G37 auto transmission "DS" setting -- Is mine working right?

[Potomac-Greg]

I have a 2009 G37 convertible with an auto trans. When you slide it over to "DS" the shift scheme definitely changes, but not in an effective way in my view.

It will hold a gear ridiculously long. For example, it will run at 4,000 RPM at 40 MPH forever. You need to goose it up over 4,000 to get it to upshift.

Is this the way it's supposed to work???

[suby01]

YES.

[Potomac-Greg]

It really is unusable. I have to assume fuel efficiency goes in the tank; but more importantly, who wants to drive around like you have a three-speed automatic?

[joe603]

It's like that so you have instant power if needed.

Think of it this way, if you took the car to the track you'd want to stay in a gear unless you needed to downshift for a turn or accelerate out of a turn. Switching gears takes up precious lap time.

You can always manually change gears...

[Potomac-Greg]

It's like that so you have instant power if needed.

Think of it this way, if you took the car to the track you'd want to stay in a gear unless you needed to downshift for a turn or accelerate out of a turn. Switching gears takes up precious lap time.

You can always manually change gears...

I'm someone who loves track days (not with a convertible), but I'd rather they designed it for street uses. Tooling around town at 4000 RPM so that I can have instant power is a little too extreme.

I wish it was a true "sport" setting that raised the shift points and made the shifts sharper.

[suby01]

thats personal preference i know a lot of drivers on here that drive in DS mode pretty much 80%++ of the time.

what joe said as well as if you want to pass someone highway or not, when you press the gas pedal your rpms are ready no need to wait the 1 second for the downs*** as opposed to just gooooooooooooooo.

i personally use manual mode about 95% of the time so DS is useless to me and the other 5% would be drive, thats when i just want to cruise home late at night usually. but i digress.

and fuel economy i cannot seem to be able to shift anywhere below 4-4500rpms even when im trying to drive slow. listening to the kitty purr is

[Potomac-Greg]

I guess you can't please everyone.

[madmike]

ds shift mode is surgical if you know how to use it.if your at 4k just tip the throttle it will upshift very quickly.the whole mapping of trans is different in ds mode.ds mode is really for twisties,to keep the rpmls up.not ot mention.keep the car balanced.last thing you want is an upshift mid turn.the whole balance of the car gets thrown off.

try on straight aways and get used to shift points.hit some twisties you will then understand how to use it.

it takes some getting used to.if you feather the throttle it goes alot higher than 4k.I have had hang at like like 5-6k on some hard turns.