Down side to driving in sport mode 90% of the time?
 

Anyone see any down or negative side effects to driving with sport mode on most of the time? I tend to get better gas mileage out of it but mostly I love how it holds the revs higher and give it a nicer sportier feel. This is with Highway driving and side roads. No mountains or anything. Let's get some view points please.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Good question,

sounds like most of my driving maybe I should give it a try

How do you get better gas mileage in sport mode? I find it chews through gas faster since it is running at higher rpms... (but much more fun to drive!)

Possible that if he's always driving aggressively it ends up being more efficient then with sport mode off because transmission isn't constantly downshifting in response to his lead foot. Lol

I almost never use sport mode because I'm always using the paddles.

I'm guessing the only downside to driving in sport mode (auto trans option) 90% of the time is the 10% you're keeping it in "normal".

As it is, the auto is geared for better fuel economy, so using sport mode probably gets the rpms closer to what us manual drivers use anyways. (I keep the car between 3-4k rpm for casual driving in my manual - downshifting to a 5-7k band when driving more "inspired".)

As long as the car isn't lying to me it says I get around 22 mpg just driving around normally and about 24.5 in sport. I can't tell you why there's a difference but it's something i can repeat over and over.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

i have an AT as well, and drive it in sport mode 100% of the time if i'm not using the paddle shifters in manual. i found that if i have a need to accelerate, which is pretty much half the time i'm driving in street/stop-n-go traffic, the sport mode keeps the revs higher, gets me up to speed faster so i don't have to press down the gas pedal as much. in normal mode, the AT upshifts too soon, so i have to press down on the gas more than i would in sport mode to achieve the same acceleration, so i end up using more gas. i've found that my gas mileage improved by about 1 mpg in sport mode vs normal mode for street/traffic driving.

IMHO, normal mode uses gears too high for street driving unless you don't mind driving in low revs all over the place. for highway, where you're not accelerating or stopping, then normal mode uses less gas.

hmm...never thought of it that way. I tend to drive in sport mode on my auto any ways and I stopped worry about mileage since there's no point in being a penny pincher with this car. :burnrubber:

Nope, none at all. It keeps the nannies from killing your throttle when TC kicks in, and only uses brakes for TC.

I have noticed if I drive aggressively in auto, I get better gas mileage as well.

I did multiple 5 gallon gas tests from the same gas station.
5 gallons 93 from SUNOCO: 80 miles granny driving
5 gallons 93 from HESS: 80 miles for 5 gallons granny driving.....wtf (16mpg)

5 gallons 93 HESS: about 120 miles for 5 gallons, driving aggressively 70% of times and a couple of WOT's. (24 mpg)

all in small city with little stop signs and lights and a 45 mph highway for about 1.5 miles or so

Hmm guess I ll give this a shot also.

This doesn't surprise me, assuming aggressive doesn't mean very high speeds. Any car uses more fuel getting to speed rather than maintaining it. Some studies have shown (and no I don't have links, but I've read it multiple times over the years) that in a lot of cars, getting to speed quickly then leveling out will get better gas mileage than more "conservative" slowly getting to speed.

I know that I average over 32MPG and I am nearly always the first person away from the light, and only bank for curves if I really have to, I'm far from a conservative driver. I do stay with 10MPH of the speed limit though, which is why I love this car. I can get my "act like a fool" face on without really breaking any laws.

Automatic people problems

I clicked on this because I thought this would be about the TC.

You'll probably just see a drop in mpg since it will rev higher in general. I'm not too familiar with sport mode though, only used it a few times.

I drive in manual mode 99% of the time and use the floor shifter to change gear. In hindsight, I probably should have bought a manual, but the AT lets me be lazy in traffic and the rare times I don't want to be bothered with shifting.