Mercedes-Benz 2008 S550 Operator's Manual page 413

Controls in detail
Automatic transmission
Limiting gear range
Warning!
On slippery road surfaces, never downshift
in order to obtain braking action. This could
result in drive wheel slip and reduced
vehicle control. Your vehicle's ABS will not
prevent this type of loss of control.
Briefly press left shift button 1 or pull
left shift paddle 1.
The transmission will shift to the next
lower gear as permitted by the shift
program. This action simultaneously
limits the gear range of the transmis-
sion ( page 408).
i
To avoid overrevving the engine when down-
shifting, the transmission will not shift to a lower
gear if the engine's max. speed would be ex-
ceeded.
412
Extending gear range
Briefly press right shift button 2 or
G
pull right shift paddle 2.
The transmission will shift to the next
higher gear as permitted by the shift
program. This action simultaneously
extends the gear range of the transmis-
sion.
i
If you press on the accelerator when the en-
gine has reached its rpm limit, the transmission
will upshift beyond any gear range limit selected.
Canceling gear range limit
Press and hold right shift button 2 or
pull and hold right shift paddle 2 until
the indicator for the current gear range
disappears from the multifunction dis-
play ( page 408).
The transmission will shift from the
current gear range directly to gear
range D.