I appreciate it!

SO. i FKN LOVE driving this car.

and it behaves perfect if you throw the snow mode on right away. no weird shifts due to 1st gear skip, nothing with R as well. I tested it out a few times by backing up.

so from now on, I will be putting it into SNOW as soon as i turn my key.

Thank you for having me go out and figure it out :)

Thats awesome to hear! I guess if i want to use manual mode just swap off snow before going into it and i'll be good.

You probably don't have to. If you are shifting into M, then you have full control of the shift points (moving gear stick).
If you just use the paddles (temporary manual before it automatically goes back to the old mode), then you could turn off the SNOW mode or put it into SPORT (so that the "exit" points are calibrated).

For sure. I appreciate you myth busting haha. I might start just driving in Snow

give it ago and update back with your thoughts

I'm heading into winter #5 with my BRZ, and can tell you for sure that shift performance is hugely dependent on temperature. If ambient temps are above 10C or so, it is fine. Below that, the trans needs to warm up. If it's below freezing, this can take a very long time. I've had it take 15-20 mins of driving sometimes, long after the engine is warm.

I also saw mention of the CEL, seems that any CEL at all will disable rev matching. I had a CEL for a glitchy fuel tank level reading. Only noticable change in the car was rev matching went away and the shifts were brutal. As soon as the CEL went away, trans worked perfectly fine.

If it is specially first gear you are concerned with, you need to watch when you choose to downshift into first. At high revs it is ok, but at low revs it will coincide with the torque converter unlocking. If I'm coming to a stop, I will usually downshift to 2nd and let me the car choose first once the revs get too low.

This makes sense, I usually never downshift into first anyway because I'm just too paranoid. and yeah, whenever you get a CEL that is a referred too as "Limp Mode" where the car drives like that. extreeeeemely annoying.

It's actually nice to drive in snow mode. even when I'm driving around town and want to use paddles and be a bit loud with my exhaust. When using paddles it won't allows you to downshift into first gear at all. It's actually really nice. My biggest complaint with this vehicle is how awkward first gear feels when using paddles. I always just want to get out of it as fast as I can.

Try using paddles with snow mode sometime, its a blast.

We have an auto. I did not like the occasional elastic band surging feeling, occasional bouncy changes and always disliked the lurch when starting from standing. I too checked for harm with the Snow mode trick but could not get a straight answer.

Solution: have just fitted the differential bush inserts part KDT925 by Whiteline. There was no noticeable increase in noise/vibration/harshness, a 60% improvement in the surging and a 100% improvement in the starting lurch. Even the wife noticed it.
Cost $60 - $80 and simple enough to DIY or get it done next time the car is up on the hoist.