I know I’m supposed to be off today for Yom Kippur, but it’s technically the night before, so I think if nobody rats me out to any clergypeople or their authorized agents, then I’m probably okay. And that’s good, because we need to do another episode of Prove Me Wrong! As you know, this is important. This time, we need to talk about paddle shifters, commonly found on a wide variety of vehicles you can buy today. They’ve been around for a while now; in fact, I’d say they may be the most common and yet least-used controls in a car, because, let’s be honest: aside from playing around with them every now and then, nobody really uses these things.
Now, I’m not talking about genuine racing cars with transmissions that will only shift with paddles – I mean the sort of paddle shifters that actuate semi-manual gear selection on otherwise automatic transmissions in mainstream, mass-market passenger cars. It’s quite likely you, the devastatingly sexy person reading this right now on the deck of your pleasure-helicopter, have a car with such paddles.
My theory is that people with cars that have optional-use paddle shifters use them for about, oh, 12 minutes per month in the first few months they own the car, and then after the initial novelty has worn off, they forget about them. Maybe, maybe, your fingers will graze them on a boring drive and you’ll remember they exist, and you’ll have fun for a few minutes downshifting and getting the car to rev really high and feeling that pull of torque, and then you’ll have to pay attention to your next turn or whatever and you’ll forget about those paddles for months. Maybe years.
On just about everything modern with paddle shifters, the automatic transmission left to handle the job itself shifts better than you can, for acceleration, for efficiency, for whatever. The act of paddle shifting isn’t nearly as satisfying as using an genuine manual transmission anyway, and people learn that pretty quickly.
So what’s the point?
[Editor’s Note: On vehicles with good transmissions that do what you want them to, I tend to agree with JT, here: paddles don’t see much use. The ZF eight-speed auto that’s seemingly in every car these days usually puts the driver in the gear they want if the transmission is properly calibrated. I think people are more likely to click a “sport mode” button that ensures the transmission behaves a certain way than they are to use the paddles. Though, on transmissions that don’t behave how you want them to, a paddle might help you, for example, hold a lower gear on a steep incline/decline.
I think, on a fun sports car like an E92 M3, paddles can be fun, but on most other cars, they tend to be forgotten, as JT argues here. Center tunnel-mounted slap-stick “manumatic” shifters, though (you know, the shifters that you push or pull to change gears)? I think those are even less frequently used — again, unless the transmission isn’t doing what it needs to do, like downshifting up a grade or holding that gear. -DT]
Maybe you’ll argue with me. Maybe you’ll say I just don’t understand the pure, visceral joy one gets from those flappy paddles. But I kinda doubt it. Is there anyone, anywhere who routinely, consistently, uses paddle shifters exclusively on their daily drives? I think you’re more likely to find a Corvair-driving toucan with a fondness for the large-scale works of Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline.
I’m not even going to say that paddle shifters are dumb or useless or anything like that. I don’t need to. Because it just doesn’t matter if they are or not, because nobody ever really uses them enough to care.
So there.
I generally agree with the article but I do use them on my ’17 M2.
My new Mazda CX5 has them and I never use them. Period.
My 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander had them and I had to use them regularly on long trips.
My long trips consist of loading up a dirt bike or two onto an aluminum utility trailer and going 500 miles thru PA, MD, and WV mountains. The Outlander drivetrain lacked the torque to pull highway speeds thru the mountains. And the ECU/automatic lacked the brains to downshift. So in an attempt to keep up with traffic going up mountains, I had to use the paddle shifts to downshift at least one gear, sometimes two.
Paddle shifters are mostly only present on glorified automatic transmissions. We need a return to short-stroke gated manuals, at least for performance cars.
I have a Mazda where the console shifter can be placed in a toggle up-down position for manual shifting mode. I tried using it when the car was new, and my manual transmission instincts kicked-in and I “up-shifted into 3rd gear” by moving the shifter up and into the reverse position at 35mph. It didn’t drop my transmission, but it freaked me out enough that I never tried it again. I don’t need such adrenaline rushes!
Then again, if I’m just THINKING about a manual transmission car while driving, my right arm instinctually reaches out for the console shifter. I haven’t owned or driven a manual trans in 14 years.
While all of our vehicles have three pedals, the in-laws have an Outback with the CVT. I regularly use the paddles to downshift to hold speed when going downhill or to slow when approaching a red light or stop sign.
I use the shift paddles/manual mode every time I drive four out of five of my Smarts.
