Quote:
Originally Posted by bdbx18
That said, the only thing I dislike with the AT is the auto down-shift on slowing down. If I slowed down enough for it to auto down-shift to 2nd, if I didn't see that or am not looking and I down-shift manually, I would then be in the very short 1st gear. Which of course, may be way too low for my speed.
|
Not sure why this would be a disadvantage as this behavior is somewhat toggleable. This is not an issue if you pay attention to your revs in manual mode or when in auto assuming you are
not in sport mode. The car is actually pretty good about holding gears for you, and will hold them quite low even if you forget. It will however, downshift if you approach the point you are lugging your engine. Basically the car will hold out as long as it can for you, but at some point if you neglect monitoring the rpm's it is gotta do what it's gotta due to keep the rpm's within a safe range.
Still, the situation you described is unlikely to be much of a concern. In order for it to downshift by itself into 2nd, you would have to be on the verge of lugging 3rd. For that you would have to be driving very slow indeed.
Also downshifting into 1st on this car is largely drama free. In fact it will be glad to downshift within 500 rpm's of redline. There is a weight shift with all that added engine braking, though even if it caught you off guard it shouldn't be an problem on all but the slipperiest surfaces.
On sport mode it is true the car is more anxious to select the next lowest gear, but that's just the name of the game. If it is a concern drive in manual all the time (my preference) or just keep it in normal auto. Though the third option is you could leave the car in "snow" where it will never downshift into 1st.
EDIT: I just went out and tried this, it seems in Manual, Auto, and Sport Auto when driving casually the car downshifts from third into second at 15mph. At this speed it places first gear around 3000 rpm. No biggie. If you are driving agressively especially in sport it will probably downshift more promptly, but in that case you're better off letting the car do its thing as it will likely downshift to 1st all on its own at the earliest convenience.