dojoman

iTrader: (5)

For the people with 09 2IS...Does your paddle shifter work when you're driving in "D" mode? I heard that 09 car can use paddle shifter anytime without having to shift to "S" mode? Just curious.

Individual

iTrader: (7)

Just to chime in, I was able to downshift one or two gears with my paddle shifter before coming to a stop and I was in "D" mode. However, I never tried to upshift with the paddle shifter while in "D" mode.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

The paddle shifters don't actually shift.

They control the highest gear you will allow the automatic transmission to use.

If you happen to restrict it to a range lower than what it's in when you hit the paddle then it'll be forced to shift to the highest allowable gear though, albeit indirectly.

And yes on 09s they work in D too.

vesder21

correct, i have a new '08 and had my car serviced the other day. they gave me an '09 and noticed that i was able to shift while still in "drive."

i love this option and wish my '08 had it too...

blk250

iTrader: (3)

wow , this is good feature for an 09.....

Individual

iTrader: (7)

I see, when I paddle down, it slows the car down significantly without applying the brakes. But I only did that once to see if it worked, but I'm afraid of doing any harm to the tranny so I stopped.

kimban

you wont harm the tranny... or else lexus engineer wouldnt give you that option.. braking at high speed probably does more harm to the engine than shifting to 5th gear in D mode at 80mph.

GiantsFan

iTrader: (9)

So how does the car know when you want it to go back to shifting on its own if u start using paddles in "D"??

breplica

when you paddle the gear back to 6th, independent of the speed you are at, it resumes normal full auto operation

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Again- the car -always- shifts on its own. You never directly shift it.

The only thing you can do is limit the range of gears its allowed to automatically shift between.


If you happen to already be in 6th and you paddle down so that the car is no longer allowed to be in 6th then it has no choice but to shift into 5th...which causes engine braking. (If you'd been in 3rd when you changed the gear range from 1-6 to 1-5 then nothing would have happened).

While you're not going to really hurt anything with the occasional engine braking it's not a good way to slow the car down on a regular basis, since it does put a bit more wear on the transmission each time you do it. Brakes are a lot cheaper to replace than transmissions in the long run.

dojoman

iTrader: (5)

So what's the point of "S" mode? I guess if you want to shift with the **** you'd need to be in "S" mode.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Not much of a point really...


Well, that's not totally true... there's some situations where limiting gear range is useful... driving down out of the mountains for example where it'll keep your brakes from overheating... In theory I could probably conceive of a couple of odd highway passing scenarios where moving it over to S (to drop it from 6 to 4) right before you're gonna gas it might be useful...

But overall it's not good for a whole lot besides fooling people who don't understand it into thinking they've got some kinda SMG type system when they really don't

Lexasaurus

iTrader: (12)

Why couldn't have lexus just made it to shift the actual gear instead of limiting the gear for the transmission to shirt on its own?

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

More complex, thus costly, to develop a "real" safe and reliable manual shifting option for an auto like that... especially for when the car was originally developed (this method is totally BS electronic trickery versus doing anything mechanical.

keep in mind the 2IS was first shown in early 2005, so the "technology" behind much of the car is 5 years old at this point.

The IS-F can, on the other hand, behaves how you'd want the ISx50 to- shifts on demand, holds gears, etc...

I'm sure the next gen IS will have this on all models... but if they were ever gonna add it to the 2IS then the 09 revision would've been the time and no dice.

tex2670

My 2000 TL's sport shift, while no SMG, functioned better. It did not just follow the normal auto tranny shift sequence. So it can't just be because the technology has evolved since the 2IS was introduced.