Couple of questions:

1. Who use the different selection?
2. How often do you switch back and forth?
3. What do you use the most?

I ask the question, because I've found myself doing a lot of highway driving in "eco". When I'm driving locally, I find myself in "sport", needing to that extra acceleration. Driving in "eco" around the city, is like driving on the slow bus. Thanks in advance.

I have just 5000 miles on my m37x . Eco works fine on the highway with cruise control but as you said it is almost scary to use in city nothing happens when you accelerate . I have not noticed dramatic fuel economy changes in eco mode on highway but with conditions wind traffic it is difficult to measure. I have not used sport or snow yet , I find standard to be sufficiently sporty to get thru town. I am interested in others experience as well.

1) I have only used normal and sport on my 2012 M56S. There is absolutely no reason for economy mode on a V8!

2) I have put just over 5000 miles on the car, and have used sport mode for about 1000 of those. It is for more sprirted driving; tightens up the steering ratio and makes the go pedal more sensitive.

3) I have found that for back and forth to work and around town driving, normal mode seems to work better, and provides an enjoyable driving experience.

I never take mine out of sport mode anymore. I get the same or better mpg in sport mode vs eco mode (as long as I can keep my lead foot out of the pedal). Normally that's not the case, lol. I get a little over 25 mpg on a steady highway trip. Around town in stop and go traffic I get crap for mpg regardless of the mode.

Only time I switched was when I used Sport at the dragstrip and blasting around some suburban backroads. I leave it in Normal 95% of the time because it annoys me to have the transmission holding gears so long in Sport, I normally drive pretty slow anyway. I tried ECO for about one minute and never again, lol.

mazz wrote:. Eco works fine on the highway with cruise control.

I believe the Eco gets overridden in cruise control which puts it to normal mode.

I have tried Eco after calculating my mileage, but except on the highway, it seams unusable due to poor acceleration feeling.

Altered wrote:Only time I switched was when I used Sport at the dragstrip and blasting around some suburban backroads. I leave it in Normal 95% of the time because it annoys me to have the transmission holding gears so long in Sport, I normally drive pretty slow anyway. I tried ECO for about one minute and never again, lol.

Curious: what ETs were you able to run?

I use ECO when driving a sustained 40 mph or over. Never use it with cruise control and never in city driving. It improves mileage considerably on the highway if you pay attention. The opposite was true , for me, when I used ECO in city driving, down to 14 ish mph.

I can count one one hand how many times I used Sport…kicked it in one time on highway to get some distance between me and a bozo driver

I have a 2013 M37X.

SmoovC wrote: Curious: what ETs were you able to run?

It has done 14.27-14.25 @ 97.72-98.01

Four runs two weeks a part, car has been consistent


So I drove the car yesterday and left it in Sport, all the way to my destination. Still don't like the transmission holding lower gears, particularly on deceleration. It didn't drive as smoothly as it usually does. As they say 'to each his own', Standard is fine for me.

Mjkkb2 wrote:

mazz wrote:. Eco works fine on the highway with cruise control.

I believe the Eco gets overridden in cruise control which puts it to normal mode.

I have tried Eco after calculating my mileage, but except on the highway, it seams unusable due to poor acceleration feeling.

no wonder I thought eco was fine wile in cruise on the highway I need to look that up ..... it is unusable for me in stop and go driving hard to get across an intersection

SmoovC wrote:1) I have only used normal and sport on my 2012 M56S. There is absolutely no reason for economy mode on a V8!

2) I have put just over 5000 miles on the car, and have used sport mode for about 1000 of those. It is for more sprirted driving; tightens up the steering ratio and makes the go pedal more sensitive.

3) I have found that for back and forth to work and around town driving, normal mode seems to work better, and provides an enjoyable driving experience.

Great feed back, but how does the steering change, it sounds like there is an electric steering element to the M? I have not read that anywhere- did I miss that feature?

Altered wrote:

SmoovC wrote: Curious: what ETs were you able to run?

It has done 14.27-14.25 @ 97.72-98.01

Four runs two weeks a part, car has been consistent


So I drove the car yesterday and left it in Sport, all the way to my destination. Still don't like the transmission holding lower gears, particularly on deceleration. It didn't drive as smoothly as it usually does. As they say 'to each his own', Standard is fine for me.

That is damn consistent! Did you have the traction control on or off?

I am glad you mentioned the transmission remapping in Sport mode; I forgot all about that; and I agree it doesn't feel as smooth.

merlinq2 wrote:

SmoovC wrote:1) I have only used normal and sport on my 2012 M56S. There is absolutely no reason for economy mode on a V8!

2) I have put just over 5000 miles on the car, and have used sport mode for about 1000 of those. It is for more sprirted driving; tightens up the steering ratio and makes the go pedal more sensitive.

3) I have found that for back and forth to work and around town driving, normal mode seems to work better, and provides an enjoyable driving experience.

Great feed back, but how does the steering change, it sounds like there is an electric steering element to the M? I have not read that anywhere- did I miss that feature?

Yes, I believe I read somewhere that is has electric steering, IIRC. I wish I could find where I read what Sport mode all does; I seem to remember it did something with the rear steer also.

Altered wrote:

SmoovC wrote: Curious: what ETs were you able to run?

It has done 14.27-14.25 @ 97.72-98.01

Four runs two weeks a part, car has been consistent


So I drove the car yesterday and left it in Sport, all the way to my destination. Still don't like the transmission holding lower gears, particularly on deceleration. It didn't drive as smoothly as it usually does. As they say 'to each his own', Standard is fine for me.

I don't like that holding of low gears either.

I've had my M56 for three years, 26,000 miles, and the life-to-date mileage is 22.5. Probably 24,000 miles in "normal", and 2,000 in ECO. I've tried ECO around town, and I can manage it but it's almost unsafe. It appears to give about 2 mpg better result in town than "normal". Highway trips usually run 26-27 mpg and I set the cruise control 5 mph above the limit. I think ECO helps somewhat on the highway consumption but I can't estimate how much. I have not noticed any difference in cruise control behavior on the highway whether I'm in ECO or "normal".

I don't switch between the two setting much because I get used to driving with one throttle response and am likely to make nasty mistakes if I keep fooling around changing the response rate.

It's nice to have one of the disappearing V-8's available these days. It sure never lacks for power. Keep the rubber side down folks ! Doug

DougC wrote:I've had my M56 for three years, 26,000 miles, and the life-to-date mileage is 22.5. Probably 24,000 miles in "normal", and 2,000 in ECO. I've tried ECO around town, and I can manage it but it's almost unsafe. It appears to give about 2 mpg better result in town than "normal". Highway trips usually run 26-27 mpg and I set the cruise control 5 mph above the limit. I think ECO helps somewhat on the highway consumption but I can't estimate how much. I have not noticed any difference in cruise control behavior on the highway whether I'm in ECO or "normal".

I don't switch between the two setting much because I get used to driving with one throttle response and am likely to make nasty mistakes if I keep fooling around changing the response rate.

It's nice to have one of the disappearing V-8's available these days. It sure never lacks for power. Keep the rubber side down folks ! Doug

Safety is a huge concern, driving eco, locally.

When I'm home, I always use sport mode, and to me that's all I need, lol