I have a friend who really likes the fit but said he wanted to get the Navi model and the shifter paddles he found were not comfortable and he would never use them and it may be a deal breaker. My question is, is there a way to remove the paddles without affecting operation of the car? and is this documented anywhere? links?

 

Not that I know of. FYI, when I'm merging with traffic, and anytime I switch lanes for that matter, the paddle shifters make it much easier. Tell him to take it for a test drive, he'll see.

 

Paddles shifters rock, tell your friend to join the instantaneous shift bandwagon.

 

um, your friend can just not use them...the car will still shift and stuff

 

I know ut he said they are just in the way, and prefers the car to just do its think, please understand this person is a senior citizen, and feels they are in the way of normal driving handling of the steering wheel, and doesn't want to fuss with accidently hitting it. I just thought there would be an easy way to take the paddle portion off the steering column. without breaking the paddles off.

 

Well since he is a senior I can totally understand the lack of need for them, although the automatic isn't as responsive as it needs to be in drive all the time, he could still stick it in "S" and the transmission will just hold the gears longer.

Sport mode doesn't actually engage the paddles when you move the lever there, it only activates the higher RPM spread, only once you tap a paddle they are engaged. It's like a super high-revving automatic when you just stick it in sport.

You can remove them, it's relatively straightforward, just two screws on the back of the wheel to remove them off a GD3, I'm not sure for the GE8 but if you want I can check.

 

I can't answer your question, but I just wanted to say it's good to see someone else from the Bluegrass state in here. I'm in Dry Ridge, about 30 miles north of G-town (I lived in G-town for about a year and a half too, while I was working in Frankfort).

 

I work in Florence, so I go through dry ride 4 days a week and usually will make that a break point if i'm hungry. Im doing the research for a friend, Ive been pretty impressed with this car.

 

well u can always just cut them off with a dremule tool...