Can someone tell me about the "sport Shift" 5 Speed Automatic...

I never heard of that or saw anything like that before.

How does it work.... When you move the shifter into that other section there, does it give you more control... and does it just have two positions or moves smoothly.

What is your experiences with that...

Thanks!

Mike

 

This technology works like a champ! You can switch to SportShif any time. Suppose you are driving at 60 mph and you want to pass a slow moving car (such a 3 Series ) all you need to do is switch to SS just by moving the stick to the left and then down shift to, let's say, 3rd and acceletarte and that's it, then you quickly move to 4th and there you are now at 80 mph....then you quickly move to 5th and then you are now at 100 mph....the 3 series is now half a mile away...

 

I still would rather have a 6MT.. still waiting for mine since my deposit in august ...

 

oh yeah, definitively. I just can not handle the Miami traffic with a stick shift. I did for 5 years in a Civic and cost me a surgery if my left foot.

 

I dunno. This is my first automatic after 18 years of owning and daily driving sticks. Somehow, it just doesn't feel right shifting gears without the clutch. And it doesn't feel right shifting down through a gear (e.g. 5-4-3) rather than directly 5-3.

In the highway passing scenario, it's easier and just as effective to just leave it in drive, hit the loud pedal and let the trans shift down.

In everyday driving, I find SportShift is more of a toy than a useful feature.

Mike

 

I agree with you 90%.

I had SportShift in my IS-300, complete with the shift buttons in the steering wheel. It's mostly a marketing gimmick, and after playing with it for a while I stopped using it for the most part - too much work for too little benefit.

The one scenario where the feature is useful is when you want to leave the car in a gear that's lower than where the transmission would normally be so that you can keep the engine in its powerband. This gives instantaneous throttle response when you nail the pedal, rather than the lag you would normally get while the transmission downshifts. Thus, when you're on the freeway, waiting for that hole to open up, you can be right in the powerband and ready to zip through the gap. Other than that, I never came up with a good use for the feature.

 

I agree on the 04 this is a useful scenario (not one I run into though in my stop-and-go non-highway commute). A fully featured shift gate (D4/D3) would eliminate even this scenario.

Mike

 

I drive a lot in rush hour on a freeway. I like to use the lower bands shifts in slow steady traffic. The automatic mode wants to go faster and subsequently requires breaking. I would rather creep along at a steady pace than accelerate then break then accelerate then break. <repeat for 20 minutes>

 

I test drove today.

I guess I cant see much of the benefit.. But this car just TAKES OFF when you gas it from a stop.. I mean really takes off.


Mike