Hi everyone. I just bought a Soul last week. I have a bunch of questions. I'm not a car person, so most of my questions are pretty basic. Things like, "why would I turn OFF the ESC?" And when would I downshift or up shift my automatic gear? My main priority is maximizing fuel efficiency and taking good care of the car overall. Any help is invited.
Excited New Soul Owner
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welcome to the forum and congrats on your ride. It would help if you could fill out the DRIVES info on the left side (see mine) with details of what your purchased - year model AT or MT. - thanks. (it makes it much easier for us to answer questions and comments with this info)
The manual mode on the auto is just like a manual, you just up shift and down shift the same, however, it does take some control. How are you wanting to use it?
(update, just realized I answered the question wrong UBRocked as covered it, but to answer your question, the only time I have turned off ESC was if you get stuck in snow and wish to rock the car out of the rut or something similar, otherwise I leave it on. You have to try it it some slippy conditions (with no traffic around) to get an idea how it reacts with it on and off.
The manual mode on the auto is just like a manual, you just up shift and down shift the same, however, it does take some control. How are you wanting to use it?
(update, just realized I answered the question wrong UBRocked as covered it, but to answer your question, the only time I have turned off ESC was if you get stuck in snow and wish to rock the car out of the rut or something similar, otherwise I leave it on. You have to try it it some slippy conditions (with no traffic around) to get an idea how it reacts with it on and off.
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Hi and congrats! Don't confuse ESC for ECO...
ESC is Electronic Stability Control and you really want to have that on all the time (I don't know when or why someone would actually want to turn that off...maybe if you were "drift" racing LOL). If you start to lose control of your car, the ESC kicks in and helps to regain control. There is actually a lot that goes on behind the scenes here and you could read more about it here: HowStuffWorks "How Electronic Stability Control Works"
ECO is a feature that changes your engine/transmission to try and help reduce fuel consumption. There seems to be a lot of debate as to how well this works...how much it reduces performance...and some people leave it on all the time while others leave it off all of the time. Some people even turn it on in certain situations and that seems to be another source of debate (like whether it is better for city or highway driving). I personally have mine off because the car seems to be much more "peppy" with faster acceleration (especially when accelerating from a complete stop). Other people say that you should leave it off until the engine is "broken in" (around 1000 or 1500 miles). I personally don't think everyone who has a comment...actually has a clue what they are talking about when it comes to the ECO setting. I noticed what feels like a "dead spot" in the acceleration of the car when the ECO setting is turned on and that really bugged me so that is why I turned it off. I would recommend you do some testing on your own (including tracking fuel economy with it on versus when it is off) and see what works best for you. The only thing that most people could agree with on here is that there is no consensus to the question of "should I leave it on or off?" LOL
ESC is Electronic Stability Control and you really want to have that on all the time (I don't know when or why someone would actually want to turn that off...maybe if you were "drift" racing LOL). If you start to lose control of your car, the ESC kicks in and helps to regain control. There is actually a lot that goes on behind the scenes here and you could read more about it here: HowStuffWorks "How Electronic Stability Control Works"
ECO is a feature that changes your engine/transmission to try and help reduce fuel consumption. There seems to be a lot of debate as to how well this works...how much it reduces performance...and some people leave it on all the time while others leave it off all of the time. Some people even turn it on in certain situations and that seems to be another source of debate (like whether it is better for city or highway driving). I personally have mine off because the car seems to be much more "peppy" with faster acceleration (especially when accelerating from a complete stop). Other people say that you should leave it off until the engine is "broken in" (around 1000 or 1500 miles). I personally don't think everyone who has a comment...actually has a clue what they are talking about when it comes to the ECO setting. I noticed what feels like a "dead spot" in the acceleration of the car when the ECO setting is turned on and that really bugged me so that is why I turned it off. I would recommend you do some testing on your own (including tracking fuel economy with it on versus when it is off) and see what works best for you. The only thing that most people could agree with on here is that there is no consensus to the question of "should I leave it on or off?" LOL
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