Any of the three selections (Drive, SportDrive, Steptronic manual) may be engaged at any time without any concern for the equipment.

The situation you describe of pulling out onto the highway is a very appropriate place to use SD; to get better response and faster acceleration, then switch back to D for cruising fuel economy. You can switch back and forth in any mode, under full acceleration or not, without lifting.

Be careful during the break-in period, however. You want to carefully observe the maximum engine rpm and the other parameters until those miles are completed.

 

Thank you so much for your excellent information. This car really sounds like a fun drive.

 

It is, and a very capable machine in the real world of lane changes, big trucks, stop&go commute, twisty back roads, to the store, a day at the track -- or all of them!

Spend some time poking around in the threads in this Forum. There are many careful owners who have put their thoughts in here to help you. And, starting a new thread to ask your specific questions, just as you did here, is fun too!

Welcome.

 

Thank you again. You have certainly made me feel welcome.

 

Sport mode is awesome and is something that BMW transmissions have perfected over the years. Do have to try and stay out of it during the break-in period however, as the RPMs are very easily shot over the 4500 limit.

 

Where I live, there are a lot of huge hills. When I am driving up one of these hills I throw it into sport mode and it is amazing how much easier the Mini climbs the hills in sport mode. I also use it while passing someone. I don't drive in sport mode all the time because then I wouldn't appreciate it as much but that is just me!

 

I generally like to use the Steptronic when entering a highway. You can accelerate faster and have more control. I like to use the Sport mode when I am already cruising along and feel the need to pass - two lane highway with passing allowed and the person in front is just going way to slow.
Stay in drive to conserve fuel when cruising along.

 

Also -- it's easy to forget that tapping up actually shifts to a lower gear in Steptronic, which is a very easy way to accidentally hit +4500 RPMs. To atone, I spent the rest of the day in D and drove like I was carrying a goldfish bowl.

Seriously, I agree about how great SD is. I used it on a favorite twisty bit of road (carefully monitoring my RPMs) and it just felt fantastic. Downhill, the engine felt much more under control -- I hardly had to use the brake and uphill was a thrill. At the same time I felt secure and solid on the road. I love my car....

 

Word of warning: you do want to warm up your engine (about 10 minutes from cold) before you floor it in SD.

 

I'm not sure why you would need to warm up the engine before flooring it in SD, as that shouldn't matter whether you are in SD, D, or Steptronic. However, I've always thought it was a good idea to warm up the engine before flooring it. Years ago, people would normally warm up the engine by letting it idle for a few minutes before driving -- I used to wait 5 minutes or more. This will let the oil lubricate all the engine parts before you start to drive away. However, with the new technology in engines (they are made better), that is no longer necessary, and actually may do more harm, since at idle not much oil is curculated through the engine. So, now it is better to drive away immediately to let the oil circulate.

But you're right Spookyfish that you should be sure the engine is warmed up before pushing the rpm's up, and since our CVT uses oil to lubricate it, that makes sense for the transmission to be warmed up first, too. Everything works better when warmed up to proper operating temperature.

 

I love the SD mode in our Cabrio. I'm a big fan of a stick but since our MINI is actually my wife's car we settled on CVT for her benefit. I stuck to the guidelines of the break-in religiously but since then I've been having a lot of fun with the CVT. When I find myself wanting to make a quick start I drop into SD and let her fly. I've also found myself dropping into SD to use a little engine braking instead of the brakes when approaching a corner so I can push it out the other side. I normally run in D for the fuel economy but seem to be looking for reasons to bump over and let her fly - the SD range is much quicker and when passing or jumping onto the freeway it makes a significant difference in the acceleration parameters.

I've just recently begun experimenting with the steptronic mode and getting the hang of the RPM curves associated with the "gear" ranges. All in all if I can't drive a stick for now I'm having a blast with this tranny. In another month or so after I hit 4K miles I plan to do the MTH upgrade to see what this car can really do. One thing I do appreciate is the that the 6K RPM limit doesn't kill the car's perfomance - just trys to make you a little more reasonable in your footwork on the accelerator.