Thread: Kick Down
View Single Post
      02-23-2020, 06:45 PM   #13
X5 45e
Colonel
No_Country
1077
Rep
2,415
Posts

Drives: BMW X5 45e
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: Belgium

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by James_G0530d View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by randybobandy View Post
James_G0530d I thought the same thing, but I feel a notable difference. I drive in Adaptive Mode 90% of the time. If you need to smash the pedal to accelerate, it's responsive, but more continuous/smooth. Pushing the pedal down beyond the resistance point and easing back up drops the gear down to what the vehicle perceives will provide the most acceleration.

It is such a small thing, but now that I learned about it...it's great. Again, with driving in Adaptive most of the time...Kickdown seems like a shortcut to sport plus acceleration for just a moment. I love that it goes right back to "normal" once you accomplish that needed punch. I know it's probably a small feature that everyone knows about, but I think it's hands down the best little trick. It's hard to describe the difference between this and just smashing the accelerator. Give it a try next time...it'll go into rocket ship mode!
That makes sense, and probably explains why Adaptive is my favorite mode.
Adaptive mode is the most comfortable, and the transmission is very intuitive, to the point where the car learns your driving behavior.

I have noticed in Adaptive that you only need a very mild press to kickdown a gear or two, but that doesn't happen too often for me as I have the 30d Diesel, and there's so much low-down torque the tranny only ever needs to go down 1..2-steps at most to get me over most hills.
When I'm cruising in 7 or 8th gear, I gotta put it to the floor to drop 3-4 gears for hard acceleration.

Using Bimmercode, I've made Adaptive my default driving mode now - and loving it.

I only ever drive in Adaptive or Sports Plus these days. I just coded Sports Plus for my car using Bimmercode, as the 30d doesn't support that mode from the factory.

I think BMW should just get rid of Comfort mode. I never use it anymore, its a redundant mode for me now.
I think they can't because this is probably the base setting for WLTP / CO2 testing. If they start in a different setting the values won't be as good.
Appreciate 0