The diesel has an aftermarket tune that usually shifts right below redline, so manual mode. The 2008 and 2012 are factory-tuned for fuel economy, so they’ll shift as soon as the computer thinks the engine won’t stall, so paddles. The 2005 will sometimes hunt for gears when it doesn’t need to, so manual mode.
I’ll only drive the 2016 without using manual mode or the paddles, and that’s because Smart finally figured out its transmissions. The DCT shift swiftly and it doesn’t get confused about what gear it should be in.
“The diesel has an aftermarket tune”
I’m trying to get my head around that statement. Is it like “I tuned my hot air balloon to drift across this field a little faster”?
On the Porsche PDK, if you pull in both paddles at the same time it flips to neutral. Fun to rev the sports exhaust at odd times?
I regularly use my paddle shifters for engine braking on my MDX but I am sure I am not in the norm. I find the only issues with the paddle shifters being a delayed reaction from the transmission and over 6-7 gears makes it tough to really get yourself in the right gear with them.
I use mine every day. Mostly for slowing down without breaking, and to manually stay in 2nd in parking lots because auto mode likes to jerkily shift back and forth between 1st and 2nd when I’m doing less than 10mph.
Assuming no other traffic ahead of me, there’s a ~2 mile stretch that I drive on my way home that always results in “spirited” driving… especially if the Bimmer is warmed up enough for me to put it into sport+ mode, and they’re handy for that stretch too.
The one thing I hate about them is that on my X4, they move with the wheel. They would be so much easier to wrap my head around if they were stationary… If my wheel is rotated a full 180, I don’t want to have to think that hard before I shift… Left hand should always be down, right hand always up.
Have them on my Outback 6-cylinder. I use them maybe once a year from a stop light, then put it back in “D”. No reason to bother with it.
Can’t prove wrong when correct. Paddles are cool and nice for real driving, but with 5 dollar 93 octane, no ethonol Sunoco, trickle driving is my friend.
and slap sticks always seemed backwards to me pulling for a down shift I believe.
and always believed brakes were used for controlling speed, not transmissions.
The whole shift it yourself thing is a red herring. Automatics have gotten so good, there isn’t much case for overriding their decisions.
Except in winter driving. However, it’s not what gear you are in, but the ability to modulate the clutch that makes a traditional manual a better choice. Being able to quickly and instinctively depress the clutch to cut power in say a skid control situation is distinct advantage over an automatic. The same applies for rocking a stuck vehicle. It’s just easier than trying to do it with a torque converter or DCT.
I did have those paddles in a rental A3 once. It took a while to figure out how to use them to quickly switch into neutral. I’m sure if I owned the car, it would eventually be a natural reaction, but for now I’m sticking with my years of muscle memory in my left leg.
I used the paddles on my Acura ILX all the time. But I dumped that car as soon as I could, so maybe I just didn’t own it enough for the novelty to wear off.
“Center tunnel-mounted slap-stick “manumatic” shifters, though (you know, the shifters that you push or pull to change gears)? I think those are even less frequently used”
Maybe so, but they are also less likely to be accidentally activated. I use mine fairly often when driving far enough to use the gas engine (can’t use it in electric mode), but I don’t think about it when I am not using it. When I drove my parents’ Camry, I accidentally downshifted on the paddles. I had to think about the paddles whether I was using them or not. Could probably get used to them, but they feel like more trouble than they are worth.
Give me the manumatic shifter over the paddles.
My wife’s Accord with a CVT has flappy paddles. I honestly am not sure what they do. It’s a hybrid, so maybe it changes the level of regenerative braking? That would make more sense than having it put the car in a fake geared mode when the CVT. Regardless we’ve had the car for 4 years and I’ve never touched them.
My Mazda3 also has flappy paddles for the 6 speed auto. Like you said, the novelty wears off pretty quickly. I guess it could help if the transmission is slow to downshift when I need MOAR POWER, but when that happens it’s because I didn’t hit the gas hard enough.
Torch- If working on the day of atonement is wrong, is it covered as part of that day’s ongoing atonement or does it roll over until the next year?
I have a 2009 MINI Cooper S Clubman, I use mine all the time……it’s not that the transmission isn’t responsive – it is – but I just like driving it better when it’s in the gear I choose…..I also tow a small trailer and sometimes I tow my classic Mini with it to events that are a long way away. In those cases I like to drop it a gear for a long hill or something and hold it there instead of having it down and upshift unnecessarily.
What makes it fun is that the shifts are very smooth and almost instantaneous…..and since my autobox has the same number of gears as the manual, I think the auto box is a better way to go. You can have the fun and control people rave about with a manual, or just stick it in D for stop and go town driving or long distance cruising. It’s also quicker 0-60 than a stick.
