Question about sport mode in Nautilus

[Deafsoundguy]

I was wondering if you Nautilus owners could enlighten me in regards to the relationship between Sport mode and the paddle shifters. In our FPace, you can tell the car you can select Sport mode and turn off the paddles from being active. My wife has this mental block about paddle shifters and freaks her out when she has to think about using them to shift down or shift up. Yeah, new first world problem - paddle shifter anxiety ?. She occasionally selects Sport mode for her evil stop light Gran-Prix ?. So wondering if you can program them OFF  on the Nautilus.

 

Thanks -DSG

[akirby]

You can’t turn them off but you don’t have to use them.  It will stay in auto mode and just hold a lower gear if you don’t touch the paddles.  If you do use the paddles you can go back to auto by hitting D.

 

if it’s straight line speed she wants sport mode won’t help with that.  Just leave it in D and floor it.

[Gurgeh]

What akirby said.

 

I use typically use sport mode when driving around town but never use the paddle shifters. I like the firmer suspension with little bouncing or sway (though one can configure sport mode to have either the sport or normal suspension setting) and also like the immediate power and torque available from the sport throttle/gear settings if you need to pass or um, get through that yellow (I *swear* it was still yellow officer!) light.

[Deafsoundguy]

On the FPace it's easy to hit the paddle shifters and make them active (in sport mode). If my wife is whippin' that steering wheel around like a ship avoiding a torpedo, she will inadvertently hit them, and then it's staying in that gear and hence the freak-out mode because she actually has to think which one is up and which one is down ? .  There's no help for her, I've tried. So the fact that you can turn them off is good for her, but not a deal breaker fortunately with the Nautilus. Her test drive seemed to be enough umph for her pedal stomping so right now I think we're okay but it would be cool if you had the choice - just sayin... ?

[Assimilator]

I feel bad because I have NEVER touched the paddles in any of my cars, including my Nautilus.  I use Sport mode rarely, but it never requires you to use the paddles, but they activate as soon as you start operating them.  

 

Sport mode in the Nautilus dramatically changes the vehicle.   Steering, Suspension, transmission, everything really wakes up.  I didn't mind Sport mode in the MKX, but in the Nautilus the 8-Speed transmission is not as smooth around 2nd and 3rd so the car just feels like it's constantly bumping through those gears and it's extremely obnoxious in Sport. It's less pronounced in Comfort mode, but it's still there to some extent.  And the firmer Sport suspension also makes the car feel like an Edge, it has that same jittery ride that Fords tend to have, smooth over the big things, but everything else comes through and the car feels unsettled.  ANYBODY who says the drive modes don't make a difference are reflecting their own attitudes, not reality.  

Edited October 27, 2019 by Assimilator

[Deafsoundguy]

Personally I never use the paddles on my previous cars for anything to do with being sporty or holding out a gear for power. I only use them for gearing down or holding the gear for slowing down or curvy road use. That being said, some cars you can't hardly feel a difference shifting down and others like my former XK, when you shifted down it was like electric regeneration and very pronounced (and appreciated). I don't know if it's a compression ratio and gear thing or what. I just know it was great with my XK but with my Dodge, you can shift down from 20th to 4th and hardly feel a headwind like deceleration even though that tach is reaching for the stars....

[MKZMark]

I never use the paddles, since the car gears down anyway in D or S, just more aggressively in S. I do like sport mode for traffic situations where I need a burst of speed, say at a Jersey roundabout full of maniacs at rush hour.

[Deafsoundguy]

On 10/27/2019 at 11:00 AM, Assimilator said:

I feel bad because I have NEVER touched the paddles in any of my cars, including my Nautilus.  I use Sport mode rarely, but it never requires you to use the paddles, but they activate as soon as you start operating them.  

 

Sport mode in the Nautilus dramatically changes the vehicle.   Steering, Suspension, transmission, everything really wakes up.  I didn't mind Sport mode in the MKX, but in the Nautilus the 8-Speed transmission is not as smooth around 2nd and 3rd so the car just feels like it's constantly bumping through those gears and it's extremely obnoxious in Sport. It's less pronounced in Comfort mode, but it's still there to some extent.  And the firmer Sport suspension also makes the car feel like an Edge, it has that same jittery ride that Fords tend to have, smooth over the big things, but everything else comes through and the car feels unsettled.  ANYBODY who says the drive modes don't make a difference are reflecting their own attitudes, not reality.  

