Cars With Paddle Shifters Are Easier To Drive. Just Learn How To Use Them Correctly

Paddle shifters are special levers that help the car driver shift the gears quickly. They are usually seen in cars with automatic gearboxes of any types.

These paddle shifters are usually found right under the steering wheel.

Today we'll try and get to know if the option is really worth your money and how it actually works in different cars and with different gearbox types.

What do paddle shifters do?

They basically help you select the gear when driving. If you feel that the car is too slow, you just use the shifter to downshift and get better acceleration. If you feel that the engine is revving up too much, use the shifter from the opposite side to go on higher gears so that the engine could work on lower rotations and ensure the same speed.

The levers are connected with the electronic system that communicates with gearbox. Once you pull the paddle shifter, the electronic system sends signal to the gearbox and the mechanism changes the gear according to your needs.

How to use paddle shifters?

The question is too hard to answer shortly. Every car may have its own settings and peculiarities of using paddle shifters. One vehicle will allow you automatically switch between manual and automatic modes, the other one will require manual selection of the drive mode. One vehicle will help you intelligently choose gears, the other one will make you rely on your personal choice only.

But there is still a common instruction of how to use the paddle shifters:

1. Start your vehicle.
2. Press the brake pedal.
3. Move the gearshift handle to drive mode.
4. Move the gearshift handle to manual shift selection mode.
5. Start using the paddle shifters.

Usually, the right paddle shifter is for going up 1 gear, the left one allows you to go down 1 gear. Press it two times and you'll skip one gear.

Once the gearshift handle is in the manual gear selection mode, the automatic gearbox stops changing the gears until you use the paddle shifters or the gearshift handle.

How to drive with paddle shifters correctly

The option of changing gears manually allows the driver to control the vehicle acceleration, achieve better dynamics if needed. But you will need to know some rules for using the option efficiently and safely for your car.

First, try not to rev up the engine to the red zone of tachometer. If you often rotate the engine in your car to its maximum capabilities, it starts wearing out quickly. For using the sport mode often you'll need to prepare your car by using special oil and ensuring better engine cooling. For majority of cars the optimal RPM is between 1500 to 2000 rotations when driving on constant speeds. Changing the gear at 2500 RPM will be optimal for efficiency, TheGuardian says in their investigation.

If you want to economize fuel, you might want to rev up the engine up to 1500 RPM and change the gear up. But this won't help. In such a way you only put additional loads to your engine and its lifetime gets shorter. Fuel consumption will still be the same as in optimal gear changing mode.

Of course, you'll need to understand what kind of engine your vehicle has. For 5-liter engines and for 1-liter turbocharged ICEs the rules are different. The lower the engine capacity, the higher revs you'll need to get the car accelerate normally.

Before switching to the manual mode, learn the vehicle's instruction and get to know which revs producer recommends as optimal for shifting for your engine.

What cars have paddle shifters?

There are hundreds of cars that can now have paddle shifters. But usually, the option is offered for additional money. In many cars you still have the option to manually choose the gear by using the manual mode with the help of gearshift handle, but this isn't supposed to be comfortable enough.

We'll describe a bunch of car producers with their offers of paddle shifters in the end of the article, but for now let's talk a little more about the system itself.

Which gearboxes may have paddle shifters?

It's obvious that automatic transmissions may offer you the option of shifting the gears with these convenient levers. But you may be surprised to know that manual gearboxes may also have the paddle shifters. They are usually found on race cars. These gearboxes will still need a clutch pedal, but it will be used when starting off only. There are no mass-produced cars with such an option for manual transmissions.

All kinds of automatic transmissions may have the paddle shifters included in the car. Classical automatic transmissions like Select Shift by Ford, automated manual transmissions like PowerShift and continuously variable transmissions (CVT) - all of them may have the paddle shifters.

You may ask, how on Earth the CVT gearboxes can have paddle shifters if there are no gears at all? In this case the paddle shifter changes the mode in which the transmission works. Once you pull the 'minus' lever, the transmission ensures higher engine rotations so that you could have more torque available for faster acceleration. Here, Honda experts explain how their CVT transmission works with paddle shifters.

How to install paddle shifters?

Paddle shifters became a really popular idea, so many car owners now want to know if they can install them in their vehicles. It's probably possible if your model and modification of the vehicle has the paddle shifters as an option from producer. Otherwise, all the headache and money aren't worth it.

You can't make the shifters work properly without major changes in the computing system of the transmission. It's hard even to estimate the budget of such a change.

How do paddle shifters work in different cars?

In BMW you won't need to choose the manual mode for activating the paddle shifters. They are always active. If you want to overtake someone on the road, just pull the left lever to downshift and start accelerating faster. In 30 seconds or so the car will return to automatic mode. Then, if you want to turn to a sport mode (DS), just start using the paddle shifters. The engine computer won't allow you to go beyond the safe RPM, so it's unlikely you can do some harm to the engine. The BMW Steptronic gearbox is thought to be the ideal match with paddle shifters.

Subaru CVT gearboxes offer paddle shifters as well. For letting the drivers use the functions of a manual gearbox, the producer created kind of simulation of 6 gears in the CVT transmission. When you start using the paddle shifters in your Subaru, you will get absolutely other car behavior.

In Mini Cooper you may use the paddles in both Drive and Sport mode. There are some differences though. In Drive mode the transmission will gain all the control over shifting back in 15-20 seconds after you downshifted or upshifted it with a paddle shifter. In sport mode once you touch the paddles, you have the fully manual mode. The computer will only ensure that you don't cause any harm to the engine and gearbox.

In Mercedes cars you will turn on the paddle shifters once you pull one of them in Drive mode. The display will start showing different information so that you could shift more efficiently. The computer will still work to ensure that you keep optimal revs of the engine.

There are many other producers that install paddle shifters in their vehicles. But nearly all of them work the same way as the types that are described above.