Originally Posted by Glisse

This car is not in S mode, it is in D mode. That's what the large capital D sitting above "DYNAMIC" signifies. When in S mode, there will be a large "S", and start/stop will not be active.

What some are missing is that the MMI Drive Select modes and the engine/transmission modes (D and S) can be independent of each other.

As already mentioned, the car will always start with the engine/transmission in D mode, because that is the mode in which the car was certified in terms of emissions and fuel consumption. It requires user intervention to shift it out of that mode. It is illegal to otherwise, in any country that has any form of standards, and for every car. Which is why a BMW or Mercedes, by example, always start up in Comfort mode regardless of what drive mode they were in previously. Audi will start up in the last drive mode used, but will switch out the engine/transmission map to the certified mode (D) - REGARDLESS OF WHAT MMI DRIVE MODE THE CAR STARTS UP IN.

But Audi make it very easy to switch the engine/transmission map.

After start up, there are two methods to shift the engine / transmission mode from D to S. In this case, as the car has been started in MMI Drive Select mode "Dynamic", you could cycle out of that MMI mode into another, and then back again to Dynamic. When you do this, you will see the D change to an S. You will also see the tachometer move from the 600rpm it is currently sitting in to around 850rpm, which is where it will idle in S mode.

Or you can simply pull back on the shift lever once you have started the car, and it will change the transmission mode from D to S.

This is a different method than most other manufacturers use, so not intuitive to people new to the brand. An unnecessary complication is that within the MMI Drive Select settings, specifically the Individual setting, the engine / transmission options are described as Comfort / Auto / Dynamic. Comfort = D mode, Dynamic = S mode, and Auto is when the car decides which map to use based on how the car is being driven. A little confusing at the beginning.



When you start up in MMI Drive Select's Dynamic mode, everything will be set to Dynamic with the sole exception of the engine / transmission map. Same in Individual mode - everything other than engine / transmission will be active at start up as per your selections. The only thing you or your wife need to do is nudge the transmission lever back at the time you start the car to move it from D to S. As you already have to move the lever to engage Drive, a momentary twitch is all it takes. About 200 milliseconds or so. It becomes instinctive.

I also constantly switch the car between S and D mode on every drive, and use D mode as a form of overdrive. I regard S mode as what the engineers intended, and D mode as a numbers game taken too far in terms of driving dynamics. But my wife prefers to drive in D mode (switching off auto start/stop) as she doesn't like the higher idle speed and tendency to hold a lower gear before shifting up when in S mode. That's where muscle memory comes into play, because she drives very smoothly in D mode, and knows when and by how much to give it a big boot full when she wants more response. Bit jerky in S mode, because the throttle map has such a different response, and she isn't used to it. Each to their own

Originally Posted by BigHat

Of course, you're right. I attached the wrong picture in error.