Best use for Overdrive and Sport Mode? Nissan Rogue

carolinabob

Waiting delivery on 2014 Rogue SL. What is the best way/time to use overdrive and Sport mode? Thanks,

kyfdx

@carolinabob said:
Waiting delivery on 2014 Rogue SL. What is the best way/time to use overdrive and Sport mode? Thanks,

Overdrive should be the default setting. The switch is to turn Overdrive off. That might be useful in towing, or to provide engine braking on downhill mountain roads.

Sport? When you want the engine to wind out longer before shifting and downshift sooner when slowing... Reduced gas mileage and increased mechanical wear will result if used often.

Mostly.. just stick it in Drive and go..

Mr_Shiftright

In addition to that excellent advice, I would advise that overdrive really works best on flat level terrain; nor is it of much use in city driving, since trying to accelerate in overdrive feels like the car is falling on its face---numerous downshifts.

An engine's greatest times of wear are a) when cold and b) when "lugging"---that is, when it's in too high a gear for the speed its actually going and the terrain it is attempting to navigate.

So, like going up a long hill or mountain pass---no overdrive. Towing? No overdrive (in most cases, unless you have a tailwind and a flat road).

Of course, you can let the car's computer do the work for you, and just drive it and don't touch anything---but if you feel the car downshifting 10 X a minute on the open road, you know you should probably not be in overdrive.

That overdrive button is nifty for long downhills!