Great day as it was 65* and almost all of the snow is gone. Rain yesterday washed the roads down and by noon everything was dry. I took the car off of the lift and backed it out. Dropped the top and took of for a 2 hour ride. Managed to turn 11,000 miles today and everything ran smooth. Took it easy for a while then put it through it's paces. Came back home and put the golf clubs in the trunk. League starts next week and some courses in the area will open this week. Also point of interest as I was driving down the road I put it in S mode as I came to a stop. The transmission stayed in 2nd even with the car stopped for a few seconds. It took off in 2nd and if I wanted 1st I would have to select it . Happy motoring

 

In "S" mode mine stays in 2nd at a stop unless I physically drop it into 1st. I just assumed that was normal. Good to have the top down. Just recently purchased a wind diffuser off Ebay and the improvement in driving comfort is astounding. Literally no backflow of air into the cabin even at 80MPH.

 

I can't see what gear it's in when in either 'D' or 'S' mode - do you mean you used the paddles to switch to manual? Or does yours display the gears all the time in 'S'?

 

What I did was as I was coming to an intersection that I knew had a stop sign I would hit the down paddle so the gear number would show up on the front info screen between the speedo and tach. The transmission would downshift by itself and as I stopped it would stay in 2nd. Then before the screen returned to it's normal display I would start out and it would still be in 2nd. Also if I would switch to S mode the numbers would come up and it would be in 2nd.

 

Ah, OK - yes, in manual shift, the car will only automatically downshift as far as 2nd, in either 'D' or 'S'. It's not a substitute for downshifting manually, it's just to avoid stalling. What has been the subject of discussion is: how does it behave when not in manual?

 

In 4.2 models, in any of the automatic modes it always shifts to first at a stop. Are the 5.0s different?

 

No, but because it only downshifts to 2nd in manual mode, there are a number of people who believe it does the same in automatic mode. u102768 (4.2) and I (5.0) have checked that the car goes through all 6 gears from rest under moderate acceleration, but still some of the forum members insist that it always starts in 2nd unless you force a kickdown.

 

Good to know, just wanted to make sure I had my facts straight!