Crossover vs Xtura … Fight!

[Wh05apk]

It's hard to know, I'll hopefully get to the bottom of it this week, I'll start with the driving lesson first then if its no better then I'll head to a Mercedes commercial dealership and see what they say and see where I am from there

Might be worth putting a post on one of the Facebook groups, as probably more people with your specific vehicle.

 

[Landy Andy]

It's hard to know, I'll hopefully get to the bottom of it this week, I'll start with the driving lesson first then if its no better then I'll head to a Mercedes commercial dealership and see what they say and see where I am from there

What control do you have over your gearbox?

Sport button, eco mode, any of those options?

Does yours run different diameter wheels due to the “off road” ability?

 

[Rog NotJane]

What’s the fuel consumption like is it using more that you’d expect over a long run?

Sounds like something wrong - either with the van or your feet you only hear good things about this gearbox and afaik the 9apeed is the same in 4 and 2 wd

 

[CaptainPaul]

What’s the fuel consumption like is it using more that you’d expect over a long run?

Sounds like something wrong - either with the van or your feet you only hear good things about this gearbox and afaik the 9apeed is the same in 4 and 2 wd

This is why im going down the route I'm going, if this driving instructor gets in and drives it perfectly and it doesn't do what it does with me then I'll know it's me and not the van, but even though I hate automatic gearboxes I have driven loads of them and they didn't behave like this does
Fuel consumption seems very frugal haven't analysed it properly yet but seems very economical

 

[CaptainPaul]

What control do you have over your gearbox?

Sport button, eco mode, any of those options?

Does yours run different diameter wheels due to the “off road” ability?

No options just paddle shifters, chunky all terrain tyres but I don't think they are an issue, it just revs too much and is very slow to change gears

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[CaptainPaul]

Could be as others have suggested just use the paddle shifters and teach the gearbox the way I want it to drive for me, apparently the gearbox will learn your driving preferences and adapt accordingly

 

[Wh05apk]

I find the paddle shifters on mine will only allow down changes, you can't actually force it into a higher gear, you can hold on to a lower gear, and change up "if it allows"

 

[CaptainPaul]

I find the paddle shifters on mine will only allow down changes, you can't actually force it into a higher gear, you can hold on to a lower gear, and change up "if it allows"

No mine allows to shift up & down
But i've managed to suss how to switch that stupid lane assist off anyway, you go to the little vehicle button press it and it brings up a favourites menu and you can push it on or off as you wish, at least that's a quick shortcut a couple of seconds instead of scrolling through the settings menu!
Thank goodness I've found that anyway

 

[Red Sonja]

Paul. Does it drive the same for your Wife as for you?. We are back home in England otherwise we would have popped up and had a test drive.

 

[CaptainPaul]

Paul. Does it drive the same for your Wife as for you?. We are back home in England otherwise we would have popped up and had a test drive.

I think it does but she says she doesn't know! Lol
She's only driven it twice and it was just short distances,
To be honest I'm not overly concerned about it at present I'm just asking the question on here to owners who would have the knowledge and so far they're all saying they are fantastic to drive so I'll just go through a process of elimination and see what it throws up and if I still don't like it it'll either be sold of or lie in the shed and herself can drive it if she wants, I was a bit concerned when the dealer & the driving instructor both said 'yea they do tend to rev far too much! Lol

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[Derbyshire wanderer]

After many years of being a manual gearbox fan I now have no interest in them unless for real heavy lorry work or racing.
What I have learned is that the automatic manual overrides and flappy paddles are gimmicks that rarely make any useful additions to the drive unless in something petrol with at least 300hp.
Modern autos learn your driving style and make the experience much more relaxed if you can ignore the rev counter. Diesel engines are quite capable of running at maximum revs that are significantly less than a petrol engine. As the range is less, to get the gearing correct for the conditions you can find that they can be a little ‘busy’ at times as the various sensors have to work out where the torque or power can be found for the conditions.
Poor sound insulation is the difference for noticing when everything seems to be working too hard.

 

[Lenny HB]

about this gearbox and afaik the 9apeed is the same in 4 and 2 wd

But is the diff the same?

 

[CaptainPaul]

After many years of being a manual gearbox fan I now have no interest in them unless for real heavy lorry work or racing.
What I have learned is that the automatic manual overrides and flappy paddles are gimmicks that rarely make any useful additions to the drive unless in something petrol with at least 300hp.
Modern autos learn your driving style and make the experience much more relaxed if you can ignore the rev counter. Diesel engines are quite capable of running at maximum revs that are significantly less than a petrol engine. As the range is less, to get the gearing correct for the conditions you can find that they can be a little ‘busy’ at times as the various sensors have to work out where the torque or power can be found for the conditions.
Poor sound insulation is the difference for noticing when everything seems to be working too hard.

Well at least what your saying explains the revving too much and possibly the time between the gear changes, I'm hoping you are right and it learns how I want it to drive and not like it is now, still say if it was a manual it would be a much better van but hopefully this gearbox wises up & stops being like it is now! Lol
Yes my paddle shifters experiences on my previous cars all had plenty of horses under the bonnet

 

[Dutch 68]

Must be you, I've not driven a Merc auto but love our Fiat with the ZF box, even the two previous vans Comformatic boxes were far better than driving a manual.