It's hard to really know what someone's talking about until you have the car for yourself. When you say "dramatically changes the vehicle" I was wondering just how much that could be true when Sports mode in most any other vehicle we've ever owned has just bumped around the shift points for the most part. Even my Cadillac is supposed to have all these changes in sports mode and I can barely tell a difference. In our now traded in Jag FPace, the different modes did the usual shift point things but as far as all this dynamic crap that it was supposed to do, I had a hard time telling any ride quality difference. I was really wondering if my rear end and senses had gone out the window.

 

So now we've had the Nautilus a few days. Because of work I still only have a small amount of time to myself in the car. I finally switched it out of Normal into Comfort and wow there's really a difference I can feel and even cushier ride! I really like Comfort mode. While the torque is there, the throttle response isn't huge but more than enough (2.7 engine). So then I finally got to hit S mode and Wow! I agree with you Assimilator - completely different car! The throttle response is way quick and I could definitely feel the ride get firmer! There's this corner going back to my house that is about a 110 degree hard turn and then goes uphill into another turn. I know exactly how the Jag felt whipping around that corner. So I tried it in S mode on the Nautilus and I would go as far to say I like it even better in the Lincoln, power, torque, feel and handling. Anyone who complains that the ride is too stiff in S mode in the Nautilus sure hasn't had the 3+ years we had of ridin' like a truck in the Fpace. The Lincoln is moderately stiff in S mode but still way nicer of a ride than the FPace in Normal mode...?

 

So far I'm just getting used to the Nautilus but right now I'm super impressed with it and it absolutely exceeds my expectations of the car.

 

Have to say, what the heck is the deal with a 5 star rating on the car but a "poor" rating in the headlights? What? We were out last night and the headlights were awesome! Zero complaints. When we bought our Cadillac SRX back in 2014 - now THERE's a car that had sucky headlights right out of the gate. We were plenty bummed. We had to go get better lamps right off the bat.

 

I have only one gripe - who in the world would put the steering wheel heater 3 screens back to get to and not on the steering wheel? Truly non-common sense....

 

 

Edited December 1, 2019 by Deafsoundguy

[Gurgeh]

Defsound, totally agree on the heated steering wheel controls. Like heated/ventilated seats, it really should have its own physical control.

 

If you are on the home screen (that is, not with the full audio or nav screens up), here is a virtual heated steering wheel control button always available on the screen, but it is tiny and in the lower right quadrant.

 

If you are on any other screen you can turn on the heated steering wheel in two taps. First hit the little house icon in the upper left corner. That gets you to the home screen that combines a reduced map with basic audio info -- and, of course the tiny(!) heated steering wheel icon.

Edited December 1, 2019 by Gurgeh

[Deafsoundguy]

Funny that all the screens I was on never was the Home screen I guess - DOH!! I think I was also predispositioned  to not see a shortcut because on one of the reviews I read or YouTubed the reviewer complained about the same thing. So lo and behold, I hit the Home button and the Nav on the left and radio and heated wheel (looks like jellyfish launcher) is on the right like you said.... Okay well I can live with that one! My Jag XK was like that, and the Home screen always popped up first with angry (red) Jellyfish in the middle. You have to admit the Nautilus manual doesn't help in many questions. It just says press the heated steering wheel button, and doesn't tell you where it is or how many ways to get to it. Still... a physical button would be preferred in my book.

 

So...question - turn the steering wheel heater on and that sucker gets HOT!!!! I mean it's almost too hot. If you're wearing driving or winter gloves it's okay and nice, but bare hand it's right at the threshold of pain ?.. anyone else notice that?

[akirby]

On MFT the home screen was the default screen at startup - always.   It actually bothered me because I always liked to keep mine on Audio.  But with sync 3 it stays on the last screen and never defaults to the home screen.  It's easy to miss but can be useful.   It would be nice to have a small area for shortcuts that you could configure and appears on all screens.  I'm sure sync 4 with the larger screens will have something like that.

