This bothered me for a while too. The software is not great at making the transition from casual to spirited driving. In my experience it is too hesitant to get sporty and then when it does it can be quite abrupt and more than anticipated.
Two things I've found that really helped make the car drive more responsively in normal situations for me:
- Using sport individual with engine in sport and everything else in comfort as the default drive mode. The extra power helps get off the line while having the trans in comfort keeps the rpms and burbles from being too obnoxious around town.
- Kick the shifter into m/s in anticipation for acceleration. This gets that downshift out of the way, or bumps the rpms up
before you attempt to accelerate. I've gotten in the habit of kicking the trans in and out of m/s quite often and the driving experience is a lot more to my liking this way because it feels like I can more directly control the transition from casual to spirited driving.
I am also using full manual mode more often because the engine feels soooo much better when I control the rpms directly. Although this is my first automatic so maybe I just really miss my manuals
