sirkfc

I'm still confused.

Yes, I understand the shifting is not nearly as quick as a manual, but if you put the paddles at the gear you want to be, the only time the shifter deviates from your choice is when the gear you want for a certain speed is too high the car....

So basically the paddles don't allow you to drive 20mph in 6th gear...

Is that the basic complaint people have about the shifting logic of the car? (And the fact it doesn't go to 1 at a stop).

I can't think of another automanual transmission that doesn't have this sort of logic in place...

insider

The paddles in the BMW 335i actually work just like a manual. The BMW has a "full throttle resistance point" on the accelerator. So basically, in manual mode, you can lug the engine down to 1,000rpm's in any gear, give it full throttle and it won't downshift. It will, however, upshift at redline. But anywhere in between you have full control. For example, at full throttle at 3,000 rpm in 4th, if you upshift to 5th, it will respond and shift up to 5th instantly. Just like driving a manual. The Lexus system is really quite lame in comparison. With Lexus it won't upshift when you want it to. And it will down shift on its own.

Bichon

That's how it works with the Audi, but not with the Lexus. The paddle shifters only allow you to choose the maximum gear that the transmission can automatically choose, not the actual gear. This is particularly noticeable in freezing weather. The car won't shift into 6th gear even at 65 MPH until the car warms up. (The green display says "6", but if you display the gear indicator by pushing the DISP switch on the wheel, you'll see it is still in 5th)

tex2670

Think of it as a top gear lock out. If you move to sport mode, you see a "4" in the window. But--if you switch to the current gear display, you aren't necessarily in 4th. If you stop at a light, the car shifts down to 1st, but if you don't mannually shift down to 1st, the window still says "4"--it doens't reset down to 1. So, when you pull away from the light, the car will just drive in plain old automatic mode until you hit 4th. Then it will stay there, unless you redline it, and it needs to protect the engine. In my old TL, when you stopped at a light, it would reset at 1st, then would quickly shift to 2nd (whether you manually shifted or not) unless you floored it, then would not shift out of 2nd until you did so mannually, or you were redlining.

sirkfc

Yes, I understand that part of it, but presumably, the reason people want a manual mode is so they can drive at a more sporty pace, i.e. higher RPMs. Thus, if you are driving with sporting intent, you'd put the paddles exactly where you want it, and the car should be right there, because if it had its choice, it'd want to be in a higher gear for gas...

So the people that are upset about the car not being in 4 when you want it to be 4, are the people who want to drive at a lower RPM than normal, which isn't sporty shifting....

I guess I'm just not understanding what exactly people want out of the device... what do you want it to do besides respond faster. (except for the automatic downshift to 1. that would be better).