Hello fellow Acura owners!

Okay....

I have never driven a stick shift in my life.
I think I tried once, and I almost ruined the
gears on the car.

For this reason, driving my RL using the little
paddle levers on the steering wheel was
something I never really considered...that is,
until one of my co-workers (a stick driver) started
praising the benefits of its usage.

According to my co-worker, putting the car in
manual mode and using the paddles "supposedly"
brings the driver more "in-tune" with his/her driving
experience.

I am also being told that ONE, a novice like me can
easily learn to use and appreciate driving with the
paddles and TWO, there is no way I can do any damage
to my car if I use it incorrectly.

.....okay, so......

For just a few minutes yesterday I started using the
paddles to drive. I could sort of feel the car reaching
its power peak so I pressed the "+" lever and it brought
the car to the next gear. Stopping at a stop sign was a
bit funky. Pressing the "-" lever brought the car to a rather
abrupt and unnaturally feeling slowdown.

I suppose I really need to spend more time with this method
of driving.

So....

Would you guys recommend using the panels over automatic
shifting? And, if you do, is it possible for someone to write a
little tutorial here to educate some of us on how to properly
drive using this method? What do we need to feel and hear
to make sound judgements in when to shift using the paddles?

Thanks in advance!

 

Practice makes perfect. The more you use the paddles, the more proficient you will become and the more fun you will have. If you are doing some aggressive handling, using the paddles is a must so that you are able to keep the revs up and really accelerate out of the corners.

 

The car will go down to 1st gear on its own if you dont feel like downshifting when slowing down.

As for using the paddles, I tend to use the actual console mounted shifter more than the paddles because I find it hard to be switching gears with the paddles when the wheel is being turned....it feels weird especially since I dont drive with 2 hands on the wheel.

It is kinda interesting how many are so impressed/amazed by having paddles in their auto cars (the IS350 has some paddles and peeps at an IS forum are so giddy about the paddles) yet they dont realize they do the same thing as the console mounted shifter found in almost all cars that have manual shift modes for their autos.

I would rather have had buttons on the wheel to do the shifts like my last IS300 had or wish each paddle could do both up/down shifts (so say pull toward driver to do up and push away to do down) rather than down on left and up on right.

I like the idea of paddles but think the RL's paddles could have been implemented better.

 

My S4 has wheel mounted up-down buttons for the Tiptronic. I hardly ever use them even though I only drove sticks before getting it. The problem is that the V6 is so smooth and far away that very little engine information makes it to the driver. So you end up using the gauges rather than feel to determine shiftpoints. With a manual shifter you can determine the gear without looking by feeling the position of the stick. Can't do that with manual-autos typically. When I use the auto in Tip mode I do feel more in control but with the stereo on it's hard to keep track. So I rarely do it.

I recommend driving the car the way you feel most comfortable. There is no -need- to use the paddles. It's there as an option. The RL is plenty fast and agile in plain ol' auto mode.

 

I'm still trying to get used to not having a clutch.

 

I couldn't agree more. I have driven manuals for years with a ton of time on roadcourses. Maybe paddle shifting on a roadcourse but around town there is very little feedback to work with.

 

NJRonbo,

You also have the alternative of leaving the stick in auto until you need the control of manually shifting.

For example, I have a highway entry ramp that forces a 180 degree turn to enter. I leave the transmission is auto until I reach the ramp. Then I shift to manual and downshift with the paddle. That allows me to hold the gear lower than the automatic transmission would.

The result is that I have a faster 0-60 time when I really need it. I'm not racing, I just want to get up to highway speed ASAP for safety's sake.

The alternative is to step on the gas to force a downshift in auto, but that would rev up the engine more than is necessary compared to manually shifting.

Hope that makes sense.

Dave

 

I rarely use the manual mode when cruising around town. On the freeway, or going up hills/mountains, I find that the car up-shifts too soon. So I use manual mode on those occasions for the higher rev limit, that way I can have the low end power to pass cars, merge, or crawl up the mountain.

ROB L: I agree with you on that. I'm also coming from an IS300, and I like the buttons versus the paddles. That way you have +/- shifts on both sides no matter how the dumb wheel is turned.

 

I use the paddles when driving up in the mountains, they are great to keep the car in gear between S curves, etc. Sometimes (twice so far) when I'm getting up to the end of my run (where my cabin is) at around 7K feet, it will refuse to go into 5 gear until I start descending again a few moments later No light indicators showing anything abnormal going on - then, it just starts functioning normally again.

One thing bothers me about the paddles: the need to shift before the redline to give the transmission time to do it before it hits the rev limiter. If I had the choice I would choose to have a button labeled "auto shift at redline" that I can just push and forget about looking down at the tach. How do the Formula One drivers do it? Do they look at the tach and shift at 17.5K?