I have no misconceptions about my ability to shift faster than the car can, but there are a couple occasions: when I’m playing around and when I’m in a 9 speed automatic and get annoyed with shifting four gears under 25 mph.
I do it for a few miles in any rental car equipped for the novelty.
It's extremely silly most times. I do regularly make the drive from SeaTac out to the Leavenworth area and gear limiting is very nice in the pass while going downhill. So I'll give it credit there.
When I had my ZF-8HP A6 I used the paddles often in spirited driving, manual mode varies from gimmicky to fun depending on how responsive the automatic is.
Something I used to do all the time was lock it in a gear where I could push 100% throttle around ~3500rpm to hear the supercharger WHINE at full boost.
I've used it in the GT-B a few times (the sportshift buttons are on the face of the steering wheel rather than paddles, which is interesting) although I don't really push it at all as that was never the intention with buying it.
Everything else has been manual or a walking cane auto (like the Expo)
Oddly, I don't use the paddles in Dad's Mustang on the track (road courses). It's 10spd, so too many gears to work thru myself. But in Sport mode, it shifts when you expect it to and holds gears when you need it. Was not expecting it to work so well.
In something sporty, I'd say I get good use out of manual modes. In not-so-sporty stuff, it's still useful for selecting a suitable gear for overtaking, or for engine braking down hill.
When I had an automatic sedan with the sport shifter, I’d sometimes use it to down shift to pass traffic. But I’d just as equally double tap the accelerator to down shift (I’m surprised how many people don’t know about the latter).
Comments
It's extremely silly most times. I do regularly make the drive from SeaTac out to the Leavenworth area and gear limiting is very nice in the pass while going downhill. So I'll give it credit there.
When I’m in the mountains of Western Carolina I use it all the time to manage going down hills and avoid breaks.
In Texas…never lol
Everything else has been manual or a walking cane auto (like the Expo)
I've used manual mode to force a lower gear on descents in the mountains though.
So pointless, but my inner child does love them.
Lots of hills and twisty bits means that it's nice to be able to hold gears or use engine braking