Does the US 451 gear stick able to shift + and - at D? Do you push it to a side so that in the course of +/- shifting it does not kick into N?
As for Softip and Softouch, in UK and Asia Pacific always associate the softip with the paddle shift or gear stick for manual shifting in M Mode, and Softouch being in Auto Mode. Think of Softip as Tiptronic ie manual shifting. Essentially there are the same thing except one in M and the other in A mode.
In previous Smart 4/2, 4/4, and Roadie, you can do Softip (M) and Softouch (A) from the gear stalk itself. The 4/2 and Roadie require you to press a button on the gear knob itself to chose between the 2 mode. And with car that equipped steering paddle softip, we can do the shifting without leaving the steering and you can activate Softip with the paddle shift or bump the gear stick to the left to shift between Softip or softouch mode.
Darell,
As for that lift and shift, it help a lot on the previous version Smart 4/2, 4/4, and Roadie for new owner. During the gear shift, the ECU continue to squirt the fuel and you can see the RPM needle maintain almost the same speed even during that momentarily of Neutral when the clutch is engaged prior shift. Doing the lift and then shift for 1st to 2nd gear help a lot to the new owner to get over that jerk feel. From 2nd to 3rd, its much lesser and almost undetectable until 6th even without lift off the gas pedal. Perhaps the acceleration rate is lesser between gears once we go above 3rd.
As for fuel efficiency, we get much better in Softip(M) mode than Softouch(A) mode.
Because we can manually upshift at lower rpm ie less than 2.5k rpm vs in A mode, the ECU is very trigger gear happy at low road speed that its only upshift at much higher rpm. Fun to drive but take more gas.
Today
Linear Mode
