(G) The sport button really does work!

I've never really played with the sport button on my 100hp. I was driving home the other day on a flat road and decided to give it a press. Basicially you can feel the car speed up or slow down depending on which setting the car is on. You need half the throttle pressure to go the same speed as with not being in sport mode. I was quite surprised at the difference. Give it a try.

'SPORT' mode had been a default mode ever since I got the car.

It just feels so sluggish and unresponsive without it!

Exactly that. I just never realised how much before.

Sport mode is the default setting on my car. I've never driven it more than five minutes with it off. Can't believe you haven't tried it much before.

What sport button?

Only time the sport button on mine gets turned off is in the summer, when for some strange reason now and again it turns itself off

Mine turns itself off occasionally, seemingly when I get the immobiliser light on the dash, happens once in a blue moon. That's the only time I have driven it with sport button off, which I tend to notice pretty quickly.

There is no reason whatsoever to NOT use the lovely Sport button...it doesnt even use more fuel,in fact it may even use less.

I almost never use my Sport button... in fact the last time I used it was at The Nurburgring last August.

It's a p.i.t.a on the daily commute!

I agree...No fun in 2nd gear crawly traffic....Not much point on the Mway which I use a fair bit too....

Plus it saves me a couple of mpg....

I think the sport button works in the same way that the gas pedal works. Pushing the sport button is like push the throttle down a bit further. At least I think that's how it works. The Sport button is like 'normal' IMHO, but with the non-sport mode I need to move my right foot too much.

Sport almost always on - off when putting car into/out of garage and on the very rare occasions when I'm in very slow-moving traffic - two or three times a year. Apart from the throttle response the steering weight - pseudo feel - is more natural as well.

Not quite, aside from reducing the amount of assistance from the power steering, all the sport button does is provide a modified engine map below 3k rpm, providing a more instantious response from the fly-by-wire throttle which makes it feel more lively and responsive at low rpm.

Definately ON needs to be the default setting!

does it really remap to give a different response or is it exactly the same but you have to push the pedal further down to get that response. As I either potter or have throttle to floor I find the unsporty mode fine. Another factor for me is being very short I have the issue with the achy ankle at small throttle openings so potter mode which means bigger movements of throttle is a bit more comfortable.

couldn't agree more, the engine is so snatchy and grabby.... i hate it in sport mode....

i severely doubt it changes engine mapping at all.

More likely is that it increases the % output of the throttle for any given position; making it more responsive at smaller throttle pedal inputs...

Having software that mucks about with engine mapping is more complicated (and expensive) than having something if/then based that tells the engine to wind a few notches onto whatever your throttle input is.

Similarly, the steering doesn't truly become sharper or more direct... the software will just tell the p/s system to wind off a certain % of assistance.

That said though, there's something satisfying about just having a sport button in a Fiat Panda!!