[finch1750]

Originally Posted by GNS

Perhaps (and that does make sense), but the official reason BMW and Mazda have given is because you're pushed back in your seat as the car accelerates. Pulling back on the lever to up shift from 1st (which is mostly just to get the car moving) to 2nd is a motion that doesn't fight against the force of acceleration pushing you back, if that makes sense.

Also, from personal experience on a real MT car, I tend to cruise in 4th in the city and 6th on the highway (obviously). Downshifting causes deceleration, which pushes me forward in the seat, AND the motion to downshift to 5th/3rd is a push on the shifter forward.

There is no perfect analogy, as you might expect, but my vast preference is for the pull to upshift / push to downshift method.


Also...think of the flight controls of an aircraft - you pull back to tilt the plane upwards, and push forward to tilt the plane downwards. On a game controller, this is interpreted as pushing UP on the D-pad to make the plane go DOWN, and vice versa. Obviously this isn't the same situation as on a real car, but the terms 'up' and 'down' don't always correspond with the desired result you want from the vehicle because of the very real fact that you're controlling a (represented) physical object instead of a couple variables in software.

This has always been my thinking. Plus I played waaaayyyyy to much Initial D and Grand Turismo in high school. Haha