Winter Driving - Sport, Normal or Comfort

[char]

Hi All,

Was a bit blistery earlier in the week and I was driving on the motorway in Comfort mode and found the car moved around quite a bit. Switching to Sport it seem to hold better and not wobble so much. I was wondering if you guys had any thoughts with the approaching winter, forthcoming ice, rain etc. if there is a preferred mode to drive in.

Cheers

[Shaun]

The R with 19's on is so firm that i always have comfort on.

[RW1]

Leave it in the "Normal" self adaptive mode unless on the odd occassions it does daft things on an uneven motorway section. In which case select "Sport".

C.

[skyblues11]

i prefer the softer ride of Comfort, especially on snow and heavy rain.

[Sootchucker]

RW1, just to confirm (and I've never had this properly explained), am I right in assuming that in Comfort or Sport mode, you are actually locking a set a values in to the car and it wont change away from these until you change the settings on the switch, but in "Normal" mode, it's a sort of adaptive setting. What I mean by that is does normal actually have the ability to swap between comfort and sport as it so chooses depending on road conditions, car's atttitude etc. i.e. it's not another fixed setting like comfort or sport ?

[veeedubba]

Always have the R in sport mode unless theres snow on the ground when its put in comfort but its on 19's and never found the ride too hard

[RW1]

RW1, just to confirm (and I've never had this properly explained), am I right in assuming that in Comfort or Sport mode, you are actually locking a set a values in to the car and it wont change away from these until you change the settings on the switch, but in "Normal" mode, it's a sort of adaptive setting. What I mean by that is does normal actually have the ability to swap between comfort and sport as it so chooses depending on road conditions, car's atttitude etc. i.e. it's not another fixed setting like comfort or sport ?

ACC is an innovative system that allows you to choose the style of drive you want at any time. Three ride settings are offered - Normal, Sport and Comfort - all at the touch of a button in the centre console.

This operates the electrically regulated dampers and steering. In Sport mode, for instance, relatively stiff dampers match the changed steering characteristics, offering a driving experience like that of an agile sports car. The damping also adapts itself to the respective road conditions.

Each shock absorber is connected to a control which calculates the optimum setting for each wheel from the sensor data and other information received from the steering, braking, engine, transmission and driving assistance systems.

This allows the ACC to react continually (up to a thousand times per second) to bumps in the road, changing lanes or bendy roads, reducing pitch and roll motion and provide the optimum settings for every driving situation.

Volkswagen UK

All three modes do continually adapt the suspension & steering but are banded.

The band range of adjustment appears more marked on mine in Normal. Drive it lightly and goes towards Comfort and switching to comfort makes little difference, and likewise, drive it hard and it all hardens up towards Sport but not quite to the full amount.

Technically not locking but working range is much less in the Comfort & Sport modes

Something like this...

....Comfort......
.........................Normal.................
................................................Sport......

The suspension side of things is explained here under DCC.

Couple videos on the top screen if you press "How it Works" and "Comfort and Driving Dynamics" give you a run through
the system ACC Technical

C.

[Sootchucker]

Wow, couldn't ask for a much more detailed reply.

Thanks very much

[Gary_Monkey]

Wow, couldn't ask for a much more detailed reply.

Thanks very much

That's RW1 for ya

Seriously.. I've always wanted to know too. And now I do.

G

[ChrisL]

Up till now I've used Sport mode to reduce roll and tighten steering for most use on UK A-roads and round-abouts. Normal and Comfort modes get used occasionally when grandma is in the passenger seat or speed bumps are around.

Imagine my surprise when hiring a race version of the Rocco at the Nurburgring when I was strongly advised to only use Normal mode. This all made sense on the Karussell where the concrete ripples made the car slightly shimmy although feeling controlled. In Sport mode the tyre grip was reduced and felt less stable.

So when pushing hard on interim road conditions, Normal mode will now be my preference.