Mercedes-Benz 280 CE 1981, Owner'S Manual

Page: 39 / 85

Starting and Shifting Gears
Do not store any objects in the
driver’s footweel area because they
could become lodged under the
operator’s pedals thus rendering
these controls partially or totally
inoperative.
Test service brake after driving off.
Warm up the engine sm oothly. Do
not place full load on the engine
until the operating tem perature has
been reached.
Automatic Transmission
The autom atic transm ission fa c ili­
tates and sim plifies the handling of
the vehicle. The individual gears are
shifted autom atically dependent
upon selector lever position, vehicle
speed and accelerator position.
Hint
When parking the vehicle or if w o rk ­
ing on the vehicle with the engine
running, depress parking brake
pedal and move selector lever to po­
sition "P ” .
Starting
Shift selector lever to the desired
driving position only when the
engine is idling and the service
brake is applied. Do not release the
brake before moving off. The vehicle
may otherwise start creeping when
the selector lever is in a driving posi­
tion.
Accelerator position
Partial thro ttle = early upshifting =
normal acceleration
Full thro ttle = retarded upshifting =
maximum acceleration
Depressing the accelerator beyond
fu ll throttle to kickdown position
means dow nshifting to the next
lower gear and thus maximum acce­
leration. If you ease up on the acce­
lerator after having attained the
desired speed, the transm ission w ill
shift up again.
Gearshifting is controlled by the
vehicle speed.
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