What settings do you drive around in most?

[HiTechRV]

I'm finding I flipflop amond D, sD and manual shift a lot. I like sD so far. I cannot decide if I like Competative driving best for the TC/stability setting, but I think so. I am noticing a decided adjustment in the shift strategy being used as the car adapts to my driving style.

[Florian]

Sd, with Manual override as necessary; TC (competitive driving on) off, SS off.

F

[1fstkde]

city driving im always tc off and sd mode.. you have to be prepared when someone wants to .....guess thats why i get 11mpg around the city...but on the freeway i switch to d, gets better mpg...

[Slo-Mo-Shun]

So far, normal TC setting and D, with the occassional flick into sD. In the winter I'm more concerned about hitting a slippery spot and encountering major instability than with getting the slip angle just right for maximum corner exit speed.

I'm rethinking my approach. I've encountered a couple major hicups from the TC, where it kicked in, throttled back, and upset the car's balance at inopportune moments. Since we were well within the traction circle nothing bad happened, but the standard TC is clearly intended for grandma and probably limits a good driver's ability to get out of bad situations. Surprisingly, the TC on my dowdy Buick Park Avenue allows more wheel spin and actually lets me play "Micheal Shumacher In A Rain Race" when accelerating out of corners. Not so with the V--the standard setting seems far more intrusive. Very strange.

I'd use manual shifting, but as I've complained before, the shift pattern is backwards as to a sequential tranny race car, and I refuse to disturb my "muscle memory" and ingrained habit of "pull to upshift, push to downshift."

[HiTechRV]

Wow guys thanks!

Comp mode in manual is the hot ticket. Really sD *should* be the TC setting of Comp mode and very quick shifts. It will burn the tires from a roll very consistantly now in 1st. I can only imagine what this car could do with some track tires. I wish I could get the conservative setting for the stability control with something like the TC setting of comp mode.

[LITTLEELVISDAN]

D with TC completely off. Getting a tune gets rid of all the guess work since I only have 1 setting for shift patterns. You can burn the tires all the way through 1st gear and a couple of feet in second. Got one of these today

[Kadonny]

D and sD with TC off and always, always turn off those daytime running lights!

[Lanman]

I us sD most of the time and I seem to be getting a little bit better gas milage than I did when I just drove around in D. Anybody else experience the same thing?

[bobs-sts-v]

Originally Posted by Kadonny

D and sD with TC off and always, always turn off those daytime running lights!

I switched over to the TC off, and noticed a smoother ride and shift right away. Any way to get the car to do it by default?

I had to re-educate the tranny this week anyway. That goofy switch in the shift console finally failed. I had this problem about a year ago, where the car wouldn't recognize the shift point. Car locked itself in 3rd gear. While driveable, I couldn't really go faster than about 45mph. Dealer reprogrammed ECU and that worked, but he said it was probably temporary. So when it happened again last week, they replaced all the tranny switches and the ECU. Funny thing about that error, is that it won't let you turn the car off! DIC says to "Shift to Park", but the car IS in park. Had to disconnect the battery until they got all the parts, but working fine now. Except for having to retrain the shift points. Those first few days of clunky shifts were starting to get annoying. All smoothed out now, and the TC off really smoothed it out. No more hesitating on a hard RH turn.

As for a difference in sD and D, I haven't noticed much in the way of gas mileage, but I will certainly try!

Bob