I drove many cars with semi-manual or sequential (or tiptronic, whatevery they call it, etc.) transmissions and the IS genuinely annoys me as + is on top and - is down! Recently drove the '14 Corolla and it was the same. Is this something only Toyota does, or is it more widespread than I think? Doesn't it annoy anyone?!

 

Not really, it's just a matter of getting used to it. BTW, Porsche does the same thing with their PDK, so I can pretend that I am driving a Porsche

 

Yeah I gotta give it to BMW they got it right in that department,

 

Hopefully someone can figure out a way to program it to do the opposite.

 

Its just like driving in initial D! lol

 

TOMS had a kit for the 2IS that reversed this, im sure they will do the same for the 3IS.

 

id rather use paddles

 

Many characteristics of this model are not intuitive; Seek / Tune steering wheel button included. :|

 

I don;t know what you drove before but only very few manufacture has that backwards +backwards - forward.. mazda, bmw(after 2000) and porsche.. might be some others but MB, Audi, VW, Infinity, Lexus, Volvo has this right

 

To answer the OP:

Does it annoy me? Yes.

Is it a "make it or break it" decision for me in terms of choosing the IS350 over its competition? No.

As KumaF mentioned, as much as I'd rather have it the other way around (to follow the natural g-force of your body & the car), it's just a matter of "getting used it."

~ Im2bz2p345

 

Does it ever occur to anyone that different than what we were used to might just be better? 😃

 

Yeah, BMW definitely nailed it. It's not a deal-breaker for me. I just wanted to know if I was the only one in this world who was annoyed by it... never heard/saw anyone (or even any reviewer) mentioning it!

 

Just did some research on the TOM's GT shifter. It is a great little mod which most people can do in their garage. And it is just a signal-reversing relay, so I don't see anything could go wrong with it as long as all the wires are properly connected. I would definitely consider it when a 3IS version comes out, given that I came from a BMW (muscle memory is just so persistent...). Now I just have to find a way to switch the '+' and '-' signs without using those stickers....Maybe TOM's should also release a new gear position display panel?

 

Up should be up, down should be down. What's the confusion? German cars got theirs backwards.

 

Does not annoy me at all.

In fact I feel this is the intuitive way it should be. Moving forward and accelerating = pressing the shifter forward = upshift in gears = higher gears = higher speed. The reverse is true. Makes sense no matter which which angle you look at it.