Just a question, how does this work? And what cars have you had with these features? Any idea what this is called so I can read up about it? Thanks.

 

I had that feature on two of my Ford trucks. The last was a 2004 F-150 Lariat 4x4. Basically the computer would learn your particular driving technique and adjust shift points and throttle response accordingly. When people would modify their engines they would disconnect the battery for a while to reset the PCM, and then relearn with the new mods installed. Here is a quick link I found on a Ford site.

Here

 

Ive tried the ECT Power, and it does make the car faster (imo).

I like how it handles with ECT Power, ECT Power + Smode + windy roads = so much wasted gas

this should be stickied btw

 

Although I am not into fast and crazy kind of stuff, but my 250AWD definitely feels faster when PWR is on...

 

The difference in mpg when the PWR button is on is big. ive had it on for 2 months straight and i noticed that i would have to go to the gas station at least one more time than normal , but its loads of fun.

 

switch has three programs which are distinctly different. We noticed this right away when the GS300 came out. When in power mode the transmission is very smart and will hold gears during a turn and downshift quickly when decelerating. It does consume more fuel this way but how much? Since the paddles and the sequential slot are there most people will want to try to extract more performance by manually executing shifts. I don't think that is an easy thing to do. The Power program would probably win in most cases. You can certainly use the Power position in fully automatic and in the Sequential shift modes. On the ES330 there isn't any switch and it uses an "intelligence" program that reacts to the driver's habits. That has not been as useful IMO.

The Snow mode can be useful as well. If you don't want the traction control and VSC or VDIM constantly trying to correct for slippery conditions then turn it on. It will select the highest gear possible as early as possible. I like to use it in the rain mostly. You can drive without worrying about giving the car too much gas and breaking loose. It resets to normal every time you start so remember to turn it on again if conditions dictate....

Rock

 

If it's selecting the highest gear as early as possible, sounds like SNOW mode might possibly improve fuel consumption then?

 

both MB and BMW have driver-adaptive logic in their automatics. I can't think of any other manufacturer that also uses them at the moment. the MB one works pretty well I think, but after a few days of the other members of the family using hte car, I hop in and it feels REALLY REALLY sluggish until I train it again!

 

Is anyone else annyoed by the way the car downshifts abruptly when braking in PWR mode? I like the way the car accelerates and shifts in PWR mode but I can't stand the jerky downshifts when I brake. When I am in stop and go traffic I usually switch it back to normal so it doesn't do this.

 

On my IS350 SNOW mode does reset itself, not with PWR mode though, I have to manually switch it back to normal. Also PWR and SNOW modes change throttle response. In SNOW mode it has less throttle response than NORMAL and PWR modes.

 

I dont have my IS yet.. can someone exlpain where this button is, or pic?
thx

 

Here yo go... behind the wheel, next to the start/stop button.

 

Not necessarily. You would have to give it a lot more throttle to get up to speed which could and probably would give you worse MPG. Kinda like cruising speeds, there is a certain speed at which you'll get your best MPG, slower isn't always better.

 

However, i was cruising on the freeway at about 75-80 mph in normal mode and i was watching the current mpg on the display and it was showing just below 30, but then when i switched to snow mode the current mpg moved up to just a lil bit above 30 mpg.

 

If SNOW mode decreases power output in addition to super early shifts, then yes, you'll gain some fuel economy once you've reached cruising speeds. I'm not so sure if you'd see an increase in stop n go city driving though since it seems to take a lot more throttle to get it going.