[rmc523]

22 hours ago, Deafsoundguy said:

It's hard to really know what someone's talking about until you have the car for yourself. When you say "dramatically changes the vehicle" I was wondering just how much that could be true when Sports mode in most any other vehicle we've ever owned has just bumped around the shift points for the most part. Even my Cadillac is supposed to have all these changes in sports mode and I can barely tell a difference. In our now traded in Jag FPace, the different modes did the usual shift point things but as far as all this dynamic crap that it was supposed to do, I had a hard time telling any ride quality difference. I was really wondering if my rear end and senses had gone out the window.

 

So now we've had the Nautilus a few days. Because of work I still only have a small amount of time to myself in the car. I finally switched it out of Normal into Comfort and wow there's really a difference I can feel and even cushier ride! I really like Comfort mode. While the torque is there, the throttle response isn't huge but more than enough (2.7 engine). So then I finally got to hit S mode and Wow! I agree with you Assimilator - completely different car! The throttle response is way quick and I could definitely feel the ride get firmer! There's this corner going back to my house that is about a 110 degree hard turn and then goes uphill into another turn. I know exactly how the Jag felt whipping around that corner. So I tried it in S mode on the Nautilus and I would go as far to say I like it even better in the Lincoln, power, torque, feel and handling. Anyone who complains that the ride is too stiff in S mode in the Nautilus sure hasn't had the 3+ years we had of ridin' like a truck in the Fpace. The Lincoln is moderately stiff in S mode but still way nicer of a ride than the FPace in Normal mode...?

 

So far I'm just getting used to the Nautilus but right now I'm super impressed with it and it absolutely exceeds my expectations of the car.

 

Have to say, what the heck is the deal with a 5 star rating on the car but a "poor" rating in the headlights? What? We were out last night and the headlights were awesome! Zero complaints. When we bought our Cadillac SRX back in 2014 - now THERE's a car that had sucky headlights right out of the gate. We were plenty bummed. We had to go get better lamps right off the bat.

 

I have only one gripe - who in the world would put the steering wheel heater 3 screens back to get to and not on the steering wheel? Truly non-common sense....

 

 

 

It seems like many of Ford/Lincoln's headlights get low/poor ratings because of glare for other drivers, while the headlights themselves provide good visibility for you the driver, therefore they give bad ratings.

 

22 hours ago, Gurgeh said:

Defsound, totally agree on the heated steering wheel controls. Like heated/ventilated seats, it really should have its own physical control.

 

If you are on the home screen (that is, not with the full audio or nav screens up), here is a virtual heated steering wheel control button always available on the screen, but it is tiny and in the lower right quadrant.

 

If you are on any other screen you can turn on the heated steering wheel in two taps. First hit the little house icon in the upper left corner. That gets you to the home screen that combines a reduced map with basic audio info -- and, of course the tiny(!) heated steering wheel icon.

 

The 2020 Explorer has a physical heated steering wheel button between the heated/ventilated seats buttons.

[Deafsoundguy]

Almost an embarrassing moment.... I met a really super smart guy and we had to go a long ways to visit some fabricators for a project of mine so I decided to steal the wife's Nautilus. At some point, I was gushing about how smooth and almost dead quiet the Auto S/S is in the Lincolns. And then I realized it wasn't working... DOH!....  That's when I figured out that Auto S/S doesn't work in Sport mode.... makes sense.

 

My new buddy is unbelievably smart. Was born in Detroit and a total car guy, his Dad worked for some company that dealt directly with GM and was personal friends with the guy in charge of the Corvette division. Has had a bunch of muscle cars in his youth but in the latter years of his life has preferred and owned BMWs and Audis. He gets in the BL Nautilus and he was blown away how nice it is. We went through the paces with it including some super windy turns in Sport mode. When he got out he said based on his evaluation of the car, he definitely would buy a Lincoln over an Audi, which is pretty cool considering he's really into Audis. Was very impressed with the Chalet theme and leather quality, not to mention of course how quiet the car is.... ?