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      03-08-2013, 03:46 AM   #1
sunscreemer
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8AT driving tips

I saw lots of very positive reviews on here about the 8AT box which influenced my buying decision and i'm not disappointed in the slightest. All were saying how fantastic it was but I thought it may be useful, especially for newbies to auto boxes like myself, if others could share tips - whether to get the best performance using the box or to get the best economy out of it.

Must add, my pet hate at the moment with the amount of temporary traffic lights on my route is cars slowly coasting a huge distance up to the queue - let me get there asap so i can activate the stop/start you fools!
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      03-08-2013, 04:16 AM   #2
davyk31
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Is it not just as simple as get in, squeeze pedal and let the car do all the work. Also never bother with kick down just flick the paddles if you need a quick change.
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      03-08-2013, 05:22 AM   #3
RichardM
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Mostly put switching to sport really changes the characteristics, brings it alive and adds weight to the steering. You can also move the gear leaver to the left which seems to turn it up a notch again and makes manual shifts really fast (but harsh).

Eco Pro is the best way to save fuel as it encourages relaxed driving and changes gear early.

My only minor complaint is that in sport it won't go into 8th gear. Once I get up to say 80mph on a dual carriage and stick to that speed for a while it would be good if it changed into 8th. For that reason I find myself switching between comfort and sport too often.
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      03-08-2013, 05:36 AM   #4
sunscreemer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardM View Post
Mostly put switching to sport really changes the characteristics, brings it alive and adds weight to the steering. You can also move the gear leaver to the left which seems to turn it up a notch again and makes manual shifts really fast (but harsh).

Eco Pro is the best way to save fuel as it encourages relaxed driving and changes gear early.

My only minor complaint is that in sport it won't go into 8th gear. Once I get up to say 80mph on a dual carriage and stick to that speed for a while it would be good if it changed into 8th. For that reason I find myself switching between comfort and sport too often.
I'm still a little confused by the system (not had enough open road driving yet to fully experiment). As I understand, moving the gear lever to the left reduces the box to 6 gears and is basically the gearbox in Sport mode and will effectively be in "sport auto" unless you start to use the paddle shift or forward/backward by which it will stay remain in "sport manual" control until it needs to intervene (preventing stall or redline).

Then, independently you can select sport mode in the drive performance control which affects the throttle, revs at which gear changes occur and steering feedback.

Of course at any time in any setting you can use the paddle shifts to make a change which interrupts the auto for a short time.

I've not got the adapative suspension and I have the standard steering by the way.

I also understand that rather than progressively building up to a speed as I did in my manual the best thing in the auto box is to quickly get to a speed then let the box drop down.

I wait willing to be educated...
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      03-08-2013, 07:25 AM   #5
RichardM
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If you put the drive mode into sport it does switch the gearbox to sport too whilst also still enabling start stop to work. This is configurable in the idrive settings but is the default.

Whichever sport method you use it will use gears 1-7 not 1-6.

When in sport you can also move the gear stick to the left. This disables start stop and seems to give the quickest shifts, particularly in manual mode.

This is all just from my own playing! I've spend a while testing each and also changing the iDrive settings.
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      03-08-2013, 07:41 AM   #6
sunscreemer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardM View Post
If you put the drive mode into sport it does switch the gearbox to sport too whilst also still enabling start stop to work. This is configurable in the idrive settings but is the default.

Whichever sport method you use it will use gears 1-7 not 1-6.

When in sport you can also move the gear stick to the left. This disables start stop and seems to give the quickest shifts, particularly in manual mode.

This is all just from my own playing! I've spend a while testing each and also changing the iDrive settings.
Thanks, I think i need a few longer runs to start playing properly. It's ok the dealer going through everything (which they did very well) but there's no substitute for trying everything out yourself in practise.

Long gone are the days when you just turned the key and drove (ok, although the auto box means less work..!).
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