Hi all.

I'm considering a 3IS as a gift for my wife in the next months and I have a concern I couldn't find an answer for.

I recently watched POV driving videos on Youtube and realized there was a considerable lag with the paddle shifters. I never owned a car with paddle shifters and only drove a few that had them, so I'm just wondering if this lag is an industry standard, or am I going to find better with BMW or Infiniti?. I'll be test-driving all three cars, but I would like to know what to expect.

Note :
I never take any car to the track, and my wife isn't going to race, but for the money we're spending, I thought the transmission felt a bit... slow.

To see what I'm talking about (starting at 4:00, and at 4:45) :


Thanks!

 

cant tell what mode he was in, in Sport+ mode its suppose to be at its sharpest and quickest

 

He's in Sport+ (you can see that if you pause the video in (in HD) and look closely).
Also the edge of the tachometer is white (and red at around 6600 rpm), which means he's at least in Sport.
(you can see an example in the video below)

 

F-Sport 8 speed is quick shifting, you will have no problems there.

 

I noticed on the nose of this F-sport...no headlamp washer ports?

 

The paddle shifters have been getting faster over the years. But for your wife and 90% of IS clientel, I don't think they are going to notice one way or another. I have yet to meet another person who uses the devices other than myself, although I know in this forum some do.

 

I have been using the shifter in my 06' IS all the time since Day 1. There is some lag beween shifts at times but I manage to adjust my driving pattern and find it without much problems in daily driving.

Really look forward to get a hands on the 8-speed in IS350 RWD to see the improvements.

 

I understand it's faster on the 8-speed transmission, which is available only on the RWD?

 

Even the LFA has "lag". There's no transmission that instantaneously will shift when you flick the paddle. There was about a half second delay in my 2 IS and in my RX F-Sport's 8-speed, it's similar. In the Gen3 IS 350, it seems a little quicker from the videos and since it's taken from the ISF, can't get much better than that at the price point offered. It's all a matter of setting expectations.

 

^That was part of my question : can I get a shorter response in any other car? I'm guessing not.

 

^
You can, but it's only going to come from CVT's. My 2003 A4 with CVT pretty much "shifted" instantly when you flicked the gear shifter. I put shifter in quotes because they were fake steps or fake gears built in to simulate a transmission shifting. Or one could say it was faster because there were no real gears to physically change (advantage CVT). Whatever it was, it miss it.