I have a NX200t AWD F-sport and I mostly like to drive in Manual mode. I have noticed that when I leave work, I put it into Manual mode and Sport and take off. Out of the parking lot, I merge onto an expressway so i have to get on it pretty good. My car will shift up through 4th gear on it's own even though I do nothing with the paddles or stick and I am in Manual mode. After that initial acceleration, the car shifts or actually doesn't shift until I shift it. Has anyone else noticed this?

 

They should have called it manual downshift mode. The auto transmission remains in auto mode even in manual mode, except where you set the upper limit gear, but it will still shift on its own. You can force a downshift, by essentially setting the "upper limit gear" one gear down.

 

Normal.

Automatic mode Shifts gear as usual depending on ght drive mode (sport etc)
Manual mode defaults the transmission to hold gears as long as possible, so rev line shifts. No user input necessary
Paddles gives full control, but will still shift to prevent engine damage at revline. you can go as quickly up the gears as ud like or try to F1 the gearbox.

 

Here is a better explanation, as this works exactly like it did on the 2IS

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ml#post6132875

 

In my experience, when the car is in D mode and you use the paddle shifters, the car shows S"X" where "X" corresponds to the highest gear the gearbox will shift to. It is still automatic, but will not shift past "X", unless you're redlining, in which case, it will upshift past "X" and "X" will change to show the new highest gear. Also, after a while of straight line flat/uphill driving, the car will change back to full auto.

If you flip the stick over to the manual position, the display will show M"X", where "X" is the current gear. In this case, the car tries to be as "manual" as possible, shifting only when the revs get too low, or too high.

 

My0gr81, not exactly the same. I had a 2IS and you're right that it did behave more like an auto with the manual mode essentially where the driver sets a "gear limit" and the car automatically shifts for you up to that gear, as you mention. However, both 3IS and NX 6-speed trannys are programmed differently with better manual control and one key indicator anyone can see right away is the 3IS and NX don't default to gear "4" like the 2IS (and current ES) did when going to manual mode which happened at any speed. I remember I didn't like that at highway speeds going to 4th gear was high revving. NX and 3IS will go the the gear the auto-mode was just in for the speed going.

To the OP, once the NX's normal operating temp has been reached, you have full control of the manual shifting which means that above a minimum speed limit programmed for each gear, you are able to manually shift into the next upper gear. So with a warm engine, if you accelerate from 0 in M1, you can manually shift into M2 as soon as 8-9 mph, then M3 as early as about 20 mph, M4, about 30mph, and so on. You can choose to shift later too up to redline where it will then shift for you, and downshifting works the same way where you can choose to go into any gear so long as the lower gear does not exceed the max allowable speed for that gear (it will beep on you and prevent the downshift if you're going to fast).