Mcg314

Live in St. Louis and we have a ton of corkscrews to enter and exit the highway. I always seem to find myself putting the car in sport mode or switching to paddles to drop down a few gears and hit those corners but then gun out the opening.

Do you guys do this too?

Richard66

Not I, seems like too much work. I use D mode entirely. Coming up to corners, roundabouts, off and on ramps, I slow down enough ahead of time by taking my foot off the gas and brake if I have to, make the corner and such and throttle up. None of this grand-pre gunning it and downshifting driving for me.

Jig9798

Interchanges are where the tail gaters get left behind.

D to Ds does a good job holding the RPMs. Downshift to third as you straighten her out and you're good to go.

Ghozt

hell yeah i do this too, its what the paddle shifters were put in the car for. i never drive in Ds or manual mode very long, usually just downshift and punch it then ease back into D

b2boost

Ya it works great. Although I find myself finding any excuse to use it and sacrificing gas mileage...

jeffislouie

Every so often, I do find myself doing this. Truth is though, I find the car is never out of the power band. I put my foot down in pretty much any situation while in D and have never thought "I sure with I'd have used the paddle shifters or been in sport". Truth is, sport is a bit slower to my butt dyno because it is simulating shifts. It is kind of cool how the car will 'downshift' while in sport and under harder breaking, but to be honest, I could have been just as happy without sport mode or the paddle shifters on my car.

Still, I get it. Enjoy.

Maxima313

Local driving I keep it in D, but occasionally when I'm on the highway I'll throw in Ds for a little bit or use the paddle shifters... I say go for it, that's why you have em!

lightonthehill

Look, ma! I can drive like Mario Andretti!

I like the paddles because they enable the more adventurous among us to almost have the fun of a manual tranny without being stuck with a manual in endless traffic gridlock.

araffio

iTrader: (9)

I switch to the paddles all the time, it's nice to hold a gear even though D mode does a good job of keeping you in the power band.

RCM78

Sport mode is a complete waste in this car. The transmission does a very good job of keeping the rev's up while exiting corners. Just press the pedal down and let the trans do it's job.

dr_2010SV

Expand your driving experience.....think the opposite as in slowing the car down.

Ghozt

I tend to agree, especially since people hit the track and figured out D was faster than Ds or manual mode. It's nice to be able to hit "manual" mode though and "shift" around.

silberma

I do not think that it is a waste for any cars. I find that when driving in mountainous areas the sport mode helps in holding the car speed down when descending mountains. It is by far better that overusing your brakes getting them hot and reducing their effectiveness and shortening their useful life..

RCM78

Thats actually a good situation where I would use the s mode..

araffio

iTrader: (9)

We got a nasty snow storm here in NY last week and it was nice to be able to downshift and engine break when necessary

boatguy272

Don't take this the wrong way .....but why would you want 2 wheels slowing you down instead of 4 ??

Jig9798

Don't think of engine breaking as directly slowing down the wheels.

You're more apt to spin out in snow/ice by applying the foot brakes than by downshifting/up shifting. Even in an automatic transmission.

araffio

iTrader: (9)

Being from Chicago you should know. Give it a try in the snow and you'll see the difference.

Tbrown419

Silly question---perfectly ok to toggle back between D and Sport mode while at highway speed?

MaxNISMO'09

Chi Town! I'm a resident of Chicago and downshift constantly to slow down in bad conditions. We have had some serious black ice in the last few weeks and I trust engine breaking over breaks when it gets like that all day... Just my opinion