Abe, while I agree it doesn't take 20 miles for the adaptive system to activate I don't think your description of the adaptive system is completely correct. The system is continuously adaptive so it is always working. In my experience it does take several miles to work the transmission from its most economical shift to the most sport shifts. What you described sounds a lot like the kick-down function for the car.

We have the adaptive tranny on our '99 S80 T6 and '01 V70 T5. It works pretty much the same on both but it is quicker to adjust on the T6. Here's a typical example: I get in the T6 the day after my wife has had it. I'm not a happy camper as I head out because when I step into the accelerator the tranny shifts too soon (the Mrs. drives more civil since she has our son with her typically) to give maximum acceleration (a good analogy would be the difference in feel between having DSTC on vs. off). As I leave each of the next several stop lights I continue to hammer the accelerator. After several lights you can feel the tranny start to adjust by the seat of your pants. At each successive light the car accelerates faster and faster as the tranny logic holds the lower gears longer. Eventually I get to a point where I've reached maximum acceleration capabilities and I'm happy again (and yes this is typically at least 10 miles of aggressive acceleration - not WOT though). In the V70 it works the same way but it seems to take longer for the car to swing from economical to power shifts. (At times I miss the 'E' and 'S' buttons we used to have on our 850 Turbo and S70 T5.)

Thanks.

-rdo