I think you should have a a look to the gallery section of this forum where there is a very nice paper on the auto gear box.
The fact is that there are sub modes : When in D, you have the Economy sub-mode or the Xtreme Economy sub-mode; when in DS, you have the Sport sub mode and the Xtreme Sport mode.
These sub mode provide a finer tuning of the gear shift upper and lower threshold.
It is more or less explained that if your driving style is not agressive (meaning, low lateral acceleration, gently pressing the throttle, gently pressing the brakes), the car will naturally select the Xtreme economy or Sport mode wheras if you have press on a binary fashion on the throttle and (almost for) the brakes for the last times, the car will adapt the transmission to these data and switch to Economy or Xtreme Sport.

I suppose the algorithm managing all this is much more complex but from these basis, I suppose that if you were driving cool before meeting your competitor at the traffic light, the mere fact you switch to DS brought you to SPort whereas you would probably have expected the Extreme Sport gearshift.

The basis for these argument is the following experience I made:
When my car has passed the 2000km, I allowed me to "push" it, preferably when showing the car to friends. During an event when there were plenty of interested people, I made several rounds in the surrounding, always using the same "circuit".
To show the acceleration capabilities, and provided that I have not piloting skills, I simply pressed the throttle to full throttle after a round-about.
Coming from a cool driving style to reach the party, the first time I made this, the gears shifted prety early and even if the acceleration was awersome for my passengers that were not expecting this, I was deceived but applying my hypothesis, I drove much more aggressively during the drive. On the second round, the gears were shifted much later and on the fifth drive, on the same place and with the same binary pressing of the throttle from the beginning of the road after the roundabout, I was even able to reach the limit zone of the rev counter before the next first gears were shifted. To be honnest, I was not able to see a difference in acceleration between the fourth and the fifth time but a difference surely existed between the first and the fifth time.

The end.

 

It depends... D can start from 1st if you're 'agressive enough'. DS definitely starts from 1st and can go into 6th with enough speed!
[/quote]

Yeah if you floor it on the start, D will for sure start in 1st gear.

 

I think you should have a a look to the gallery section of this forum where there is a very nice paper on the auto gear box.
The fact is that there are sub modes : When in D, you have the Economy sub-mode or the Xtreme Economy sub-mode; when in DS, you have the Sport sub mode and the Xtreme Sport mode.
These sub mode provide a finer tuning of the gear shift upper and lower threshold.
It is more or less explained that if your driving style is not agressive (meaning, low lateral acceleration, gently pressing the throttle, gently pressing the brakes), the car will naturally select the Xtreme economy or Sport mode wheras if you have press on a binary fashion on the throttle and (almost for) the brakes for the last times, the car will adapt the transmission to these data and switch to Economy or Xtreme Sport.

I suppose the algorithm managing all this is much more complex but from these basis, I suppose that if you were driving cool before meeting your competitor at the traffic light, the mere fact you switch to DS brought you to SPort whereas you would probably have expected the Extreme Sport gearshift.

The basis for these argument is the following experience I made:
When my car has passed the 2000km, I allowed me to "push" it, preferably when showing the car to friends. During an event when there were plenty of interested people, I made several rounds in the surrounding, always using the same "circuit".
To show the acceleration capabilities, and provided that I have not piloting skills, I simply pressed the throttle to full throttle after a round-about.
Coming from a cool driving style to reach the party, the first time I made this, the gears shifted prety early and even if the acceleration was awersome for my passengers that were not expecting this, I was deceived but applying my hypothesis, I drove much more aggressively during the drive. On the second round, the gears were shifted much later and on the fifth drive, on the same place and with the same binary pressing of the throttle from the beginning of the road after the roundabout, I was even able to reach the limit zone of the rev counter before the next first gears were shifted. To be honnest, I was not able to see a difference in acceleration between the fourth and the fifth time but a difference surely existed between the first and the fifth time.

The end.
[/quote]

Wow - interesting info. It would be nice have a way of triggering Extreme Sport mode manually.

 

I get my best mileage using a combination of DS and manual shifting.

 

It depends... D can start from 1st if you're 'agressive enough'. DS definitely starts from 1st and can go into 6th with enough speed!
[/quote]

DS can't go into 6th gear in my car....
[/quote]My car will not shift to 6th automatically when in DS. Also, my car has to kick down immediately after initial acceleration to get into 1st even with the most aggressive start in D.

 

I think you should have a a look to the gallery section of this forum where there is a very nice paper on the auto gear box.
[/quote]Thanks. Good info fred1976. I am going to check the article out. I have had the feeling that my car shifted differently in DS from time to time. Also, I figured that BMWs, in general, have a means of tailoring their behaviors to their drivers styles, but I had never bumped into specific info on this possibility before.

 

The way the car responds also has a lot to do with the software version you are running. Before my last upgrade, D normally started in 3rd, DS in 2nd. Now it starts in 2nd for D, 1st for DS.

 

Am I missing something. How do you guys find out what gear you are in when you drive in 'D' or 'DS' mode. I see the gear info in the console when I am in 'M' mode.

 

Simple, drive off count how many gear it shift up. Put the car over to DS (usually the car downshift once) and try to shift up see what gear you are at, then you will know what gear your car starts at.

 

Simple, drive off count how many gear it shift up. Put the car over to DS (usually the car downshift once) and try to shift up see what gear you are at, then you will know what gear your car starts at.
[/quote]


Thanks....I will try today. So, it looks like, I really have to change the mode to 'M' to see what gear it is in. Or is it something else ?