The transmission generally starts you off in 2nd gear as 1st is fairly harsh for stop start traffic. Diesels have the torque to do this better as well.

In order to get it into 1st, and fairly leap off the line you have to let it know you want that by doing one or both of two things.

The trans and engine computers measure the speed of throttle depression and pressure depth to see what the situation is.... ie quick start. Try a back street start and just smash the pedal. Your car will leap off the line. Do it a couple of times if you need to and see the changes in response.

If you are still moving through a roundabout (particularly at low speed) and have been using conservative throttle, it is then checking cornering speed, brake pressure, yaw rate and a number of other factors. If you are at a fairly sedate pace then it will not do anything other than maintain an economy mode ie 2nd gear start.

My wife could be described as having a heavy foot in our X5 3.0 and it flies.. whereas my 4.8 is a slug off the line (guess who's the conservative one hey?)

The other thing you can try is driving through the same area in sport mode to see if it is indeed the trans 'thinking' as I descibed above. If it is the trans, you just have to drive it harder so it adapts to your style of driving.

If not then I am sure some diesel owners can offer further advice.

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