Keeping it in Sport Mode (auto tranny)
 

As most who own the auto tranny know, sport mode truly makes this car worthy of a fun sporty car. The problem I'm finding, is that when I don't set in sport now, the drive is pretty boring.

Even in traffic I find sport mode to be better, since the car is not constantly changing gears as you slow down/speed up (holds the current gear long enough to keep traffic driving more tolerable).

So question; is it bad to turn it to sport mode every time you drive? How big of a difference will fuel economy be (assuming you're not smashing on the gas ever where)? Bad for any part of the engine and/or tranny?

At this point I'm finding myself turning it on immediately when I get in the car. In fact, I wish it would just stay in this mode.

Thoughts?

I only use sport mode when on the freeway or back roads as I like the response when I need it. Around town it's in standard auto mode.

I cant imagine it does anything except waste more gas. Im not always driving like im crazy so i turn it off and use it sparingly...

you cant always want it to shift like mad when you're commuting to-from work and stores... at least i am not.

but its hella' fun to save that for the wknds when im out on my drives !! :)

im always in manual mode, better than both... :D

I am some what afraid of driving with it off. Should I be? Like I'm not knowing what to expect on a A to B commute. I drive my work truck all week and my 86 about two days in between weekends where I drive it more. The roads around where I live are FM country roads without much through traffic. What ya think?:confused:

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You are not going to damage the transmission. But mileage may drop slightly. The TCC is pretty aggressive on this tranny no? So I wouldn't imagine slippage losses will be severe enough to really ruin mileage.

I find the car to be fun in sport or non sport mode. But its "spirited" driving i'll leave it on sport mode or play around with flappys/stick.

I use the sport mode almost all of the time, except when I get into the carpool lane on the freeway and put the cruse control on (it turns off automatically when cruse is on).

BTW, I've been able to get 36.7MPG AVG on a 40mile trip to work with the cruse on and doing 65MPH. Not as much fun, but that's good mileage IMO.

I only use occasionally when I am driving for fun. I cant imagine leaving it on all the time will hurt the car or they would not have released it from the factory with sport mode.... also you have warranty just in case so have fun!!

It can't hurt the transmission because the car is programmed to match the shifts correctly and everything in manual mode. Gas mileage can be better or worse depending on how you drive, but most people don't know how to save gas better than the automatic transmission (it's not hard to beat it though). Outperforming the auto basically comes down to staying in higher gears instead of downshifting every time your foot jabs the throttle a little too hard, and possibly shifting out of 1st sooner (I haven't seen how these automatics behave).

Sport mode is safe to use everyday as the car's transmission is well-designed (borrowed the layout from an ISF transmission except the FR-S is 6 speed and not 8 speed). The car's engine also has a rev limiter, so you cannot really hurt the engine or transmission. I only use sports mode when I need to pass someone or during spirited driving XD

It's actually most likely the A960E from the IS250 according to Kaizen Factor.

its and upgraded A960E its what they will be using in the 2014 IS250, It's def stronger and faster, not to mention smarter, the tech and its supporting parts are from the ISF

solenoids arent as great as the ISF but def better than whats in the IS250(solenoids depict how fast the transmission shifts fyi for those who dont know)

If you are willing to use up more gas all the time, go for it. It also defends on where/what speed you drive most of the time. I live/work on an Air Force base with a speed limit of 35mph and at that speed sport mode didn't want to shift past 3rd gear most of the time, which killed my mpg. A lot of the time I'll put it in sport mode for entering the freeway or for fun, spirited driving. When I reach cruising speed I'll switch it off (of course when you engage cruise control it shuts off automatically.)