RBM, thanks for the informative reply. My two W210s seem to continually default to the "Granny" mode. In our area there's a lot of low speed cruising necessary, but not necessarily stop & go. However, situations arise where it shifts too early, like when needing to hold a low gear for a bit or when passing. There appears to be no "logic" to the shift logic. Simple one gear kickdowns are delayed and must often be achieved by flooring the pedal, which then results in a two gear downshift, engine screaming, etc. But, then again, sopmetinmes it DOESN'T do this and it shifts properly. Both of my cars did this, so I don't think it's a fault of this car, more of a characteristic. I find myself manually shifting the thing often.