D mode most of the time. S mode when over-taking or fast acceleration needed. Manual mode when going up hill or down hill or on offroad.

That was my thread a while back when i first got the ride...There is definately a difference if you have the car long enough you will notice the change in accelaration and changing of the gears...I use s-mode really for aggressive driving gears switch faster and and accelaration is more responsive(highway of course)but if your on a light and you feel the need for speed hit the s-mode you will take of faster.....Bottom line noticable difference

I drive mostly in D because for me its a real Jekyll and Hyde thing. When I go to sport mode I can't help mashing the throttle and driving pretty much like an ass.

Not sure where you got the idea that driving in sport mode is easy on the tranny, its the opposite. In sport mode you shift at a higher RPM and the shifts are quicker which add more stress to the tranny.

I do some times drive in manual and start from 3rd and just use the 3 gears in hopes of getting better gas mileage, but ususally Mr. Hyde shows up. :zoom:

D mode 95% of the time. S mode when I'm feeling like a jerk-but I find the downshifts are a bit harsh. On long highway trips I almost always use manual mode to force the X to keep 6th gear. I think the propensity for the transmission to downshift every time I hit resume on the cruise control is annoying. Sure it gets you there fast-but the X has more than enough torque to go from 80 to 85 without having to downshift.

When I first started driving the X, I did not like the idea of shifting too much. I was not confident that I would be in the mode or gear I thought I was (This being my first automatic).

Now, I almost always keep it in Auto (D) mode unless:

• I am accelerating onto the highway; then I will use (S) mode
• if I am slowing from highway speed to get off the highway, then I use manual mode to shift down through the gears instead of braking
• I also use manual mode to climb or slow down on mountains

I am on a mission to get the Most MPG I can from my 4.8IS so it's mostly "D" and not exceeding 3500 rpm, I am currently at 17.8 mpg...on a side note do we know whats the max mpg we've got on the V8 X5?

The most constant max I've seen (according to instruments) is about 24MPG, but that is highway driving at about 55MPH - which seems to go against the whole idea of the vehicle.