Mercedes-Benz 2011 C300 Luxury Sedan Operator's Manual page 145

Downshifting
X
Briefly press the selector lever to the left
towards D–.
or
X
Pull the left-hand steering wheel paddle
shifter ( Y page 141).
The automatic transmission shifts down to
the next gear.
i If you brake the vehicle or stop without
shifting down, the automatic transmission
will shift down to a gear that will allow the
vehicle to accelerate or pull away again.
i Vehicles with the dynamic handling
package: to avoid overrevving the engine
when downshifting, the automatic
transmission does not shift to a lower gear
if this would result in the maximum engine
speed being exceeded.
i
If you desire maximum acceleration, push
the selector lever to the left or pull and hold
the left-hand steering wheel paddle shifter
until the transmission shifts to the optimal
gear for the current speed.
Kickdown
i Vehicles with an AMG engine: it is not
possible to use kickdown in manual drive
program M.
You can also use kickdown for maximum
acceleration in manual drive program M.
X
Vehicles for USA: fully depress the
accelerator pedal.
The automatic transmission shifts to a
lower gear depending on the engine speed.
X
Vehicles for Canada: depress the
accelerator pedal beyond the pressure
point.
The automatic transmission shifts to a
lower gear depending on the engine speed.
i
During kickdown, you cannot change gear
using the steering wheel paddle shifters or
the selector lever.
Automatic transmission
Switching off the manual drive program
X
AMG vehicles: press the program selector
button ( Y page 140) repeatedly until E or
S appears in the multifunction display.
X
Vehicles with the dynamic handling
package: press the program selector
button ( Y page 140). M is no longer shown
in the multifunction display.
143
Z