Glashub

Acura does it exactly like Lexus. AND Lexus gives you both paddles and shifter -- Acura, Genesis, and others only give you or the other.

Arioch

Pull backwards to go faster? Seems counter intuitive to me. Good news is conditioning can be overcome by less complaining and more driving.

GSTONY

When I had my 07 acura tl we had the same problem what we did was disconnect the wire and swap it around and I'm guessing it should be the same

scarboy693

My BMW had the down for up and up for down. TBH doesn't make a huge difference to me since I resort to the paddles anyway haha

Aeromotive

Complaining? Really?

redcupr

VW is the same as Lexus, at least in the Touareg (forward to upshift, back to downshift).

My MINI was the opposite, but I always used the paddle shifters in that car. Here's my theory on BMW/MINI's shift thinking. The MINI's (and I think early BMW) paddle shifters were set up that you pull back with your fingers to upshift and push forward with your thumb to downshift (with either hand, both sides worked the same). So, they just transferred the push/pull philosophy down to the console.

The learning curve for me now in the Lexus is the right paddle to upshift and left paddle to downshift, very different from the MINI. Takes a little more thinking when shifting through a corner.

Am I complaining, nope, I'm learning.

GrandSedanFan

iTrader: (1)

No. See below.


Yes it does. This is the only correct way to do it. Your hand moves with the momentum of the car. As you're accelerating, your hand will naturally pull back easier. When you're braking and downshifting for a corner, your hand will naturally push forward easier.

Majority does not correctness make.

They really didn't.

It's for people who do more thinking than feeling when driving.


Every single race car with a sequential transmission is pull back to shift up, push forward to shift down.






And every single race car with paddles has been pull right to shift up, pull left to shift down.




But what do they know.

KumaF

After watching those videos. I wonder if it is necessary to lift off throttle when shifting in manual mode ?

Aeromotive

LOL @ panyo. You nailed it. I wanted to compile a few videos but you beat me to it. The momentum and g-force thing makes perfect sense. I still wonder why so many manufacturers insist on inverting it.

keyframe13

If this is a standard from racing cars and was imported in the street cars why all the majority of manufactures did it the opposite.
Why Mercedes use changing up by pulling and down by pushing on the race cars but the other way around on the regular street cars?!
Dilemmas dilemmas

GrandSedanFan

iTrader: (1)

With your torque converter automatic? Not at all. Foot to the floor. No more necessary than lifting off the throttle in automatic mode. If you're just trying to get the best acceleration possible, leave it in automatic. The car will sort it out for you when you peg the throttle.

Those cars have sequential manual transmissions with clutches. You have an automatic transmission with electronic gear selection. You don't have to drive your car any differently from any other automatic ever.

GrandSedanFan

iTrader: (1)

Because different users require different things. The person in the race car is driving by feel. Pulling back to shift up is more natural and faster, letting the driver think about managing his/her traction circle. Pushing forward to shift is better for the general public because MB assumes that the average driver thinks the way corradoMR2 thinks and it'll be less confusing to Johnny Consumer. The difference in philosophies between MB and BMW can pretty much be summed up in their shift patterns.

gwud2go

Great post Panyo. I feel the same way - came from a BMW, and the orientation just felt second nature to me on day 1. On the 3IS, I still haven't gotten used it yet and just use the paddle shifters now. I like to downshift a lot to kick in engine braking (partly to save my pads from kicking up so much break dust).

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

why does it even matter when the paddles (which are the correct configuration) are much better to use?

Aeromotive

^^ Because not everyone thinks the way you do
For example I've been driving only manual cars since I got my license (13 years ago) and I feel like the shift kn0b is the closest I can get to a manual, in a luxury car. So I enjoy using it.