More control of accelerating and braking with the paddles. In auto mode, the trans downshifts too soon, rendering the (250) engine weak and requiring more gas pedal pressure. It's also great for braking, being ready for the next gear (entering onramps), and slowing the car down without hitting the brakes. This keeps you less obvious to police and helps reduce traffic jams behind you on the freeway. The latter only works in lighter traffic when minor changes in speed are needed.

 

Not really following you here...

How does downshifting make the engine weak? for that matter how do you prevent downshifting with the paddles since you can't lock out lower gears?


Again- brakes cost a lot less than transmissions and engines.... I agree they're great when you're driving down a mountain and need to avoid brake fade... but in normal street driving if you want to slow down use the brakes- that's what they're there for.

 

[QUOTE=Kurtz;6004924]Not really following you here...

How does downshifting make the engine weak? for that matter how do you prevent downshifting with the paddles since you can't lock out lower gears?

Sorry, I meant upshifting. As you pull away in auto mode, the trans wants to fall into the next gear too soon. This puts the engine in a weaker spot where there is less torque.

 

brakes were made to slow your car down not your transmission. it's alot cheaper to replace brake pads.

 

As long as you aren't throwing it into first gear at higher speeds, transmissions no longer go out from this type of usage. Manufacturers build these things to withstand every day manual shifting and there are safety nannies to prevent abuse. There is no concrete evidence to back up manual shifting has worn out transmissions prematurely.

Another area downshifting is wise is in wet and snowy weather when traction is scarce.

 

The transmission doesn't fall out the car from doing it once... that's where modern design helps.

But you're still running both engine and transmission at significantly higher rpms than if you just used the brakes, which is increased wear and tear, and thus shorter life. There's been several threads on this already... here's one example of what you're doing wrong with this:

that's from this thread:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...slow-down.html


That's true, and lumps in with my "in the mountains" example where the paddles are worthwhile, both to be filed under "environmental situations where forcing lower gears are warranted" but again not something you ought do on a regular basis as brake pads are cheap but power trains are not.

 

I've tried using them maybe three times at the most. *shrugs*

I really have no use for the paddles so I just keep it in drive and drive it like an automatic.

 

Being able to downshift makes it worth it to me. It eliminates the delay if you're racing from a roll. I guess it all depends on how you drive.

 

Here is my scenario:

I am stuck in a traffic jam and would like to weave amongst lanes to get ahead, faster than the traffic flow.

so I set my paddle shifter to '2' and this allows the car to hold in 2 most of the time. If I have to come to a stop, it downshifts to '1' automatically and I do not have to be worried about anything. Now if I had it in automatic mode, it would keep shifting up to '4' and therefore will take up precious time when I have that window of opportunity to change lanes and speed up to a gap in the lane next to me, which might be moving faster, or maybe that is the lane which leads me to the exit that I need to take.

 

Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhh I get it!! Okay I understand how it works now, thanks Chikoo! Someone told me in the beginning that it was a limiter but I didn't quite understand how it works because on my IS300 that sales guy (at the place that I don't like) explained it differently. Found out later that he was new to Lexus himself.......*sigh*

 

Check out my posts in this thread:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ool-proof.html

It should clear up any confusion about the paddles.

 

Thanks mi-cah-iah!

Maybe this will help more..

I start the car and shift to 'S'. Automatically the limit is '4'.
I use the '-' paddle to bring the upper limit down to '2'.
Now I floor the gas pedal and it will start moving in '1' and shift to '2' automatically at it's optimum point.
The engine is roaring and now getting near to red-line.
At this time I use the '+' paddle to change the upper limit to '3'.
Guess what happens? The transmission will shift to '3'.
Again as you approach the red-line, up the limit to '4' and it will shift to '4'.
So on and so forth for '5' and '6'.

And if for any reason, you had to slow down, the transmission will down shift to the optimum gear for you. So what is wrong with this implementation? Nothing as far as a DD goes that wants to hold gears and experience red-line revving without hurting the power train.

 

Is it just me or is there a delay when shifting up with either the paddles or the stick? I find I tell it to shift, it holds the lower gear for about half a second and then makes a hard shift to the higher gear. If I'm trying to get on it that wouldn't be an issue but this is when I'm just cruising around.

Dumb question, but am I doing something wrong? I'm shifting around 3500 RPMs. I usually use the manual mode in light traffic, because I felt like the was shifting too soon in automatic mode.

And for what it's worth I almost always have the car in ECT POWER mode.

 

Yes, read my previous post (I posted a link to another thread). The paddles aren't shifters. They aren't supposed to shift into a higher gear when you press the + paddle.

 

Just saw that after I posted. Very good explanation thanks.