2nd gear, for me, is one lever shift rearward from Drive, and a press of

the "Winter" mode button. This, for me, effectively locks it in 2nd gear.

I do this regularly (matching revs near-perfectly with my right foot along

the way if I'm invoking 2nd gear at the time, as at the top of a slow hill

I'm about to coast down).

Mazdas use[d] AW transmissions, and utilize[d] a "Hold" button instead of a

"Winter" button. Thus the only gear they cannot force is 4th (with same

3-position shifter).

I guess a "Winter" mode was more Volvoly. It does work similarly to the

Hold switch my previous AW had, especially for 2nd gear.

But it's just a software difference, and I'm certain it could be overridden

in a variety of ways if the desire was high enough and the wallet thick

enough... The thing is, after all, electr[on]ically controlled, with

firmware/software that can be changed and/or firmware control bypassed.

I almost never (creeping downhill in bumper-to-bumper traffic?) move the

handle to select first (it does that for itself very nicely when/if neeed

for acceleration at low speeds, especially when left in Sport mode), with

the possible exception of an especially 'tight' run through some of the slower switchbacks on Pikes Peak, where keeping boost built is more of a

challenge than you can probably imagine. (The alternative mode of using

both pedals at once is actually faster and easier, but more abusive.) As

for when to upshift from 1st for best performance, the unit does that for

itself very well, too; better than can be consistently done with a full

manual set-up -- and very much better than can be done with the automatic's

3-position shifter -- at WOT in 1st gear with redline (and trees, or

clouds!) rapidly approaching...

IOW, I save manually shifting to (or from) 1st for rare extreme driving

situations -- after having played with it and learned it, of course.

If you ever forget if you've both moved the lever AND pressed the button

(which isn't hard to do since Volvo cheaped out on indicators and EITHER

action will cause the single indicator to illuminate, even though the 2

actions have very different effects), and don't want to move the lever back to Drive just to find out, but do want to be sure the car can accelerate

strongly if you subsequently press the pedal, you can just rock the

Sport/Econ switch, which will cancel the winter (hold) mode. Another thing

to remember: if you give it throttle and the car is locked in 2nd when you

expected/wanted/needed it to be in 1st, be ready to floor the throttle,

which will (at appropriate speeds, and hopefully-appropriate steering lock)

still override the lockout of 1st (referred to internally as the

bonehead-proof exception, no doubt).

- Dave; '95 854T, 101K mi