Just received a survey from Mazda North America asking questions about my satisfaction with the RX-8. Half of the questions pertained to the AT triptronic, and I suspect they are trying to decide keeping the triptronic, eliminating it altogether, or deleting one of the controls.

They asked how often I used it: the buttons or the console selector; do I use the triptronic more often than when I bought it; etc.

I've been using the triptronic alot lately in city traffic because Los Angeles traffic seems thinner lately...kind of spooky. (If the light traffic is a trend, which is doubtful, I may have made a mistake buying the AT.) The AT shifts into 4th quickly and often leaves me behind the power curve when I need to accelerate in constantly changing traffic. I prefer to manually shift into 3rd and shift into 4th only if I see light traffic ahead.

I also discovered that the AT stays in 2nd gear on up-inclined freeway ramps, but manually delaying the upshift from 1st to 2nd really rockets the RX-8 to the freeway.

In the "comment" section of the survey, I wrote the steering wheel buttons are unnecessary since they are are inaccessable in a turn. Although there are few instances when the steering butttons might be useful while driving straight, they aren't worth the weight and complexicty for the few times they are used. Since I'm an old RX-7 MT driver, using the console selector feels more natural.

 

As an aside I just got the $10 they promised for completing the survey!!

 

Sent mine in two days ago

 

$10 for sending in the survey? Guess I'll start sending them in. I have a stack from MNAO, the dealer and JD Powers all waiting for attention.

 

I definetely enjoy the steering controls. I happen to be driving more often straight then in turns, I guess

 

By the way, it's "Tiptronic"... and that's Audi's name for a shiftable automatic, not Mazda's. Mazda calls it "Sport AT".