I thought that the + or - Paddle shifters only work in "S" mode, but they also allow me to shift in regular "D" mode???

Can someone please confirm? I thought I read in the manual that it says it works only on "S" mode.

Thanks

 

They work in Drive, but only stay in the lower/higher gear for a few seconds (or until engine revs settle back down), then it goes back to D. In Sport Mode, it will stay in the selected "gear" until you change or if you bump the redline or lug it.

I sometimes use my "-" paddle to 'downshift' coming to a stop. Upshifts are sloppy IMO, so I rarely use "+".

es

 

Got it - thanks!

I think this will be useful in the winter when wanting to slow down manually while in D mode.

 

Yeah, they work in D, but only really useful for downshifts as the RPMs never get high enough to make an upshift worth it. Much more fun in S mode though

 

ECO mode works really good on snow/ice, too.

es

 

I've found downshifts stay longer under some circunstances:

- as long as the car is 'pushing' the engine, if you downshift descending a hill or aproaching a slow corner while not pressing the accelerator pedal the selected gear remains (if the engine slows a lot, you have to downshift again or it will go to D).

- when accelerating hard after downshift the selected gear remains until revs are too high (if you just press the accelerator lightly it immediately goes back into D)

I use paddles a lot when down hill orarriving to a situation in which I might require sudden acceleration, to avoid the 'rev up/downshift' hesitation.

 

You have 4 choices on the modes!
D mode (Automatic)
D with paddles (Manual, for a few seconds if the engine isn't working hard)
S mode (Automatic)
S with paddles (Manual) mode

 

I found that using "S" mode (automatic) was ideal when going up curvy mountain roads as it kept the revs at a higher level and responded well to accelerator input. Using "D" on uphill roads caused unwanted delays in performance.

I'm quite happy with the EX CVT and I'm pretty much a 'got to have a manual' transmission auto enthusiast. But if it was my only car, I probably would have bought the manual inspite of the increased road noise with the higher RPMs.