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.
Not all the time they are used, but I have a Subaru Outback 3.6R I pull a small camper with. Been through several mountain ranges where downshifting is very necessary and it’s amazingly useful to be able to do that in an intuitive and quick way while keeping both hands on the wheel. Varying grades require a lot of up/down shifting to maintain a good speed without toasting my brakes or going 85 mph. The console shifter “manual” shift is left-right which is slightly awkward and I much prefer it at the wheel. I always thought it was a “sporty gimmick” (which it mostly is) until I found this situation years ago.
I can’t see the point unless you are in a sports car for a paddle shifter. I had it in a Lincoln MKS that I owned and rarely used it.
My wife has the gated bump shifter on her FX35 and I don’t think she has ever used the thing and I have used only rarely.
You know what I hate though, is that little button on the side of the shift knob. It is so easy to accidently hit which puts it into manual mode on my Flex since I use sport mode because it shifts better in stop and go traffic. It is fairly easy to bump and just annoys the hell out of me. Harder to use for manual mode than the paddles or gated shifter. Just an annoying thing that should be done away with. With the power it has and the programming of the shifter in sport mode, I have no use for it.
I use the paddle shifters in my 2018 Dodge Durango R/T several times a week, and most certainly when towing heavy loads. The ZF 8 speed transmission generally does a great job of gear selection, but sometimes I want a little more control and don’t want to wait for the trans to make a selection.
My Odyssey has paddle-shifters, which is basically just objectively funny, but I do use them somewhat regularly in exactly ONE scenario, and it is something hinted at in the article above: steep hills.
My father-in-law has a crazy-steep driveway, and I always use the paddles to keep the revs higher on the way up to the house, otherwise the transmission really bogs down while climbing the hill.
I created an account just to reply to this. I have used the paddles in my 2011 Outback with the CVT in exactly the use case described in the editor’s note. There are times in bad weather like snow or ice that I want to limit the CVT’s ratio. I’ve also used it on steep climbs and descents. But otherwise, you’re correct. I don’t use them in regular daily use.
My 2020 Ioniq Hybrid has paddle shifters that let you change gears in “sport” mode. I’ve used it maybe twice and it tends to ignore your requests. However, those same paddles are used to control regen levels in regular eco mode, which I use constantly. So technically… I use the paddles often, just not for shifting.
Personally never used them beyond the curiosity stage, myself, although I’ve never had them in a vehicle I’ve owned.
When I first borrowed my dad’s Toyota Sienna, I was confused why it was staying in 4th on the highway before I realized that the wobbly-shaped gearshift track had a tiny horizontal movement between “D” and the paddle shifter mode. It was cool for the next two minutes before I returned it to “D”. (I want my “Eco” light telling me I’m a good person, dammit.)
I use them a ton in mountainous country. Saves a lot of wear and tear on the brakes heading down those long grades. Otherwise I have no real use for them.
My wife has a 17 Renegade with the 2.4 and that AWFUL 9-speed automatic.
Most of the time on the highway when I drive, its in “manual” mode. If I’m doing 70 in 7th or 8th gear in Auto, and have to pass someone, it requires damn near 3/4 throttle, and a solid 3-4 seconds before I get the downshift AND the power I need to start moving. At least in manual mode I can anticipate such things, and the power delivery is much better.
I can’t imagine how awful this transmission was BEFORE the software update.
I use mine every day! I’d say about 40% of my driving is done with the paddle shifters, 40% with the “manumatic” shifter, and about 20% just in D.
I drive a 2008 GTI with the DSG and letting the car do the shifting results in a very smooth driving experience, but the damn car shifts under 2k. It keeps me totally out of my power/torque band. Economical and very smooth when I have passengers but I find that the engine wants to lug and if I need power then it becomes a not-so-smooth downshift and sudden onset of torque. Boost doesn’t really kick in till 3k but there’s enough power between 2-3k to drive reasonably which is why I keep it in the manual gear selections.
When I’m in heavy traffic I’ll usually use the “manumatic” shifter as it’s more comfortable than keeping both hands on the wheel and lets me keep the car in a gear that promotes engine braking. If I’m trying to merge or pull out into traffic where having both hands on the wheel gives me a little more control I’m using the paddle shifters. Or if I’m driving like your typical GTI driver, of course.
