[subiesailor]

Drove my landcruiser yesterday to pick up a lazy boy chair for the Giant's game. Caught my self trying to down shift on a hill by flicking my fingers ha ha. **** the old landcruiser lacks paddles so I just ignored it and used the breaks.

 

[wayoutback]

I have a 2.5 Limited and don't use the paddles much, usually if I need to "downshift", pulling into traffic for a little extra zip.

Funny thing, my 2005 Outback's cruise control was on a stalk placed about where the right paddle is. I have "upshifted" a few times when attempting to cancel my cruise.

 

[jben123]

Let me guess, you are one of the owners who turns on the hazard lights putting the car in Park?

WHO among us hasen't done that at least ONCE!!! LOL

 

[gdiener]

WHO among us hasen't done that at least ONCE!!! LOL

I haven't. The S.O. turned them on from the passenger seat while reaching for a phone in the dash cubby.....

 

[PaulO]

I use the paddles to down shift when passing other cars on the freeway. Much better than simply flooring the accelerator and waiting for something to happen. Also great for engine breaking when slowing down to turn in to my driveway on a steep downhill...plus I enjoy playing with manual...actually gives you something to think about when driving.

 

[JQT]

My 2011 3.6r OB has the paddle shifters, which I guess are standard since I certainly didn't pay extra for this feature. I have yet to put the car into Manual mode since I have not had any reason to do so. In fact, the shifters get in the way sometimes when trying to use the turn signal or the wiper controls. Other than for playing that the OB is a sports car I don't really understand why Subaru bothered with this feature. If I had a manual transmission then I can see the advantage of paddle shifting but on an auto trans it seems silly.

One very handy feature, I believe first implemented by Honda in 198?, was to have the automatic transmission "lock" into second gear from a stand still when it was moved to the "2" position.

This allows for much smoother starts on slippery surfaces, such as snow and ice. I tried shifting my new 2011 Subaru Outback 3.6R Limited into its manual mode, and with the paddle shifters, when I put the car's automatic in 2nd gear, sure enough it was "smart" enough to keep the car in 2nd even from a standing start!

It does reset if you ever upshift later, but this does provide the same "low torque" starts that my old Honda had. This feature alone makes the paddle shifters very useful, but as others pointed out, it's also very handy to pop down a gear when you see a corner coming (as a two-footed driver, normally I would add brake here, while maintaining constant acceleration, but with gear reduction it's a better, safer maneuver).

 

[KptKrunch]

One very handy feature, I believe first implemented by Honda in 198?, was to have the automatic transmission "lock" into second gear from a stand still when it was moved to the "2" position.

This allows for much smoother starts on slippery surfaces, such as snow and ice. I tried shifting my new 2011 Subaru Outback 3.6R Limited into its manual mode, and with the paddle shifters, when I put the car's automatic in 2nd gear, sure enough it was "smart" enough to keep the car in 2nd even from a standing start!

It does reset if you ever upshift later, but this does provide the same "low torque" starts that my old Honda had. This feature alone makes the paddle shifters very useful, but as others pointed out, it's also very handy to pop down a gear when you see a corner coming (as a two-footed driver, normally I would add brake here, while maintaining constant acceleration, but with gear reduction it's a better, safer maneuver).

That's something I do on a regular basis at icy intersections here. A LOT easier than using a shifter, though on my wife's highlander (2001) she has what's called an 'ECT SNOW' button. With this turned on 1st gear is always defeated and you will always start in 2nd gear.

After driving both prefer the OB's manual paddle shifters. I can control it better as there are some intersections that are dry so 1st gear from a start is fine.

 

[mikeyw]

the only thing that is odd is that they are now on the wheel - on my last scooby they were on the steering column, so they stayed in the same position no matter what the steering wheel was doing......harder now!!

 

[nipper]

One very handy feature, I believe first implemented by Honda in 198?, was to have the automatic transmission "lock" into second gear from a stand still when it was moved to the "2" position.

Sorry Honda did not invent anything except the little 3 vlave engine in the late 70's engine. That 2nd gear hold has been in various auto transmissions (not all) cine Auto transmissions were invented.

nipper