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I have Full Catback JoeZ exhaust, so ECO and Normal drones alot between 2-3K RPM.
I prefer Sport/Sport + manual paddle shifting. I can control shift points to minimize the droning.
It's annoying sometimes on long trips, but man WOT is pure sex with the JoeZ.
For those who consistently use Eco, is there any real MPG gains? I am 0% Eco as I figured it doesn't make much, if any, difference. I'm typically 75% normal and 25% sport+
I get about 23 in eco....my morning commute is pretty smooth, but afternoon is very much stop & go for a good 20 miles
with traveling, averaging 85 on interstate I barely get 24. I haven't tried it it normal to see if there is anything more than an negligible difference.
I do notice that I get 1-2 mpg better in Eco, but I think it's because I don't drive the same way in Eco that I do in the Sport modes. But most of my driving is around town and in traffic, so I like how Eco smooths out the throttle. I do Normal mode a fair amount, and Sport + on occasion. I like the suspension changes in Sport +, and after driving around in Eco so much, Sport/Sport + feel pretty awesome, but I don't like Sport + at low speeds (parking) as the steering becomes too heavy.
Sorry to do this, but expanding on this topic a bit... because I just discovered how much differently the GS behaves when in Sport...!
I've been babying my new GS since I got it in September and have never used Sport mode for any length of time. But this afternoon, there seemed to be so many snowbirds on the road "out for a Sunday cruise"... getting stuck behind them was driving me nuts...I needed to get around these aggravating drivers quickly. So I dropped the selector in Sport and left it there, for the remaining 25 minute drive home... it felt like I was driving a different car. Is it my imagination or does the car seem a lot more powerful? (operative word here being "seem") Can a revised throttle response and tranny shifting really do so much? I've goosed the gas pedal lots of times in Normal mode to pass and go around traffic, but it was so much better in Sport. Again, is it just my imagination?
So I got home and was checking my manual to see what it said about the drive modes, then lo and behold, I jump onto CL and see this thread... Also, it appears that Eco mode is mostly beneficial in stop-and-go traffic... there might not be a benefit in using Eco on the highway.
You are correct. It’s not your imagination. Sport does really spice up things quite a bit! It’s pretty much like the folks here who use a Throttle Controllers like APEX-I. Those controllers spice things up even more!
I find the eco mode to work well when I have passengers that aren't impressed with driving dynamics and like a smooth ride (in-laws). I use normal for my commute as I find the sport modes to be too jumpy for causal driving. And of course, sport+ when I want to have fun.
My wife loves Sport+ since she drives a beastly SUV and as she says, makes it feel like a go cart.
Eco - 60% ( in traffic or commuting, car is too fast for anything other than eco in bumper to bumper lol)
Normal - 0%
Sport - 15%
Sport + - 25% ( when merging or by myself )
How do you all get "normal" mode to show up on the screen? I can only toggle between eco, customize, sport, and sport s! Am I missing something? TIA
If it doesn't say ECO or it doesn't say SPORT or SPORT S+, then it is in normal. Normal won't show anything on the screen, it just cancels whatever was shown for the other drive modes.
IMO Eco doesn't make a difference in terms of mileage, although I do throw it into ECO when I start up in the morning and the car holds the RPMS high to help warm up the car faster. I find it annoying so switching to ECO to stop that from happening.