I do agree that your average Jeep driver probably doesn’t use them, and I find it amusing that they’re offered on so many commuter cars and crossovers just as another tick in the features list.
I drove a 2006 Dodge Charger for a few years. I talked myself into buying it even though I prefer manual transmission because it had that “Autostick” feature where you could shift the gears by tapping the shifter left or right. I tried using it a few times and hated it. My brain just couldn’t wrap around sequential shifting in a car. I had done it on a motorcycle before, but on this thing it just plain sucked. It didn’t help that you were only suggesting to the transmission that it should shift, but the action just didn’t do it for me.
And this wasn’t even paddles – it was just using that auto-shifter. I wish someone would placate use manual-transmission people (believe me, our love it NOT logical anymore) and give us an automatic shifter that actually has an H-pattern.
I have it on the Mini Cooper s and as others here have said, only using for downshifting downhill. It only really makes a difference when the engine is cold, once the engine is warm, the automatic is good enough.
Is that Gordon-Keeble logo superimposed on a Honda Fit dash? It looks awfully familiar to me, like something I see every day although in mirror-image form.
I just LOVE that you snuck a Gordon-Keeble badge in there! [thumbs up emoji]
I had an Uber driver who used them constantly. It was highly annoying knowing there was a perfectly good automatic ready to deliver a smooth and enjoyable ride and the driver was there fucking it up playing boy racer.
I only paddle shifters (and Tiptronic-style lever bumps) to avoid embarrassment from moving the shift lever too far when downshifting for hills or stops. They’re very rarely useful at all, and never more useful than moving the transmission lever up or down a gear.
Do any of them actually short-shift upward when you tell them to? Because every one I’ve ever driven refused to switch into a taller gear when I told it to, making impossible to get best efficiency when hyper-miling and babying the throttle.
My Outback has these. Between the 180hp, 3800lbs and CVT, I cannot think of a car less in need of fake paddle shifting. They mostly serve as an inconvenience when I accidentally hit them.
I have an Outback, and I actually use them. Mostly when coming down hills. But yeah, I could easily make due without them.
Yeah, I use them all the time in my Outback and Ascent for engine braking, to the point where if I’m in a different car without them I’ll instinctively reach for them to slow down even if the car doesn’t have them.
So, before this pandemic got rolling, I was ready and willing to fly to NY or LA to get a well spec’d BMW 335i with a manual for under $20k. Living in Denver I noticed in my search that unless I knew somebody, or was willing to wait a long long time, getting one in an interesting color was pretty much a crapshoot unless I hit up a coast. Then the pandemic made that a not so good idea, but my first gen Montero rolled 300k miles and I had to retire it from daily duty, so I expanded the search a little and started including the 335ix GT. Not offered in a manual, rides an inch and half higher than a regular 3 series, has 5 series legroom in the backseat from being based off the Chinese model with the LWB, all things that were poison to a purist, but to someone with nothing to prove looking for a decent and fun new daily driver that could also handle Dad duty, I was in. 3 months later, a nice blue one showed up on the Denver market for under $20k with just a nudge under 50k miles on the odo.
An out of warranty special on something that was stickered $67k or so with options that I planned on doing all the work on but the sacrifice was to get the venerated ZF-8 automatic gearbox which I had read plenty about back on … the other site. I figured I would try out some sequential paddly shit after rowing in the Montero for about 9 years, going fully analog to entirely digital. That was the goal, I also was getting into sim racing, so I figured why not get something that I can get practice on?
I am sure I can shift faster than 2/10ths of a second, but not consistently. I’ve tried every which way to get it to mess up, and had no luck, it just works solidly all the time. I use it mostly when I want to drive with a bit of spirit, in the mountains, and pretty much any time I want more engagement from driving. I love the fact that I don’t have to ride a clutch pedal in stop and go.
And I am learning a platform that is going to be dirt cheap here in a few years and I can snag a clapped out 235i with a stick as a track toy and build it up, knowing the N55 engine and that era suspension components, as well as brakes. Long term goals, that is why I got a car with paddly shifters as a manual enthusiast.
The extra clearance – I live in Denver and make regular mountain trips in the Winter, that inch and a half is a lot when you’re talking unplowed roads.
Agreed. Never used the paddles on the Genesis Coupe. 6 speed ZF trans was great and perfectly responsive for my driving style. And they felt awkwardly placed, reach was wrong for me, never felt compelled to use. If I needed a quick downshift, flipping the stick in sport mode was more intuitive.
