Does anyone actually routinely use the sport mode? I've tried it a couple of times, and found it to be rather underwhelming. Perhaps its because I'm used to a clutch pedal. I haven't put the selector in S for over a month now.

I'll occasionally use the paddle to drop a gear down in the regular mode, but that's about it.

 

I'm just starting to use it. Being used to a manual I don't like surprise downshifts in the middle of a corner. The brochure mentions the "5-speed Sequential SportShift automatic" that "holds lower gears longer in spirited driving" and I read a reference somewhere that the car would supposedly downshift on braking, but I've never seen it do that - so I'm always getting a brief lack of power followed by a downshift when I'm trying to power out of a corner.

So, the S mode is useful to me in twisties to avoid the "mid corner surprise", but I'm in full manual mode by that point...

 

Ditto for me. Not too excited by it, but use the paddles in regular mode to downshift from time to time.

 

When I bought the RDX, I was pretty excited about the paddle shifters, because I was giving up my beloved manual Prelude, and figured this feature would cushion the blow. Sigh.

At least its a good excuse to start putting money away for an S2K.

 

Regular user of S-Mode (fully manual) when on trips involving extended portions on the Interstate. In normal day-to-day driving (in D-Mode), I use the paddles to down shift

 

me too, and to mess with the guy behind me LOL! This is especially true in the snow, or icey conditions. The brakes sometimes can feel a little soft, so the paddles help. They're missing the fun factor of standard though. I feel the same way about triptronic trans. Never sold me.

 

I haven't used the paddle shifter much to downshift for speed while in D-mode. I find that once you punch the gas for lane passing the transmission already downshifts for you, so downshifting manually will actually drop it 2 gears. I only use the S-mode a few times to hold the gears longer for off the line launch.

I am always interested to see what gear I’m in primarily for MPG reasons. Anyone know of a way make the gear # display at all times while in D-mode?

Matt

 

As I understand it and as I do it too, people manually downshift to slow down, not to give power before passing etc. I go to 3 than 2 almost at every stop light if I see it from far enough.

To answer the initial question, I use S mode when I go up to the mountains, if feels more comfortable and safe than D both up and downhill.

 

Yea, same for me here. Not that into shifting all the time. It's fun once in awhile though!

 

I've been using S mode a bit more around town but leaving it fully auto. it seems more responsive and seamless as the engine cruises at higher revs so it's more in it's power band and able to motivate the car before spooling the turbo. in D, engine revs are under 2k and out of it's power band so turbo spools every time. I mean are there any 4 bangers that do much under 2k revs ? if you treat the gas pedal as an on/off switch I don't think you'll see much difference. try driving normally and see which you favor. unsure which will get better gas mileage, more revs and less turbo or less revs and more turbo.

 

I'm also coming from a manual (RSX Type-S), so I was happy the RDX has the S mode and paddle shifters.
After having the RDX for over a month though, I have found that I rarely use the paddles.
Also, when going through twisties, I have found the paddles hard to use because I seem to "lose" where they are since the steering wheel is turned so much and the paddles turn w/ the wheel---anyone else notice that problem?

 

Rex, yeah, I have had the same frustration with the paddles. I don't use them much myself.

 

That is wrong. Downshifting is used for both. And if you dont use it to accelerate then you're driving around very slowly.

Downshifting is used to lower gears which speeds up the engine (RPMs) and also increases torque. That torque can be used to slow the car, and to accelerate.

If you dont do this, then you need to try it out and you'll understand.

You are not supposed to shift when the wheel is turned. If you did this in a sports car you would lift off the gas, throw weight to the front of the car, the rear wheels would lose traction and you would end up in a tree. The same thing can happen to a AWD car.

 

That's not the point though--I know how to drive properly, and trust me, there are times when the wheel is even turned slightly and locating the paddles is difficult

 

I second that.

 

I had brought that up in another post, with the HFL. but the same is true for the paddles. very hard to locate, especially if you're off interstate, driving through towns, when it would be the most fun to use...but too dangerous..can't find 'em!

 

Ideally, the paddles should be mounted to the column so that they are always in the same place.

 

I think maybe the paddles are where they are is because of formula one racing. However, I don't think what is good for racing always good in street driving. Just give me a clutch and a stick and I would call the RDX a real sport SUV.

 

My biggest use of the paddle shifters in sport mode is in stop and go traffic - don't have to brake as much.

 

the more i use the paddle shifters i kinda wish it had a real stick too....funny, but i mostly just use them in automatic to downshift for turns (when i'm driving more spiritedly (if thats even a word))so the sh-awd kicks in

 

What's wrong with just using the brakes?

 

I seldom use sport mode but do use the paddle shifters. I use them to downshift for corners in town when it makes sense to maintain optimum speed and stability. Use them quite frequently on my favourite curves on the back roads out my way to decelerate and have the car in the optimum gear for speed out of the bend.

There is no reason to be down shifting in the curve as you should have shifted down to the gear that is going to give the best traction and acceleration out of the curve before or as you are entering into the curve.
Having said that if it was necessary to make another change my fingers are right by the paddle anyway and that shift can be made without removing my hands from the wheel which is plus that you don't have with stick. I do like manual transmission as well but with the heavy traffic now a days not quite as much fun as it used to be.

