I never really found a truly useful purpose for the paddle shifter on my vehicle. It always seemed cool that I had the option to switch into semi-manual mode, but I used it very rarely and mainly just for fun. It wasn’t until I was speaking with one of our sales people about my fuel economy that a light went off and I realized a very practical purpose for that paddle shifter. By constantly up shifting, you can significantly improve your fuel economy.
The concept is simple enough, putting your vehicle into a higher gear keeps the engine running at lower RPMs. Though it makes the driving experience a little less fun (i.e less fast) it really does force the vehicle to get better fuel economy. I was always frustrated that my car only got 21-23 MPG. However, I live in the mountains so this was pretty understandable. Still, I always wanted to see my dash display the 25-30 MPG that’s estimated for the vehicle. Once I started utilizing the paddle shifter in this way, I immediately noticed a jump up to 26-28 MPG, even when driving up mountain switchbacks. Though it may not seem like much, as someone who drives almost 250 miles per week, this slight increase in fuel economy will end up saving me about 3 gallons of gas per week. Additionally, as I became more comfortable using the paddle shifter, I realized I can also go much easier on my brakes by down shifting during downhill driving by allowing me to slow the car without constantly riding the brakes.
For those who are used to driving manual, this may seem pretty obvious. However, many of us who have a paddle shifter in an automatic vehicle don’t realize the level of control it allows us to have over our driving experience. The beauty is that even for us automatic drivers, we can experiment with manual shifting without he fear of doing damage to the transmission. The car will take over and switch gears when necessary, giving you the freedom of a manual transmission with a built in safety net.
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