Does anyone use sport mode and or the shifting paddles, and why? Are there scenarios where they're beneficial?

 

Engine braking when going down hills mostly. Sometimes when doing spirited driving on curved back roads. Sometimes when merging onto the freeway and needing some extra kick.

 

I use the paddles by default in my first gen RDX. I think it's called sequential sport shift or something goofy like that. The ECU doesn't override my gear selection unless I'm coming to a stop from a gear that's too high like 4th or 5th.

Idk, I don't like my car making decisions for me. I don't use any automatic features, not even auto dimming headlights.

 

I used my paddles/sport shift with my 1st Gen RDX mostly for driving up/down mountain switchbacks to hold gears (5000-7200 in NM and up to 11,000ft in CO). Easier to tap into boost with min lag or maintain turbo boost up the mountain and use less brakes when driving down switchbacks. Sometimes used the paddles on a 270 degree hwy on-ramp to downshift, engage sh-awd with gas pedal, and tq vector around the ramp to entering a hwy closer to posted speed. I liked to use the paddles to engine brake as needed instead of using the brakes (long sweeping 90 degree off ramp). I used a few times on icy conditions to start in 2nd gear at a stop. Pretty much use the paddles in a similar way with my 11 MDX with a 6AT. Don't use my paddles much with my MDX/RLX 7DCT sport Hybrid. Noticed I can start the engine at a stop if in EV mode by shifting into manual mode (and have access to 1st gear with paddles). Don't know if the 2nd Gen RDX has Auto Stop/Start and if the engine turns on if you shift into manual mode/1st gear?

 

Don't really use sport mode but do down shift for engine braking and occasionally upshift from 5th to 6th gear when the tranny downshifts on slight inclines. Otherwise we just drive and let the tranny do it's thing. The 2G RDX doesn't have auto stop start so now need to worry about locking that out. Our 3G RDX does have auto start stop and switching to Sport+ mode does lock it out as well as the upper gears.

 

Purely curiosity, I wonder what portion or system you are talking about automatically starting and stopping? It kinda sounds like it's the entire engine, but I'm not familiar with the 3G RDXes.


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
"There is one thing I would break up over and that is if she caught me with another woman. I wouldn't stand for that." -- Steve Martin

 

I pretty much only drive with my 3G in sequential mode and paddle shifters. Love it personally. Even got the paddle shift extenders. Great experience in the mountains.

He's talking about the auto-stop function where the motor turns off to save fuel in modern cars at a stop light or when the brake is applied and the vehicle stops, which the 3G RDX has.

 

Out of curiosity: how many gears do you cycle thru on a downshift to get into your power band?

I've driven a 3G RDX on a few occasions, and found the paddle shifters... I dunno, less fun to use because there were too many gears. I felt like I had to go through 4-5 gears to get into the power band in the same way that shifting to 3rd does on my 1G RDX.

Not a dig against the 10AT - just wondering your thoughts.

 

I experienced the same thing when I had 9AT MDXs and 10AT RDXs as loaner vehicles. I would have to downshift 3-4 gears to get the same engine braking with my 08 RDX 5AT or 11 MDX 6AT in 1-2 downshifts. Another "weird" phenomenon with the MDX 9AT was I would actually accelerate with 1-2 paddle downshifts instead of engine braking? I ended up skipping the 9AT MDX and 10AT RDX went for the Sport Hybrid MDX/RLX with the 7DCT. The 7DCT still feels like too many gears to use the paddles like I did with my 5/6AT (regen braking can feel like engine braking in certain situations).

 

Dig at the 10 speed all you want. It's an excessive number of gears, especially 1-6. I come from a 4 speed Camaro, yet somehow it's always in the power band. I can floor it at any time and I'm at peak torque at 4000 RPMs due to the torque converter I installed. Not really a fair comparison I suppose.

Seems like no matter what gear you're in, if you want to be in peak power, it's usually a 3 gear drop for me, maybe 4 gears to drop. I'm personally not a fan of that. But I also just added Phearable stage 3, so I'm making a lot more boost. It gets up and moves just fine by dropping 2 gears. If I'm doing 80mph, and need to pass, 8th gear is fine, although 7th is probably ideal and it might even be able to go down to 6th. If I'm in 7th at 50mph, I can probably do what I need to in 5th, but could probably go down to 4th as well.

I know in some vehicles, if you hold the paddle shifter, it'll shift down to the appropriate gear. I've tried it once, but Acura doesn't have that feature.