Originally Posted By: HemiHawk
Originally Posted By: Kestas
I always considered them a marketing gimmick for itchy finger (enthusiast) driving, for those who miss driving a stick.
My dad, an automotive transmission expert with numerous patents, remarked on people who would play with their shifter during driving. Transmissions are designed to pick the optimal shift points. Just leave it in D and forget it. Selectors 2 and 1 are chiefly for downhill braking and maybe a few other rare situations.
To be fair, lately "optimal" and "most fuel efficient" are the same thing. Nog optimal for the conditions or driver feel/experience. Not arguing that auto tarns programming isn't there for a reason, and not doing what its designed to do, but its obvious on many models that just sticking it in D can sometimes feel pretty terrible when motoring along. My Jeep for instance will basically lug itself around 50ish mpg. Which is fine, but it will then shift down way more often. with the select shift jazz I can manually shift it into 4th gear, leaving it at an RPM where its much happier.
In most auto trans with them I wouldn't pretend its a manual at all, but the ability to select a gear sometimes really does improve the feel of the car depending on conditions.
Then my Tundra had programming by monkeys--I don't see how it's fuel efficient to unlock the convertor and use slippage in high gear while hill climbing. That's exactly what it will do: unlock the convertor first and stay in sixth. Many many times I have clicked down a gear, heard the convertor lock up, and had lower engine rpm. Biggest complaint I have about the truck, really.
Most of the time I want the same operation as a good manual: when I let off the gas I want the vehicle to coast in gear. No rpm jumps. My Camry is horrible at this--it unlocks and drops rpm on coasting. Always. The Tundra will stay locked during coast, but if I am too fast on the throttle it will unlock. For no good reason. I've adjusted; the Camry I will basically never fully lift off, and the Tundra I know not to be too aggressive on the throttle.
Neither has "paddle" shifters but basically I can select the topmost gear it can shift up into. And both get used heavily by me, as often I don't see a reason to shift into a too-high gear when I know it'll need to downshift again in 50 yards. The first 2-3 gears it's not so bad with, but it's the upper gears which often need locking out.