S vs. D

What does everyone prefer? Driving in 'D' Drive or 'S' Sports mode? I started using S today and it minimizes the 1500 rpm acceleration lag.

Will gas mileage be worse?

I have not really used 'S' yet. Most of the driving has been in Sydney traffic and therefore not warranted. I have not noticed the lag issue yet either

I wonder if the lag issue is only in the SD4?

I have a TD4 and haven't really felt any "lag" either... then again I haven't read through a ridiculously long thread about lag... so I may not know what I'm talking about

Haven't really driven in 'S' tried it a few times but it doesn't really phase me much.

I think it makes much more of a difference on more powerful engines and I guess the Si4 would be where it would make a larger difference than on a TD4 engine.

Can only comment from my test drive of both the auto sd4 and si4 back to back, but it was enough to pass judgement on the lag.
Just so we're on the same page regarding the turbo lag, it is really only noticable when your at a complete stop,and then you stomp on the acclerator suddenly (like say at a junction,and you have to accerate hard and fast,when you see a gap).
When i test drove sd4 and si4, they both had the lag when tested like i said, otherwise when driving just normal and progressively, they both responded very well,and without any noticable lag.
The so called lag,can be described as moving off reasonably slow up to around 2300rpm on both cars,then it's sudden hard and fast acceleration onwards.
Have you guys tested like this?

to be honest I haven't actually tested it like that... although now you mentioned it I remember pushing the Si4 off the line and it did seem to just lag slightly..

either way not really fussed about it much.. don't know how many times I'm going to sprint off the line to beat the hynundai getz (most common) next to me.

(20-02-2012 05:50am)benzina Wrote:  The so called lag,can be described as moving off reasonably slow up to around 2300rpm on both cars,then it's sudden hard and fast acceleration onwards.
Have you guys tested like this?

100% on the mark in my experience Benzina. I find driving in S mode does help to minimise this effect though so prefer S. Not wanting to get too far into "lag" as it's off topic and covered in that other "ridiculously long thread" but had a LR technician drive my car and later read in his notes that he also found "considerable lag".

The moment I think I might need to overtake someone I pop in into Sport so that when the moment is right the car will pull past without any lag, but once the manoeuvre is done I put it back into Drive.

It's also great for driving around country lanes cos you get more engine braking. I use Sport quite frequently.

In previous TT's and SLK I used sport all the time as I hated the noise the engines made in D, and they were far to early in changing gear in D.

In the Evoque I don't use S at all as I have found mine pulls ok for me in D. Looks like I might be in the minority tho. S is great but if you are happy with D I guess you use a bit less fuel. For me I want the fun of driving the car so if I did not like D I would definitely use S.

In the auto, if you use the paddle shift to shift down that avoids the kick down delay and turbo lag, also means that once you have accelerated away the poor little engine will not be left screaming at 5000 rpm before it shifts up a gear as happens in the S setting. With the paddles you can also shift down 2-3 gears much faster and more smoothly than using the kick down. Using S also locks out 6th gear so if you forget to shift back to D your car will not shift up to 6th again unless you do it manually

I am on Si4. I don't notice the lag at low rpm. I only use S when I drive it fast thru B roads. When I do, I prefer manual shift. The S mode has a nice display for which gear I am in.