# Sports Mode



## Richard (Dec 1, 2012)

The owners manual says if you move the gear shift to the manual mode area without shifting, it puts the transmission into sports mode. The car will shift automatically in a sportier fashion. I tried this today and the DIC said "M1". It didn't shift out of 1st gear. So why did it do this? When I moved the shift to the manual mode area, I didn't move the shift handle up or down. I thought that if you don't shift to any particular gear, it should go into sports mode and the transmission should still shift automatically. Also, when you use sports mode, should it say M1 on the DIC?


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## tecollins1 (Nov 6, 2011)

know my last car did this.(2003 Hyundai Tiburon) pop it over to sportronic and just before you hit redline it would shift for you. thought it was a safety feature, not a "sport mode"


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

Not sure about what the owners manual says, but when putting my 2012 automatic into manual mode one can give 100% throttle without the car downshifting(or up-shifting) at all. This is the first automatic I have had that didn't take over on throttle input, most automatic cars I have had if you are in 2nd on the shifter & floored the gas it would downshift. Never had a car that would still automatically up shift in any manual mode/gear selection. 

The only time the car will automatically shift in manual mode is downshifting if your speed(RPM) drop below the correct one for the given speed your driving. An example of this is if your in M5 at 30mph & your speed drops to 27mph, the car will shift back into 4th gear, 6th gear will automatically downshift to 5th gear at 40mph. This is just to keep the car in the power band, above 1300RPM & not lugging/stalling.


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## brian v (Dec 25, 2011)

My advice to you is to experiment with sport or I call manual mode it is manumatic you will be surprised just what youcan and can not do . Increase Mpg for 1 . I use manual around town on short trips errands .
keeping the rpm;s down will increas mpg. trust your instincs. If you stop in 1;st you can tap it up to 2,nd and will only shift down to 2,nd have fun be cool.


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## buckeyewalt (Mar 10, 2012)

Richard said:


> The owners manual says if you move the gear shift to the manual mode area without shifting, it puts the transmission into sports mode. The car will shift automatically in a sportier fashion. I tried this today and the DIC said "M1". It didn't shift out of 1st gear. So why did it do this? When I moved the shift to the manual mode area, I didn't move the shift handle up or down. I thought that if you don't shift to any particular gear, it should go into sports mode and the transmission should still shift automatically. Also, when you use sports mode, should it say M1 on the DIC?


Got to shift it yourself,,,,will not do automatically!


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## Jordy927 (Jan 4, 2013)

brian v said:


> My advice to you is to experiment with sport or I call manual mode it is manumatic you will be surprised just what youcan and can not do . Increase Mpg for 1 . I use manual around town on short trips errands .
> keeping the rpm;s down will increas mpg. trust your instincs. If you stop in 1;st you can tap it up to 2,nd and will only shift down to 2,nd have fun be cool.


This works well in cruise as well...I live in a mountainous area, and if I'm on the highway with cruise set at 100km/h it will downshift to 4th up a long grade and hit 4500-5500 rpm and stay there....if you use manual mode and shift it to 5th instead you will still have lots of power to climb a very steep grade, (~7-10%) and you'll do it at 3000-3500 rpm....again a huge save on fuel.

As for sifting on its own, I am almost sure I got the one I took out for a test drive to shift at the redline on its own....but that was 2.5 years ago....so I could very well be mistaken.


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## GoldenCruze (Dec 18, 2011)

Richard said:


> The owners manual says if you move the gear shift to the manual mode area without shifting, it puts the transmission into sports mode. The car will shift automatically in a sportier fashion. I tried this today and the DIC said "M1". It didn't shift out of 1st gear. So why did it do this? When I moved the shift to the manual mode area, I didn't move the shift handle up or down. I thought that if you don't shift to any particular gear, it should go into sports mode and the transmission should still shift automatically. Also, when you use sports mode, should it say M1 on the DIC?


What model year is your Cruze, and where in the manual did you find it mentioning Sports Mode? The owners manual for my 2012 is very specific about using the Manual Mode. There is no mention of a Sports Mode. There is mention of using Manual Mode for sport driving. No shifting is automatic in Manual Mode except for downshifts as the car slows. It will not upshift on it's own.


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## Richard (Dec 1, 2012)

buckeyewalt said:


> Got to shift it yourself,,,,will not do automatically!


I goofed. Sports Mode is not a feature on the Cruze. I thought I saw it in the owner's manual, but I was wrong. I did have cars with Driver Shift Control where if you moved the shift into the manual mode area without shifting, the transmission would shift automatically, but in a sportier fashion. They called this sports mode. It would hold on to each gear longer, and the shifting would be firmer. But this is not a feature on the Cruze.

Honestly though, I really like the automatic on the 2013 Cruze. Any problems that the previous models had were definitely ironed out on the 2013. The shifting is very responsive, there's no delay when you downshift, and it's a very smooth transmission. Most of the time, I don't even feel the shifts. I had the 2010 Malibu which had the 6 speed automatic and the transmission definitely had flaws. There was a tremendous delay when you downshifted. And that was the 3rd year of that model, so you would think they would have that problem ironed out by then. I was told to get a trasmission reflash, but I never did it. But this is not a problem with the Cruze. When I gun it at highway speeds, the transmission downshifts immediately.


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## GoldenCruze (Dec 18, 2011)

Good to hear about the 2013 auto transmissions!


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