what are the advantages of it?

 

slightly more control over automatic shift. Redline 2,3,4(if you are going down some monster hill). Downshift when passing on the highway, racing or going up a hill etc., etc.,

 

no real advantages, just an alternative to boring automatic...driving in SS when racing someone may actually help u out in top end RPM's...i guess if u use SS to brake the car, that might b an advantage, just b careful, cuz it does strain the tranny some.

 

For example,

say you are doing 75 on HW, you want to pass some annoying car.

It would be a mistake just to floor it in D5, best it would do is it will down shift to 4th and raise rpm to 3,500 rpm with no real acceleration.

On the othe hand, switch to SS, down shift twice to 3rd, and you are really taking off fast.....That is the beauty of SS.

 

Doesn't SS mode make gear changes faster than when in full auto (D5)?

 

i think you mean to say the response time between the time you hit the gas hard and the time the car starts to go then yes. In D5 you'd have to wait for the ECU to figure out that you want to accelerate hard.

 

I read on Acura site that SS is 10% faster than D5.

 

No, I was talking about the actual gear changes being made, not the tranny's response time. I think it's been mentioned that when in SS mode the actual process of changing from one gear to the next is quicker than when in D5.

 

SS has a quicker response time that when you are in D5. SS mode actually makes you think that you are driving a stick!

 

hmmmm, i wouldn't think so and experienced it myself but who knows