You can blame NCAP safety test for that, vehicles get extra points for it turning on with the ignition.

Never will be a manual vehicle again, a good automatic gearbox is far superior to any manual, in today’s traffic conditions why would you want to operate a clutch every 5 seconds, in my car I have a 8 speed ZF, ( BMW) ) the gear changes are so smooth that you are hardly aware of them, and it works lightening fast

 

[CaptainPaul]

Never will be a manual vehicle again, a good automatic gearbox is far superior to any manual, in today’s traffic conditions why would you want to operate a clutch every 5 seconds, in my car I have a 8 speed ZF, ( BMW) ) the gear changes are so smooth that you are hardly aware of them, and it works lightening fast

Certainly not lightening fast in this thing I can assure you!
Thankfully we don't have traffic conditions where you would need to be operating clutches every 5 seconds
Definitely disagree about manual or automatic on this van, a manual gearbox would make it a lovely van to drive

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[CaptainPaul]

First reply I got from a ML-T 570 4x4 owners group
So at least I'm not imagining things!

 

[Derbyshire wanderer]

Well at least what your saying explains the revving too much and possibly the time between the gear changes, I'm hoping you are right and it learns how I want it to drive and not like it is now, still say if it was a manual it would be a much better van but hopefully this gearbox wises up & stops being like it is now! Lol
Yes my paddle shifters experiences on my previous cars all had plenty of horses under the bonnet

The difficulty is that with you and your good lady driving along with you using it as a manual, the learning mode is likely to give mixed results.
Many of us have lots of experience with getting the best from a finite amount of energy I.e. the engine and box being used to get the best from it so letting an automatic do the maths is quite alien.
With an automatic that generally has quite a low power to weight output and the wind resistance of a barn door, driving it like it is a bus with passengers should hopefully become a much more relaxed environment once you get used to it doing things that seem illogical.
Probably best to avoid driving your AM on the same day

 

[CaptainPaul]

The difficulty is that with you and your good lady driving along with you using it as a manual, the learning mode is likely to give mixed results.
Many of us have lots of experience with getting the best from a finite amount of energy I.e. the engine and box being used to get the best from it so letting an automatic do the maths is quite alien.
With an automatic that generally has quite a low power to weight output and the wind resistance of a barn door, driving it like it is a bus with passengers should hopefully become a much more relaxed environment once you get used to it doing things that seem illogical.
Probably best to avoid driving your AM on the same day

Thank you for all your help, tips & advice, it's much appreciated as I'm really fed up buying motorhomes at the minute and just want to be able to settle in one I can enjoy and keep for a while as I had a horrid time with that last van and as I've stated earlier I love the Hymer side of things it really is a fantastic van and the Mercedes side is real quality too, its just the over revving engine I'm not enjoying but hopefully as you say I'll get used to it and start enjoying it more, so thanks again to you and the other funsters on here who've chipped in I appreciate it

 

[Derbyshire wanderer]

Thank you for all your help, tips & advice, it's much appreciated as I'm really fed up buying motorhomes at the minute and just want to be able to settle in one I can enjoy and keep for a while as I had a horrid time with that last van and as I've stated earlier I love the Hymer side of things it really is a fantastic van and the Mercedes side is real quality too, its just the over revving engine I'm not enjoying but hopefully as you say I'll get used to it and start enjoying it more, so thanks again to you and the other funsters on here who've chipped in I appreciate it

I had manual motorhomes previously but now have ended up with a Sprinter based 7 speed automatic following an accident that stops me being able to manage the Fiat/Peugeot handbrake next to the door.
Wouldn’t have anything else now and understand why they cost a bit more

 

[Landy Andy]

Never will be a manual vehicle again, a good automatic gearbox is far superior to any manual, in today’s traffic conditions why would you want to operate a clutch every 5 seconds, in my car I have a 8 speed ZF, ( BMW) ) the gear changes are so smooth that you are hardly aware of them, and it works lightening fast

With an old fashioned engine that had proper power, you weren’t changing gear every 5 seconds. It had enough real power to pull, that is why fewer gears were required. All these little engines covered in technology with a tiny power band require all these gear changes.

In my Defender I can be in 5th gear at 30mph, and that will take me to over 90mph.

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[Dutch 68]

With an old fashioned engine that had proper power, you weren’t changing gear every 5 seconds. It had enough real power to pull, that is why fewer gears were required. All these little engines covered in technology with a tiny power band require all these gear changes.

In my Defender I can be in 5th gear at 30mph, and that will take me to over 90mph.

Yep for the sprinters bring back the V6 engines, for the new sprinters gearbox doesn’t change much high Rev wise, the manual sprinters are very high revving nervous vans with a suspension which isn’t helpful either

 

[CazPaul]

With an old fashioned engine that had proper power, you weren’t changing gear every 5 seconds. It had enough real power to pull, that is why fewer gears were required. All these little engines covered in technology with a tiny power band require all these gear changes.

In my Defender I can be in 5th gear at 30mph, and that will take me to over 90mph.

Exactly the same in our 20 year old 3 litre manual Motor-home.