It was I who - around a year ago - brought up the point of the Triptonic transmissions as an example of hollow engineering that does nothing to the performance or longevity of Mercedes vehicles. I also used the term "itchy fingers" to describe the people that use this feature. A bit harsh, perhaps, but it reflects the successful marketing employed by M-B to give certain consumers what they want.

Mike, ANY modern automatic transmission will select the optimum shift points needed for acceleration and economy, from the speed and demand (from the accelerator pedal) inputted to the transmission. You can manually shift the transmission, but you're only fooling yourself if you think you're getting more power from the engine. The engine has an impressive whine at these higher revs, but the torque and horsepower curve starts dipping beyond the optimum revs.

A properly designed and properly built transmission will pick the best shift points for you. Leave it in Drive and forget it. Don't even downshift to deccelerate. This'll prematurely wear out your transmission and throw off the balanced braking designed in your vehicle. It's always cheaper to replace brake pads and rotors than transmission components.

I know people get a thrill trying to manually shift their vehicle with an automatic and downshifting for decceleration, emulating a race vehicle, but that's all it is - a thrill. There's no technical merit to this activity.

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 159K