What ever happened to the Steering Wheel Paddle Gear Shifter (as seen on on Rally cars) I read about not too long ago in an Import Magazine... I mean I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else.

I would think that this board would be all over that feature. In fact I think that's what did it for me. I mean I'm one of those hard core "Never Buy New" advocates, out of the reasoning that they lose value right-off the dealers lot and all. But the more I think about it the more I say to myself... What the Hell... you only live once. After all a car 1st. has to bought new before it can be sold as a good value used car, right?

-Rich

 

There are paddle shifters on the steering wheel in the automatic, if that's what you're asking about- I took a picture of them at Detroit. Are these what you're asking about?

 

Yeah, I guess thats those are ones. Though I didn't know that it was only availabe on the Auto, but now that I think about it makes sense.

BTW I like that purple in your Avatar...

-Rich

 

Yeah, the paddle shifters are still there, there were on the black RX-8 at NAIAS. They're pretty spiffy, but I think most people here are more interested in the 6-speed version...

As for the whole "never buy new" thing, well, that's kinda hard right now, because there's been so few good cars made in the past 10 years. If you really want to buy a used car, wait until about 2008 or so, there will be probably lots of late-model RX-8s, RX-7s, Zs, Evos, STis, Supras, etc. from which to choose...

 

I think that most of the people aren't too excited about that feature is because the paddle shifting is still really an automatic. It isn't a true sequential manual like in a Ferrari, M3 or MR2 Spyder. So 'stick' drivers really would have no interest and I do find that most people I know that have that feature in their cars don't really use those functions for some reason. We were thinking about a TL-S for the wife since she can't drive a stick and maybe I could still have some fun from the 'shift' ability. But most of my friends say that they usually just leave their 'manumatic' cars in Drive mode now and kinda only played with it for the first week or so before just leaving it in Drive. I guess it's true that those that want to shift would just buy a manual, and those that want an automatic don't want to shift. So it kinda leaves that function as an extra, but 'not absolutely necessary' function.

 

I guess I see your point. I have a buddy with a Mazda MP3 with the same feature and I think he only used it the 1st. week also.

My thing is that this (in my mind) is a feature that at one time was only available on Porsches in the early 90's, and to now have it on affordable cars, I would think everyone would be jumping at the chance to speed-shift our wife's grocery getter.

I guess I'll stick to 6 Speed then...

-Rich

 

or wait for a year(?) for the SMG that sputnick is hinting at:D

 

I have an '01 Lexus IS300 that I leased back June of 2000. Only reason its an automatic is because that was all that was available first model year (and I didn't want a BMW 3-series) To this day, I still use the "manual" mode several times a week if not every day. It doesn't help you accelerate any faster, but it sure can help the car stay in the sweet spot of the power band in corners. On warm days, the Dunlop SP9000's get a great workout because of the manual mode.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. My next car (RX8 or G35Coupe) will have a manual transmission. Throughout college I drove nothing but manual transmission cars ('79 Accord hatchback and later a '78 Celica coupe). I enjoy driving manual cars.

 

The only time I would get an "automatic" tranny in a sports car if it is an SMG unit a la BMW, Ferrari, Porsche, MR2, etc.. So if the SMG can shift as well or faster than a manual, sure but not if it slows the car down by a full second in acceleration runs..

 

The advantage of the SMG tranny is to first, give better life to the gearbox, and second (and more importantly) to match revs perfectly on downshifts and such for racing.

It won't help on a straight line much, if at all. The M3 SMG is rater slower to 60 than the 6 speed.