okay fellas, it's not funny but i really need to know how to use the paddle shifters. i've never owned 6 speed sequential tiptronic or whatever you call it. have had 2 11 ES' an 11 Camry an 09 Corolla S etc won't name all the cars. need to know when to down shift and when to upshift, and i've never driven a manual transmission car. i would appreciate it if anyone can help. have a 2013 GS - F sport AWD. i really want to have fun with it. thanx.

 

just press up to upshift and down to downshift!

 

so can you be driving under "D" and then can you change gears over to paddle shift will driving?

 

i know how to do that...... the question is when? while i'm cornering, trying to get around a slow driver, or just want to open it up on an empty straight on the highway. when do i use the up and down shift paddles is what i'm saying.

 

to be very honest and i don't mean any disrespect at all. from the way you are describing it, i say just keep it in auto and just floor the car when you feel the need. for what you need i think that should be enough already.

from a driving point of view, you always make sure you select the right gear before you do any move, that means passing, cornering, etc... driving a manual car and you will know exactly why. but again, that's the point of auto anyway, the computer selects the right gear for you.

from 4gs point of view, i don't think the paddle shift is going to make that much of a difference. the down shift is nice specially with the blipping, but the up shift is just so-so

again, imho unless you are an aggressive driver or there is an absolute need, keeping it in auto will do just fine

 

thanx rominl.

 

IIRC, in "D", the paddle shifters will set the highest gear that the GS will allow. In other words, if while in "D", you use the paddle shifters to set the gear to 3, the car will switch between 1/2/3 as needed, but won't shift higher than that (I think there are some exceptions where the car will override that - if rpms are too high for engine etc).

In "M" mode however, the paddle shifters will work the way you expect - you set it to 4, and the car will drive in 4. If you set to 3, it will drive in 3 (again, I think there are some exceptions where the car will override that - if rpm/engine is too low for selected gear, it will downshift)

 

cool. so it sounds like i can shift from "D" to "S" and start using paddle shifters while driving.

 

in D if you pull the " - " it should go into gear limiter mode i.e. D1 D2 D3.., slap it to S and the true manual function works M1 M2 M3

 

the fact that it has dual modes is cool :-).

 

I agree. I haven't used the paddle shifters in my S5 for the 2 years I've owned the car. Pushing the button from "Automatic" to "Dynamic" is all it takes. For the GS, I guess that would be selecting "Sport" or "Sport+.

 

so if you are in M and at stop light, and you use paddle shifter to select 3, then the car starts in 3rd gear? if so, that's something new

 

Hopefully not - I think that would be the exception scenario described in my earlier post (excerpt below)

I'm not speaking from experience (expecting my car later this week) - but this is how the sales rep explained it to me.

Page 181 from http://drivers.lexus.com/t3Portal/do.../sec_04-02.pdf

 

ok, but if that's the case, then it's no different than when it is in D right? the number indicates the "highest" gear car can be in.

another thing is if the car is in D and you flip the paddle, it only temporarily keep the car in that highest gear. during my test drive, after a while the "number" goes away and it's back in D. but when it's in M mode, the "number" stays

 

I may be mistaken, but from what I read/heard, in 'D', the gear selected by paddle shifter is the highest gear the car can be in. But in 'M', the gear selected by paddle shifter is the gear that the car will be in (not the highest) - assuming of course that the speed/rpm etc are ok for that gear.



Hmm - I didn't experience that. My test drive was fairly short, so again, I may be incorrect, but when you are in 'D' and have selected a gear using the paddle shifter, that becomes the highest gear the car will take (unless speed/rpm are not ok for that gear) - if you hold the '+' shifter for a few seconds (or if you stop the car down to 0mph I think), it goes back to regular 'D' mode.

Hopefully the folks who have tried it out on their car can clarify.