I got my Fit home last night. Read Over the manual and tried out the paddle shifters this morning. (I used them in the test drive but I didn't know what I was doing).

First of all, you put the transmission in "S" and take off and it's still in "D"rive. The true "S" mode doesn't kick-in until you tap on one of the paddles. The first time I did this, I was moving when I hit the paddle for the first time and I was in 3rd already. If you are not moving, you are in "S" and you tap a paddle, you take off locked in 1st and paddle shift up or down as desired.

It shifts pretty quickly. Buzzing down the street, you tap the + paddle and say "one thousand", at the "and" in "one thousand", it's in the next gear.

I was surprised to find that the car down shifts for you. You are zipping around town and come to a stop sign (in "S" mode) and you are in 1st automatically without down shifting by hand. COOL!


This is a fun car to drive.

 

nice. congrats my fellow fit freak.

 

ive always wondered if u had to downshift when coming to a stop... thx for the info! still waiting to get mine

 

On other Honda products, like the Acura RSX, it also resets to 1st automatically. That's really cool! In playing around in the RSX, I also discovered that at a stop I could shift it into 2nd prior to taking off, which would be great on snow/ice. Another thing is that when you are in manual mode, it will hold the gears until the fuel cut-off kicks in - IOW, it doesn't shift for you.

Way cool!!!

 

THIS SUCKS. I need to go auto with my next car because my commute is about 50% crawling in stop and go traffic. I was really hoping tosave aome green and get the base model w/ auto but I don't know now if I could ever forgive myself for skipping the Sport. Damn Honda and their exclusive must-have feature you can only get as part of a pricey package!

 

Not only must have features, are on the sport - even some pretty basic ones like cruise.

I will never figure out car marketing types.

 

My fiance has an '05 RSX with the sport-shift, and if the Fit's paddles are as good or better than that, I'm going to be *very* happy, because her car is a lot of fun.

I like the option for 2nd gear starts, just like the old Q45s.

 

Wow! I just may consider this over a manual.

 

I recall from somewhere (don't remember where), that on the Sport Auto Fit, if you hold it in a gear too long, it will automatically upshift at redline.

 

I think that's only in D. I understand S is supposed to stay in gear.

Thanks for the reviews of the paddle shifters. Can't wait to try them myself!!

 

You know what's even more fun? A clutch!

 

The paddle shifters have a buttony feel to them, with the sound of a console game controller (the pushing of the d-pads on a ps2). They lack the mechanical feel like the shifter on the sega ferrari 355 challenge arcade game. They seem too distracting for around-town use. I'd rather leave it in drive and go. I felt a slight jerk when I shifted down into sport mode--due to being a new car with 10 miles on the odometer. One thing I notice is that when pulling the tranny lever to select the "S" mode, the gear indicator doesn't show the gear until you press the '+' or '-' paddles.

I felt a slight jerk when I downshifted into 2nd while taking the corner at low RPM.