2001 Mercedes C-Class Owner's Manual - Page 248

Press and hold selector lever in the æ direction: The transmission will shift from the current gear directly to gear range "D". Warning! On slippery road surfaces, never downshift in order to obtain braking action. This could result in drive wheel slip and reduced vehicle control. Your vehicle's ABS will not prevent this type of loss of control. Important! With transmission in gear range "D", "4" or "3", upshifting from 1st to 2nd to 3rd gear is delayed depending on vehicle speed and engine temperature. This allows the catalytic converter to heat up more quickly to operating temperatures. During the brief warm-up period this delayed upshift and increased engine noise might be perceived as a malfunction. However, neither the engine nor transmission are negatively affected by this mode of operation. The delayed upshift is effective with vehicle speeds below 31 mph (50 km/h) at partial throttle and engine temperatures below 95°F (35°C). To avoid overrevving the engine when the selector lever is moved to a lower gear range, the transmission will not shift to a lower gear, if the engine's revolutions per minute limit would be exceeded. In this case there will be no downshift, even when the vehicle speed reaches the engine's rpm limit of that gear, e.g. by applying the service brakes. To prevent the engine from laboring at low RPM when driving uphill gradients or with your vehicle heavily loaded, the automatic transmission will downshift when necessary to maintain engine RPM within the best torque range. Automatic transmission Instruments and controls Operation Driving 239 Instrument cluster display Practical hints Car care Technical data Index