When you use the paddles to shift your IS, do you let off of the accelerator when shifting gears like you would when driving a manual transmission or not?

 

My salesman told me that I should stay on the gas, so I do.

 

Well, I dont use my paddles much, but it seems like the shift is a lot smoother when I ease off the gas.

 

What reason could there be to let off the accelerator? The ECU is there to compute the shift. After you tell it to shift up or down whether you push harder or let off, it is going to do what your foot tells it to do no matter what gear you are in. If you are ****ing up and you let off the gas then reapply pressure to the pedal, it may need to down shift again depending on the conditions. If you keep the accelerator at a constant, it will shift when it needs to and not have to shift back and forth. Remember, when you are in sport shift, you are really only telling the car the highest gear you want to be in. It can always down shift if it needs to automatically.

 

Why the Poll?

 

I am not sure how it works on the 250, but on the 350, it does not down shift unless you are going pretty slow. Letting off the gas slightly to shift does not cause the car to downshift.

Also, the 350 is pretty jerky in Sportshift mode without letting off the gas

 

Does the car even upshift in sportshift mode if you DO let off the gas?

 

My car goes "wtf are you doing?!" when I left off the gas and try to paddle shift at the same time. So I always stay on the gas.

 

Because I was curious.

 

I've driven nothing but manuals my entire life -- the IS350 is my first car with an automatic. When I bought it, I figured I'd wind up using it exclusively in sportshift mode out of habit. As it turns out, I never use sport mode at all.

Maybe it's just because I'm not familiar or comfortable with the nuances of a tiptronic transmission, but it sure seems as if the automatic, left to its own devices, does a much better job of gear shifting and selection than I do. It upshifts faster and smoother off a launch, downshifts properly when accelerating out of a turn, and always downshifts quickly to give me power if I floor it. I really don't have any complaints.

 

Letting off the gas on any vehicle would not cause a down shift. An automatic car would only down shift if you are trying to speed up. If it did anything when you let off the gas, it would up shift. Maybe there is confusion about the difference between up shift and down shift. Down shift denote a lower gear as in 3 to 2 or 2 to 1.
If your car is shifting jerky, you must have problems because my car shifts silky smooth even when I have it floored. I almost can't tell that it shifted! For that matter, I can't even tell I am speeding! I love my car!

 

Yes, I am not confused by the terms upshift or downshift. I am confused by your earlier statement which stated that the car may need to downshift if I let off the gas.

Also, you may be confused about how I am driving, I am only easing off the accelerator, not completely taking my foot off the gas. So I am going full throttle, partial throtte(About enough to coast at the speed I am at) Shift, full throttle.

It does not need to do that. Maybe the 250 is smooth while using the Sportsshift full throttle, but my IS is not so smooth using sports shift.

 

Like someone else mentioned earlier, I've driven manuals for most of my life as well. I don't use the tiptronic, whether with the shifter itself or the paddles. I'd use it more often if it wasn't for the 1-2 second delay in shifting.

 

Agree - I would have ordered mine w/o the paddles if I could have. Never use it.

s

 

Why in the world would you let off the gas when you use the paddle to shift the car? It is basically the same thing as having the automatic transmission shift except you decide when it shifts. Do you let off the gas before it shifts when you have it in automatic shift mode? I think not.

I am surprised that 9 people have said that they do let off the gas when they shift the car