[Nickolas]

How will the way i drive affect the way it adapts?

If you are fond of relaxed driving, the transmission shifts gears early (at lower RPMs) and tends to use higher gears. This increases driving comfort, helps to save gas and motor resource.

If you love quick starts, rough braking, changing lanes, frequent overtakes, and so on - the transmission holds lower gears for longer periods and tends to switch into lower gear with a slight touch of accelerator pedal, allowing engine to work in higher revs to provide more power. This is good for passionate driving, but it affects gas consumption and motor resource.

It takes 10-20 minutes of driving for the transmission to adjust to your driving habits.

 

[Nickolas]

Thanks. But the thing is that sommetimes i like to drive in commfort and sometimes I like to use the 302 hp. If it was to adapt to me driving comfortably would that take away from the acceleration? And about how much difference between the gas difference. Is it just a matter of .5 gallons or like 4 or 5 gallons difference?

If the transmission has adapted to comfort driving, it will need some time to re-adjust to sporty driving.
Have you ever noticed, that if you push the car after driving an hour or so on the highway, the car accelerates kind of reluctantly? Ofcourse, it does switch into kickdown mode, but just after a moment of hesitation - and even in kickdown, it does not spin the engine to the very top. And as soon as you ease the pressure on the pedal, the transmission switches back into high gear.

In average, I get 18 mpg (I'm a relaxed driver), when force the car, I get somewhere about 12 mpg.
BTW, when I speak of "forced driving" I mean something like this:
YouTube - Races in Moscow
YouTube - Russian Street Racing, Really Crazy.

(The videos are not mine, found them on u-tube)

 

[Nickolas]

One thing to remember!!! see the guys in here who complain about the w220's. you drive it hard as it was not meant to be it will break and the repairs will be costly! The power they gave you is to pass and so that the engine runs without effort at highway speeds and also to be smooth and quiet while accel. This vehicle was ment for comfort,quiet and class. I do not think the tranny has a memory? I think the active tranny responds to your foot and replies back to all it's components for as smooth a reponse as possible. Let me know if I am wrong? I drive mine very very easy and it will still kick down when needed. As it has always done.

That's right - the S-class is not a race car. It is a comfortable cruiser, capable of running at high speeds (120+ mph) for hours - that is what the powerful engine designed for.

The transmission does have its memory - it remembers the "driving style". A couple of kickdowns during the trip do not totally re-adapt the transmission - the other thing if you always drive fast (like in the links above). If you try really fast driving for a while, you will notice that the character of your car has changed dramatically (it will be more of BMW-style).

I also suspect that the Airmatic suspension is an adaptive thing, because after fast driving the car does not feel like a floating barge any more - the ride becomes stiffer, the car can corner at higher speeds.

 

[Nickolas]

I think any modern luxury car is equipped with adaptive transmittion - it has been designed years ago...

 

[Nickolas]

Yes, I did not have to reset it, I could not believe it until when I turned the car off for 15min. then turned it back on then went to punch it and it lagged. drove it just a short distance hard on and of the throttle. just stopped the car on a back road for a second then punched the throttle! No lag this time. I am a very hard driver on my other cars. usually at the track and with no one else in the vehicle with me. I really worked this car the hardest today it has seen. right down to smelling the breaks. Do not do this to your vehicle because you will end up fixing it! Buy a stang or a vette pound for pound cheapest horse P and dyi-er you can get. I am sure I have hurt my Benz today

Well, this is exactly the way how adaptive transmission is supposed to work. Reset is used only if there is something wrong with it.


As for Airmatic suspension - well, actually it is an adaptive thing, but its adaption effect is much less obvious comparing to transmission. Main difference to the transimission is that suspension adapts to road conditions - not to driving habits.