I have a 2013 Paceman S/Auto. I generally drive in standard mode but noticed something interesting the other day. I was idling at a stop light and put the car into sport mode. The idle immediately became rougher. I turned off sport mode and the idle smoothed out again. This behavior is repeatable.

I seems that sport mode is making adjustments to the engine when the car is idling. I'll bet the spark timing and possibly the valve timing are changed. The only time I am interested in sport mode is to reduce the hesitation off idle when starting up - so I guess these changes have to be made at idle. I do find the rough idle irritating however.

David