I use them in my wife’s Kia Stinger GT when the kids aren’t in the car, or sometimes when they are and I’m slowing down for a stoplight or something with a long decel time. I use them to keep the revs high enough to keep decel fuel cut engaged to save fuel while also using engine braking instead of those big Brembo brakes.
On my F150 I use the “manumatic” manual mode to save fuel the same way (decel gear control to engage fuel cut).
Everything else I own is a manual trans like it should be…
When you’re a mid-40s suburban dad driving a tuned GTI with an aftermarket downpipe through the neighborhood at 8am to drop your kid off at school you use it to shift to 3rd at 20mph instead of the DSG tune staying in 2nd at 3500 RPM so people think maybe you might not be an asshole. I mean one might do that. So one might not look like an asshole. Hypothetically. Every weekday morning.
Do you just have the downpipe or a full turboback? I bought my MKV with a slew of 16 year old kid installed mods, including a full 3″ TBE. I recently picked up an oem 2.5″ catback from a junkyard for $40 and it’s been amazing. I may have lost like 4 horses but since most of the performance comes from the downpipe it hasn’t changed the driving dynamics – just made it silent on the highway and I get a lot less attention. I’ve lost cred with 20 year old boys, but look like less of an asshole to my neighbors. Keyword look.
On my 2011 Camaro (which should be a manual blah blah blah, I know… but the country I live in only imported automatic transmission models so it was automatic or no Camaro and my irrational brain won that argument) I use the paddle shifter on the steering wheel quite regularly.
I have the obligatory oversized Hurst paddle shift kit and have reprogrammed the transmission shifting to give it a better feel.
In traffic it’s pretty useful, sometimes I use it on my commute if I’m feeling sporty, on mountain roads it’s a blast, on the track I feel I upshift better but let it take care of downshifts. When drag racing I still haven’t gained enough experience so I’m still experimenting between paddle shift and full auto.
So I suppose for me it’s the best of both worlds. I know a manual is better- my car in the states has a manual and I will always fight for that side, however, for what I have and how I use it while live abroad I’m content with the paddle shifters.
Update! I went for a drive up to the mountains surrounding Beijing and realized I used the paddles quite a bit. Also because the speed limit is 70KPH and my car doesn’t go into 6th gear until around 75 I sometimes have to trick the transmission to go into top gear manually.
On my Chrysler 300S, I used the paddle shifters regularly. The 300-hp V-6 and 8-speed automatic was a good combination, but the car had almost zero grade control.
When my brother-in-law bought a lake house in Southern Virginia, we of course traveled there regularly. The road to the lake had a long stretch of relatively steep up and down hills. If left to itself, even on cruise control, the car would easily gain lose-your-license velocity going down the hills.
With the paddle shifters, it was easy to drop the transmission down to a gear that allowed you to maintain a reasonable speed on the downhills. That usually worked out to 5th. If I was feeling lazy, I would just leave it in that gear for the whole section, and let the cruise control keep a fairly steady speed.
My 2001 Honda CRV has an overdrive switch on the end of the automatic shift lever. I occasionally use that button to downshift when approaching a turn or stop. If traction is iffy, moving the lever to 2 will start the car in second and slowly it will increase speed.
Our 2013 Grand Caravan has a dash mounted version of the “Center tunnel-mounted slap-stick “manumatic” shifter.” I’ll set the cruise control and drop the transmission into fifth to hold my speed to 70 coming down the grade between my town and Vegas.
Shifting the van manually is futile. The lower gear ratios are pretty close and it’s just not worth the effort.
I only use the downshifting one. It’s great when you’re stuck going 10-20 in the right lane, but the lane next to you is going 50+. Pulling it down into low gear before you punch the throttle shaves a second or so off of the downshifting process and makes it a lot easier to shoot into a gap in traffic. I also downshift instead of braking when I’m getting too close to the car in front of me. I don’t like to brake on the freeway if I can avoid it, because of all of the people who overreact to brake lights and cause traffic jams.
Absolutely.A second is a long time in this kind of situation
I’ll use them when the roads are slippy to start in 2nd gear instead of 1st and to take advantage of some engine braking while heading down the very big hill toward the Ohio River. I’ll also very rarely play race car driver, too, at least until my wife tells me to knock it off.