Variable kickdown performance

[RugbyPete]

I notice the kick down is sometimes better at times than others. Is there a reason for this?

After my 280 mile run last night and many overtaking manouvers the kickdown was fiesty and the car really responsive, however tootling along today at about 50, i went to overtake a jcb and didnt have the same sort of oomph. Is this something to do with the intelligent auto-box?

[Kieran]

If it's a UK-Spec car, kickdown works in two ways. One is that you floor the accelerator and the car usually chucks just one gear out - IE it will go from 4 into 3 but not into two, even if it's got the revs to.

Stage-II kickdown can be missed - basically, when you've got the accelerator to the floor, press harder. There's a button under the accelerator that feels like the pedal stop but it's not - that's the 'Maximum Power' kickdown button.

It sounds odd but Mitsubishi decided it was a good idea - and having had a UK-Spec automatic and my VR-4 (also automatic) I think it is too. You see, the VR-4 will kick down as far as possible when you floor it, but sometimes I just want accelerate briskly without revving the rods off the engine.

[RugbyPete]

Ah, thats not a pedal stop, i see now... wil ltry it later, i guess thats not a bad thing to have, the golf vr6 wheelspins you into a hedge if you're not careful

[I-S]

It is also the nature of the learning gearbox. If you've been poddling along at 50 like you said, using gentle throttle excursions then it will be hesitant to kick down. If you've been driving harder, accelerator, brake then it will be more likely to hang on to a lower gear.

It is also influenced by terrain. Going up a hill it's quicker to drop a gear, going down it will drop a gear for engine braking if you back off the throttle, etc.

[bradc]

Isaac and Kieran are right, it is due to the gearbox, however it is due to this reason that I always drive the car in tiptronic mode, at least that way you can guess what the auto box will do, and when it will do it.

[g_rath]

I am only new and I dont know a hell of a lot about these cars but arent the Auto gb's based on a "fuzzy logic" AI learning system? Im just giving a term to what you have all just said. Someone told me that this was designed to learn the individual driving style of the user, hence if you were to jump into someone elses car with the same gb it would feel different in its up and down shifts dependant on the difference between driving styles?

Just throwing that out there.

[RugbyPete]

hm, yeah, i can see value in the triptronic, simply because i potter around at 40-50 to keep the mpg as high as possible, then on the rare occasion i need to overtake theres no power there!
It would make for a rubbish pool or rental car! Focus do it, they were proud of their new learning system, but i said focus' are used regularly as pool cars, or rentals so what a crap idea that is cos it takes 100 drives to work out how you drive, so if you get 12 drivers in a month the car doesn't know whats going on! Id prefer it kept manual, if i put my foot down, the car shifts, if i don't then it doesn't - simple really!