You'll be surprised....It's actually a useful feature; The 'mapping' for the gear changes is completely different when you slip the selector over to the left and pull and hold the r/h paddle.
It's much more aggressive and holds the gears in the upper two thirds of the rev range.

 

That's good to know! Thanks Tel.

 

No, I think the pros outweigh the cons. The faults are mere annoyances in my mind - things that could have been left alone but some engineer thought he could make things better.

 

I suppose it's useful if you like driving in auto. I don't. I use the paddles 99% of the time.

 

The reason could be because after a few manual shifts on the backroads the poster decided he wanted auto shifting in sport, and doesn't want to have to move the shift lever into drive and back to sport to get it.

Happens to me all the time. I prefer sport auto for passing in my V8S. Allows me to just floor it, get the maximum downshift in one instant and blast off. With the paddles I might have to drop three or four gears one at a time. Which is why I hate sequential gearboxes. They are fine for shifting back and forth between 3rd and 4th and suck for anything else.

 

Now that's logical. However, in the same situation, I don't find a couple of quick flicks of the left paddle bothersome. It keeps me involved in the driving process.

 

If it was a true manual I could drop it from 5th to 2nd in one move. In sport auto the car does a 5-2 downshift for me, also in one move.

With the paddles I have to shift 5-4, then 4-3 and finally 3-2 which takes three paddle flicks. A bit slower, but fine if I have plenty of room to make a pass. Often I don't have a lot of room. Passing zones are rare, and traffic is nonstop. When it is time to pass it is time to pass Right Now.

The paddle downshift being ok assumes I wasn't actually in 4th instead of 5th when I flick the paddle three times. In that case three paddle flicks puts me in 1st instead of 2nd. Which sucks, especially if I end up over revving. This won't happen in auto but I have done it with the paddles. The risk of overrun is another reason why I typically let the car shift for me when I want a maximum downshift. And this is also a big reason why I would prefer a normal manual transmission to any sequential gearbox. In a V8. With at least 500hp. And RWD. Hello jaguar? Listening?

 

This is all moot if you use the automatic kick down in the gas pedal, which would automatically shift to the lowest possible gear regardless of paddle usage.

 

Does it really work that way? I thought that when in Sport (and Dynamic) it holds your gear no matter what... (at a risk of over-revving too)

 

Over rev? Will the AT actually let you shift into a lower gear if it would put the engine over 6800 rpm? I would think that over-revving would only be possible on a down shift with the MT.

 

Well, I've never tried, but the manual does state this about Up Shifts...

"Note: When the transmission is set to permanent manual mode and Dynamic driving mode is selected, transmission up-shifts are fully controlled by the driver. The transmission will not change up automatically, even when the rev limit is reached (the gear position indicator in the Message center will glow amber, to indicate that the next gear should be selected)."

 

I would read that as indicating there is a rev limiter in place (as there is with all modern cars I am familiar with) which would prevent further acceleration without a shift.

 

Not in sport plus dynamic in my car. It just sits in whatever gear the paddles tell it to if I am paddle shifting. At least that's been my experience. Have not tried lately and certainly have not looked it up in the manual.

 

Could be another 15 vs. 16 difference, but in my car there is a step in the throttle... If you go wide open, and keep pressing down, the pedal will go further and make a click (which I assume is a switch) and the vehicle will then downshift to the lowest possible gear. I am not a huge fan but it is helpful in a panic situation I suppose. This happens even in dynamic+sport.

 

I've got the same step in the '16 MT that overrides the ASL.

 

You're right, and I'd completely forgotten about this. Last year, I do recall once or twice burying the throttle pedal while in full manual (in sport + dynamic mode), and having it kick down at least a couple of gears. I now remember being surprised by that.

Since I usually manually shift, and since I usually keep my engine revs in the "sweet-spot" band appropriate to gear selected, I rarely have to paddle down more than one gear to get the acceleration I'm looking for. That's why I've only seen it a couple of times.

If I recall correctly, I was in 5th-6th and instinctively stomped the throttle to react to a traffic situation, and it automatically kicked down a least a couple of gears.

Mine's a base '14 so it must be on all automatic models.