Automatic -- paddle shifters not as responsive as tiptronic stick
 

Lastweek I thought that something was wrong w/my transmission b/c it seemed like the car was taking way toolong to change gears in tiptronic mode than ever before. Butthen I realized today that for the past 2 months Ive been more of a lazy bastard than usual. I would go into tiptronic mode and then directly to the paddle shifters on the steeringwheel to shift instead of using the stick --for comforts sake. Today I resorted to using the stick again to change gears and suddenly the delayed shifting I thought my car was going through had been fixed and everything felt fine again --transmission was much more responsive to the shifts from the stick.

So I dontknow if this is onlythe case w/my Rx8 or if its the same for others but when I move the stick into tiptronic mode and then use the paddles to shift insteadof the stick the -- transmission ends up taking longer to respond to shifts. I had always been under the impression that the transmission responded to paddle shifts justas quickly as it did via stick butobviously this is no longer the case in my car. Its a shame b/c now it doesnt looklike Ill be using the paddles to shift anymore.

you are correct
I stopped using the paddles for the same reason

So do paddles work electronically then? They're not directly connected to the transmission? grr, weird.

I used the paddles once, and I realized that are not nearly as responsive as the stick. Nice gimmick, but bad implementation. I always use the stick!

The paddles and the stick are both electronic I believe. So i don't understand the delay in the paddles.

On my wife's 8...

One two shift with the paddles is the same with both.

Two three shift is quicker with the stick.

Three to four shift is the same with both.

Something definitely isn't right. Especially with the sluggish shifts no matter what shift it is. This thing needs to shift a lot quicker. *Shakes Fist* at Mazda engineers or who ever is responsible for the Tranny shifting.

Theonly real problem I have w/this is when redlining from 1st to 2nd. When I use the UP paddle to go to 2nd I almost always go past 7500 RPM and stall for a little butwhen I use the stick to go to 2nd it always shifts in time. Sincewe only have 4 gears thats probably the most important shift for me and definitely not the area where I want to worry about the gears changing on time.

I thought the response on the A/T RX-8's were pretty good. I used to own an automatic Celica GT-S prior to my 8, and let me tell you the manumatic shifts on that car were unbelievably long. It's like I had turbo lag without the turbo, and the car was slow. I do miss the gas mileage though :(.

There was a 'fix' for that issued by Toyota in Sept 2003 I believe... Our old 2001 GT-S was updated by the the dealer and the difference was pretty impressive though there was still a little lag as you described... but nothing like as bad though fuel milage did drop a little afterwards I noticed. The 'fix' wasn't a recall.. and the dealers don't seem to offer it unless you ask for it.. but I heard about it.. and asked my tech if it could be done.. He checked with Toyota and lo and behold, the update was done at the next service. Shame it wasn't implemented like that that from day one.. .. Now the GT-S has gone.. and replaced by an AT '8'.. to match the MT '8' I have.. a very different beast indeed .. but like you said.. the GT-S did give great milage figures given it's performance... :)

Why didn't they directly connect the stick to the transmission? Ahh, mazda trying to be unique. lol :p

Naa... My Eclipse was the same.