 

Let me give you the scenario I was in a week ago driving some very twisty mountain roads; in many cases, I was in mid turn in one curve and needed to downshift before entering the next opposite curve. Some of the really wierd roads had 3-4 opposite curves linked together and the road was undulating up and down like a ribbon (really have to see it to believe it).

In most cases, the RDX steering is quick enough that the steering wheel angles were not excessive and I always had a finger on the paddles. There were a few cases though where I had to search for the paddle and awkwardly click them when they were out of whack from where they normally are. In those cases the "search, think, click" routine gets old quick. My old Outback XT had +/- buttons on both sides of the steering wheel (as opposed to a single - paddle and single + paddle in the RDX), and a +/- gate on the shifter. That was the best arrangement I have used thus far -- it could accommodate a wider range of needs.

 

That does sound like an in interesting scenario and one I would have to see and experience to understand. I have a hard time picturing it in my mind but obviously your experiences tell the tale. I am sure you are right there are probably situations where this set up maybe less than ideal but on average I think it works better than some have suggested. Not sure that many have experienced that kind of situation but maybe they have and I am sure I will at some point.

It does sound like the arrangement on the Outback would be much better overall and yes the +/- on the shifter as in the TSX would help in this situation but overall keeping both hands on the wheel is better where possible. Not too sure why they didn't do both myself, maybe they didn't expect us to want to toss it around like some of us do.

I myself love nothing better than blowing people off my butt through these curves and accellerating away from them.

 

Are the paddles on a race car really mounted to the wheel as opposed to the chassis? The steering wheels are usually removable to facilitate entry/exit so I would think they would want to keep them as simple as possible.

Also, race cars have much more restricted steering (and probably much faster steering rates) than a street car so the wheel angles are much less.

(BTW, I drove a Mini recently with the steering paddles - chalk another round up for the old "both paddles offer both up and downshifting" design. And the paddles were also beefier and easier to find than the Acura paddles.)

 

Sorry I didn't mean to say that people downshift exclusively to slow down, what I meant is that over a day period, you end up downshifting a lot more often to slowdown nearing a stop light for instance, than you do get some torque and pass an other car. If not, then I wouldn't trade my MPG for yours ;-)

Like someone said before, I find the D-mode responsive enough to let it downshift automatically when I need to pass. It could be better of course, but I end up having more lag when I try to do it manually.

I have been pretty happy with the RDX D/S modes. I have to drive rentals every other week, and now find myself pressing imaginerary paddles all the time :-)

 

I don't tend to ever downshift coming to a stoplight. I was doing it the other day to get practice with downshifting, but not because that's a strategy that I follow.

With respect to passing, I have no problem with letting the car downshift on its own to get the power for highway passing. If I was on a 2-lane road with smaller passing windows then I might downshift manually for a situation like that, though.

Personally my main goal in learning to use the shifters is to get to the point where I can be in the right gear for cornering before I get to the corner. Asking for power mid-corner and then having the car downshift is a slow way to get through the corner. It upsets the car (although all of the stability electronics of this car can deal with that, it doesn't help for smooth cornering near its limits).

 

Question about the "S" mode----if you leave it in the S mode and do not engage the paddles (just let the auto tranny do the work), what's the benefit over the D mode? I'm guessing it holds gears longer and downshifts quicker, anything else?
Also, would gas mileage be affected by using the S mode over the D mode?

 

Right, the shift points are different. Also, it won't shift into 5th gear using the S mode in automatic. Gas mileage would certainly be affected as on average you'll be revving higher.

 

Wow so it never gets into 5th? That makes it pretty useless for highway driving then unless you don't mind the tach revving really high at a constant speed! I guess you could always just click the + paddle once to jump it up into 5th when you reach cruising speed though

When driving normal around town (not reaching speeds to come close to 5th gear), is the S mode different other than the shift points (meaning once your in the cruising gear, say 3rd gear, does it hold the same rpms as D would?)?

 

Nothing wrong with using the brakes, just a little more effort to lift a leg (if you'll pardon the expression) than to downshift with a slight pull of the finger to the paddle shifter. Doesn't eliminate braking but in stop and go traffic on the 405 in LA it can be a lot of brake on and off and on and off ...

 

I did not notice a whole lot of difference in shift points in the brief time I had it in S, certainly not nearly as dramatic as my previous car's sport mode. The biggest thing I noticed was that it topped out in 4th. Maybe I need to drive the RDX harder to notice the differences in S...

 

I actually use the shifters is sport mode a lot. I have only had my RDX for about a month now, though, so I may still be in the "missing manual shifting" phase. I enjoy having the control over the transmission. In regards to downshifting, I drive in 4th and downshift to 3rd when slowing down and let the car automatically downshift back to 1st once I stop. I don't bother with downshifting all the way down to 1st myself unless I need to stop quickly.

 

uh, I would say so. According to Acura's website, it says that in sport mode, it's up to u to shift, not up 2 the tranny. If say your in 2nd, (in "s" mode) it won't go into 3rd until u hit the upshift paddle! Right? Now, not going into 5th is another thing. Not sure about that one. Should go to 5th!

 

In Sport Auto mode it will shift itself up to 4th, just not into 5th. In Sport manual mode it won't upshift until you hit the paddle so you can ride it up to the rev limiter if you want.

 

And to add to what sasair said for those who haven't played with the S mode yet - it starts in the Sport Auto mode when you first shift to S and you only get to Sport Manual mode if you then hit a paddle. Once in Sport Manual mode it stays there until you move the gear selector off of "S"...