Not sure if this is a well known thing or not.. but

It personally really annoyed me that when I shift into DS and then if I want to go to manual mode, its a bit awkward since you're not sure what gear you're in, and if you make any switches it usually goes into the gear you didnt want which was annoying. So on the drive to work today i discovered:

If you shift to DS and then press both paddle shifters together, it will just put you in manual mode and display the gear you are currently in without switching gears.

Which was really nice as i knew what gear i was in and what i needed to do next.

-IgS

 

Cool dude thanks for the tip. It'll take me years to learn all the nuances of this car.

 

Mine has always displayed what gear i was in on the gauge cluster while using manual mode

 

Good tip. Always had the same issue.

 

yes mine does as well when you are already in manual, this is for when you move your shifter from D to DS, it displays DS the whole time untill you switch to manual. So while you're driving in DS it doesnt tell you what gear you're in.

 

I've gotten around this issue for 2 years now by doing the following:

tap the upshift paddle. This will temporarily move you to manual mode and will more often than not show you in 5th gear. slide the shifter over to manual position. voila, you're in manual in 5th gear.

you can do this with downshifting as well. basically if you're in D, then make your changes with the paddles, then slide the shifter over.

 

sounds like you have the 5AT?

with the 7AT if you're cruising at (i think 50mph+) its in 7th gear. when you move to DS it shifts to 5th, but then if you want to go to manual you have to go to 6th or 4th which is .. eh.. cant find the right word right now - basically its not the gears i want to go to.

Your process is great for the 5AT guys.
The 7AT would end up in 7th gear if i were to do that :-/

 

Ah I see. Yeah it's a bit different for your situation then. Stupid 2 extra gears!

 

This would be easily solved if the stupid car would stay in manual mode for more than 5 seconds after you tap the right paddle to activate it. You could then do whatever you wanted in an intuitive, "manual" manner. If you wanted the downshift to 5th (on the 7AT) for some unknown reason (just press the pedal in D if you want to pass and it will drop down to 5th...or 4th, or 6th as required) then move the gear lever over.

Please, if this "feature" (the premature return to "D") can be adjusted or turned off, let me know. I would like to extend the timer or even disable it altogether. Note that you can get the car to go back to "D" with only the paddles by pulling and holding the right paddle for a few seconds. The point of having paddles is that you should not have to touch the gear lever if you only want truly manual control (and not the "DS" features).

 

You got a point but I am sure someone else would just think your design is not intuitive. No offense intended. The point is you can't make every body happy.

I think finagle69 has the best solution, though not perfect

 

Hmmm...i tried it over the weekend (09 G37xS)...I was in DS...and clicked and held both paddles at the same time. Maybe I didn't hold long enough? I was kinda skeered of screwing something up.

 

I usually push the shifter into DS and push up immediately for staying in 5th (assuming when I'm cruising) or push down immediately for downshift to 4th.

 

We are talking about a manual mode here. Other than shifting manually, what elese would one need or want it to do? Check out every European car's manual mode...they usually do what they are told and no more and no less. That's what Infiniti's should do, especially since there is a "DS" mode for people who do not know how to or want to shift manually.

The only valid feature in a true manual mode is the mandatory downshift if you come to a stop. Clearly if you have come to a stop and not manually downshifted, you have forgotten that you are in manual mode. Otherwise, we don't need or want the car to second guess what we are doing. It's an automatic transmission for goodness sake--it is designed to second guess what we want as its basic operating mode--and it does it just fine 99% of the time.

Mutiple click/shift/toggles/devices required to do this simple task are just poor design.

 

I wish there was a way to return to DS from manual without going back to D

 

THIS. I wish you could just hold the upshift for like 2 seconds and it realizes you want to go back to DS.