Flipping to Manual whilst zipping along

[imcquade]

Hello;

I searched but could find this question listed.

Frequently as I zip down the road in AUTOMATIC mode and deciding to pass I will just slip the car in to MANUAL mode; shift, pass and them FLIP back in to AUTOMATIC mode unless I have too much fun in MANUAL.....

I know that you can just shove the pedal to the floor to pass... but it is very delayed and crap (IMO) - flipping and shifting down seems to work much better

Cheers

[jefferios]

Yes I believe you can change over while you are driving.

[jmartinsmart]

I totally agree.

I wish there was a way to force the paddles to "override" the fact that I am in Automatic mode. All I want to do is downshift (out of this incessant BOGGING) and I don't feel like "flooring it", but I am constantly forgetting that I've slipped over to Manual mode. Of course you find this out at the next signal light when the poor thing over-revs because you didn't move it back to Automatic.

Ugh.

[rawlus®]

i tend to just use manual mode 90% of the time, it's a car that likes to be driven. i use auto mode as a rudimentary cruise control when my speed is going to be relatively constant for a good while with no need for special upshifts or downshifts.

[toogrvy]

Originally Posted by imcquade

Frequently as I zip down the road in AUTOMATIC mode and deciding to pass I will just slip the car in to MANUAL mode; shift, pass and them FLIP back in to AUTOMATIC mode unless I have too much fun in MANUAL.....

I wish the you could use the paddle to downshift when you're in AUTO mode, putting you in MAN mode to give you the ability to pass quickly when needed; then it would automatically go back into AUTO mode after a few seconds. This is how my MINI Steptronic worked, and I loved it. I know the transmissions aren't comparable, but I would think that this feature would be easy enough to incorporate in the smart.

[jmartinsmart]

Originally Posted by toogrvy

I wish the you could use the paddle to downshift when you're in AUTO mode, putting you in MAN mode to give you the ability to pass quickly when needed; then it would automatically go back into AUTO mode after a few seconds. This is how my MINI Steptronic worked, and I loved it. I know the transmissions aren't comparable, but I would think that this feature would be easy enough to incorporate in the smart.

Exactly!

Jim

[jwight]

Thank you for using "whilst" in a sentence!

[jmartinsmart]

Originally Posted by jwight

Thank you for using "whilst" in a sentence!

I too, was thinking that was 'smart' in and of itself.

Jim

[mdfortwoguy]

On the 451s with the EU spec shifter, and on the 450s - pulling a paddle when in softip will bump you into softouch and allow manual control.

It was actually regarded on one of my test drives in the EU spec models as being something that people did not like.. but then again, I think a majority of people were just confused by the transmission at that point.

[JPaul]

That's right! During the test drives I took whilst the caravan stopped around DC, I remember filling a form with preferences about the shifter. Especially during the last stop, in December, when they had a couple of NA451 US and a couple of EU451 with the "classic" shifter box. It'll be nice to see the results of those surveys on paper, and not just in our cars...