triggered when i revved it past redline! That means that it gave the driver quite a bit of control (could be a good or bad thing ).

tonkabui

kosmicride:

i've noticed that the car doesn't shift until ~3000 rpm or above when i am in first and second, not matter how softly i push on the pedal, so i go and shift it myself in the range i want it to shift. see? all better! 19 mpg city driving alone in D mode. averaged 22 on my last tank in manumatic mode. yeps. i got it in my log.

irish6714

u should have got the 5 speed

LaRRy

whoa!!!

i usually get 260ish miles on a full tank.

But ever since im using the auto-stick i've got 300 miles so far and my tank aint even near empty!!!!

JDMstuff

The only time I ever got 400 to a tank was when I first got it and had to baby it home. Since then, 260 is about average for me.

LaRRy

380?

5 speed manuel?

zze110

380mpg average... wow... if it wasn't for the oxygenated fuel here in California...