Is350 Sport Shift?

[bhaveshbp]

Ive had my 350 for about a week and I absolutely love it, but I found one thing odd with the sport shift. How come when you switch over to sport shift the gear display always displays that your in gear 4 even though you really arent? Also when in sport shift mode the car automatically shifts from 1-4 for me and then I have to shift to 5 and 6 is that normal? If so why did they do it that way when in manual shift wouldnt you want to control when to shift in all gears?

[clubfoot]

Ive had my 350 for about a week and I absolutely love it, but I found one thing odd with the sport shift. How come when you switch over to sport shift the gear display always displays that your in gear 4 even though you really arent? Also when in sport shift mode the car automatically shifts from 1-4 for me and then I have to shift to 5 and 6 is that normal? If so why did they do it that way when in manual shift wouldnt you want to control when to shift in all gears?

4 is the default up shift selection. It wil automatically shift up to 4 unless you change it to another gear. If you select 1 then you will have full manual control, if you select 6 then it will shift automatically to 6. Check out your owner's manual.

[bartkat]

The way I figure it, if you're tooling along in drive in 6th gear and you decide you need to go to "sport" you're going to want to downshift. Since 5th and 6th are both overdrive, the first downshift would be to 4th. So you slap the shifter over to "sport" and she shifts down to 4th where you have some power or some engine braking, whichever you desire. I mostly drive in sport mode so when I take off I just hit the right paddle twice so I'm in "6" for normal driving, but ready to downshift whenever required by simply using the paddles.

Remember you have two readouts for gear selection. The big number is the highest gear that will be shifted automatically. The number in the little gear window 1-6 is the gear the transmission is actually using at any given time.

[Bourne33065]

So I have a question...It's not bad to go from automatic to manuel, or manuel to automatic while driving right?

[lexuus]

never tried auto to manual. but i always shift from manual to auto not only in the lexus but also my bmws. ive never tried it but i would think shifting auto to manual (while traveling faster than 10 mph) would be fine also.

[bartkat]

So I have a question...It's not bad to go from automatic to manuel, or manuel to automatic while driving right?

No, it's not bad. It won't let you shift to a gear that would over rev the engine. You might get a little more engine braking than you expected, but it doesn't hurt anything.

[Bourne33065]

never tried auto to manual. but i always shift from manual to auto not only in the lexus but also my bmws. ive never tried it but i would think shifting auto to manual (while traveling faster than 10 mph) would be fine also.

Why does it have to be over 10 mph?

So I have a question...It's not bad to go from automatic to manuel, or manuel to automatic while driving right?

No, it's not bad. It won't let you shift to a gear that would over rev the engine. You might get a little more engine braking than you expected, but it doesn't hurt anything.

Ok good to know, thanks.

[bartkat]

never tried auto to manual. but i always shift from manual to auto not only in the lexus but also my bmws. ive never tried it but i would think shifting auto to manual (while traveling faster than 10 mph) would be fine also.

Why does it have to be over 10 mph?

So I have a question...It's not bad to go from automatic to manuel, or manuel to automatic while driving right?

No, it's not bad. It won't let you shift to a gear that would over rev the engine. You might get a little more engine braking than you expected, but it doesn't hurt anything.

Ok good to know, thanks.

Here's a for instance. If I'm tooling down a highway at 70 MPH and plan to take an exit, I'll downshift from 6th to 5th to slow down a little, then just when I get into the turn off lane, I'll downshift to 4th and the car will slow more, then I just start getting on the brakes as needed, depending on how the exit is built, curves, steepness etc. It works pretty well and I can lose a good amount of speed before having to brake.

If I had been driving in regular automatic mode, I'd just shift to "S" when I get into the turn lane and let it shift itself directly to 4th.

[lexuus]

never tried auto to manual. but i always shift from manual to auto not only in the lexus but also my bmws. ive never tried it but i would think shifting auto to manual (while traveling faster than 10 mph) would be fine also.

Why does it have to be over 10 mph?

its just that when u r over 10 mph you are either in 2 or about to go into 2. in other words it should be fine to shift from auto to manual when u are above 1st gear. as bartkat said the car wont over rev itself. the computer is always watching ;)