Thursday, February 20, 2020

An Observation:

"Paddle Shifters" (those little levers behind th steering wheel that will allow you to shift your automatic transmission on your street car like they do in race cars) are a somewhat useless addition on street cars when the steering ratio such that it is greater than 3/4 of a turn lock to lock.

If your steering ratio is such that you have to move your hands on the wheel, then the "Paddle Shifters" are a joke and are simply added so Millenials can feel like they are bad-assed drivers, much like the steering wheel your parents put on the front of your car seat when you were 3 years old. 

5 comments:

Old NFO said...

Yep, but the feelz man... :-)

Peteforester said...

My wife has an '07 Acura MDX. It has the same idea, but uses the shift knob to get 'er done. While in drive, you move the shift knob to port. That puts it into "paddle-sifter" mode. Push it forward for an upshift, pull it back for a downshift. Voilà! A stick shift for pussies who can't handle a clutch!

All in all though, the whole concept is stupid... Either let the auto tranny do the work, or learn how to work the gears like a man!

DaveS said...

They were so annoying on a Jeep Grand Cherokee that I had for a while that I disabled them through the car's software. I kept accidentally hitting them. Stupid design.

Randall said...

That's odd... my paddle shifters turn the stereo up and down........

The Freeholder said...

Had them on my Subaru Outback. As my grandparents would have said, "tits on a boar hog".