Um…count me as one of the small handful of people that use and get something out of their paddles. In fact, one of the reasons I traded my DSG GTI in on an N car was for the transmission. VW’s DSG will auto upshift at redline regardless of what parameters you have the car set for, and it auto downshifts so fast and imperceptibly that it’ll usually beat your reaction. And it wouldn’t always give me a lower gear when I asked for it manually.
It got old really quick…what point are paddles if they won’t give you full control? So in that sense I agree, they can be pretty useless. But when using the paddles on an N car it will only auto upshift out of first…and it doesn’t go out of its way to auto downshift. Other than that, Hyundai gives you free reign to be a lunatic with the transmission. It’ll even let you downshift into first while you’re rolling.
And in that application on spirited drives, I use the paddles and love them. I smash the engine off the rev limiter a few times a week, and having control adds something to the drive that letting it shift for you takes away. Plus they’ve tuned the gearbox so upshifts and downshifts are extra harsh in the sporty modes. It’s great! You can feel every paddle click’s ensuing shift through the chassis.
It’s not as engaging as a traditional stick, but I spend like half my time in my car stuck in traffic. For people like me a mechanical feeling DCT that gives you actual control is a great compromise. I use my paddles often and love them.
There are dozens of us! DOZENS!!!
Was just borrowing a CVT Subaru with the flappy paddles, popped it into M and flapped between gears until I got bored approximately 95 seconds later and put it back in D. The sucky part is that the paddles aren’t easily accessible unless the steering is straight head.
And I was >< this close to renting a manual Fiat 500.
On cars that have a torque converter, this is 100% accurate. Cars with paddles and clutches usually default to manual mode on every start up. In those cases I like to think their use is very, very high.
But it’s the only way to engine brake on a long downhill these days.
I’d rather have the paddles and choose my slowing RPM vs a stick that says “L”.
When I had a Smart Roadster Coupe, I used the paddles all the time. The autobox (really a robot manual I think) was rarely where it should be if left to its own devices and pretty abrupt when changing of its own accord. At least the thud would happen when I was expecting it (or shortly thereafter) with the paddles. Best car I ever owned. When I hired a small modern SUV with paddles recently, I tried them once, then couldn’t be bothered, exactly as JT said.
Hmm. Insert standard edit button comment here. ‘The thud’ not ‘the this.’ oops.
Indeed, the Roadster uses a manual transmission controlled by the computer. I don’t have a Roadster yet (wink) but the Fortwo has the same kind of box, and I use the paddles all of the time.
My wife has a 2015 Impreza with a CVT. I use the paddle shifters all the time. I “downshift” up to traffic lights, particularity on downhills. Saves the brakes! I don’t use them as often for upshifts, but they do come in handy to lock in “1st gear” that really reduces the typical sloppiness of a CVT off the line, and great improves launch speed(handy sometimes). You can run through a few gears for fun. I’ll use it on 2 lane highways for overtakes, as the CVT is a bit slow to respond. Lock it in 4th or 5th and punch it. Really makes up for the small engine and CVT.
My wife though? I don’t think she’s ever touched the things.
So long as there is a relatively hassle way free to downshift for grade braking, I don’t really care what that method is. Seems like paddles would be more intrusive than a stalk with + – gates or just your regular old D 5 3 2 2 1, etc style. My GX470 has an annoying gate pattern that makes it a little more work, like Subaru’s use, but it’s fine. My father-in-laws VW routan/Caravan has this obnoxious stalk on the dash with cheap gaming wheel style spring loaded + – that goes side to side and I hate using it.
Back to paddles, I would use them, but only really for downshifting.
Yes, this is what I used them for on my V6 Grand Cherokee, and I would use them on my current V8 model, but it is – inexplicably – not equipped with paddle shifters despite using the same ZF 8-speed the V6 models use (yes, I know the V8 version has higher torque capacity but it’s the same otherwise).
I’ll have you know that on my Volt, I use the paddles all the time! The left one applies a stronger regen brake, while the right is split into volume controls. A great use of an item that otherwise as you said goes unused.
Although when I had my Logitech racing wheel, I only had paddles for shifting, and I got used to them pretty quickly.
Aw man, a regen paddle would be sweet.
Same here. L driving for small regen and the paddle for a stronger one. It saved me a couple of times rear ending other vehicles, faster reaction when you have your hands already on the steering wheel.
I own a nice 2019 Cadillac CT6 3 litre twin turbo that has some serious sporting chops. I have never used the paddle shifters. As far as the slap shift goes, I find it annoying when it selects M1 when I want D. Case closed.