A vehicle control system for adjusting control characteristics governing behaviors of a vehicle in accordance with a driving preference of a driver. The vehicle control system is comprised of a shifting means that shifts a driving mode of the vehicle between a first mode in which a driving force to be generated is moderated and a second mode in which a driving force to be generated is larger than that generated under the first mode, upon exceedance of a predetermined threshold value by an index that is changed according to a change in a behavior of the vehicle resulting from an accelerating or a decelerating operation executed by the driver. The threshold value is set to a limit value of acceleration for human beings to sense a linear change in the acceleration from zero.