Any of you make regular use of the paddle shifters? In what circumstances and how often? I haven't found much need, but maybe I'm missing something...

 

Down shifting in traffic, use it all the time. Rarely upshift, but holding the up shifter engaged does put it back in drive. I leave the thing in drive all the time.

 

Mostly use them to slow down coming off the highway. Every now and then I will downshift and jam on the gas for a few smiles.

 

I see no need at all for paddle shifters on these cars.

Having a CVT negates the need to downshift while slowing. If you're downshifting instead of using the brakes you're just causing more wear and tear on the driveline then the brakes. Also, no one can see brake lights if your downshifting...

 

I totally agree. Plus it's far cheaper and easier to replace brake pads than transmissions (although the trans IS covered under the warranty which I just found out as I'm getting a free replacement trans)

 

The paddles are just to get the boy-racers hard. Nothing else.

 

There is no such of thing or word called "Downshifting" when you have a CVT. The paddles are there to look good, nothing more than simulated manual transmission.

 

I disagree the car does "downshift" and allow engine braking.

 

Works for me

 

I guess it all depends on how you drive. I too use the paddle shifters to slow down and save my brakes (panic or hard braking is a bad thing to me!) After 230,000 miles on my 09 I still have the original brakes and drive system. Do I downshift when people are tailgating...no. I can't stop stupid but then again, that is why I use my rear view mirror. I drive my car and am not a passenger.

 

Not true at all. The CVT already downshifts by design when you hit the brake or go down hills. Downshifting with the paddle shifters is perfectly fine; ask a Nissan tech who has worked on the CVT's for a while and they'll tell you the same thing. Now if you downshift and just drive around at 5-6k RPMs all the time, then yeah the excessive high revs would increase wear to the transmission.

The car doesn't need actual physical gears to be shifting down. The Continous Variable Transmission means the gear is always fluctuating, not that you don't have a gear. It's build out of two cones facing each other held together with a steel plated belt, as they slide towards/away from each other you are changing the effective gear the car is using.

 

One of the (admittedly minor) reasons I ended up in a 13 Sport was the paddles. They look awesome and when I test drove the car, it was fun to hit an on ramp, downshift, and nail it.
However, now that I'm approaching 9500 miles on the car, I can report that I use then very, very rarely. Frankly, the car doesn't seem to need me messing around with simulated gears to be responsive, fun, and fast.
They look cool and I suppose there have been a few situations when I wanted the engine spooled up in the power band, but they are mostly for show and are unnecessary.
I used them once this week, and only to verify another poster who said that if you hold down the upshift paddle while in D, the car goes back to D right away....

 

Like I said, Theres no need to downshift with a CVT. You proved my point...

 

You didn't read what I wrote then. When you downshift manually obviously the car slows down MORE. Also try downshifting from a rolling 40 and punching it; tell me again there's no point. I love people that speak hypothetically instead of having real world knowledge.

 

Yeah to each his own I guess, but I'm a lot like you Dan as I use the crap out of mine on a daily basis mostly due to the stop-n-go (24.9 mph avg) city driving I do. For me manual mode works better than D in heavy traffic.
Would have easily been through a set of brakes by now if it wasn't for the CVT braking and paddle use.
I also have zero concerns about any additional wear-n-tear on the CVT due to my driving style.

 

Real world knowledge? lol. If you only knew. You act like the CVT is new. It's been around for decades.

Keep driving the way you want. When the belt breaks, or the trans takes a dump you can think of me. I'll be .

 

I think you're misunderstanding me; nobody said the CVT was indestructible or anything. Any transmission can break if driven hard; my old Spec-V's had to be rebuilt at 72k back in the day. But with this car doing things like downshifting to slow down or quickly accelerate with the throttle aren't bad for the car unless you ride around at high revs all the time hammering it. THAT I agree would significantly deteriorate the transmission but because of the excessive high revs; as it would any transmission driven that way. This car isn't a GTR, Nissan didn't add a factory option that lets us break it so easily. *cough*launchcontrol*cough*

 

Careful...there's a new CVT expert on board

 

Not an expert, but I've been around cars and motorcycles my whole life.

If you feel like downshifting go ahead. I just dont agree with using it to slow the vehicle down under normal driving conditions. Most people use the "it saves the brakes" exuse which makes no sense to me. Replacing brakes and rotors is just so simple and cheap, why risk the drive train?

Now under race conditions, on a closed road course then YES, you will use downshifting to help slow the vehicle and get you off the corner.

I've put about 5k miles on this car. I have no plans to take it to the track but I've pushed it a bit on some twisty back roads. The CVT in D mode does a very good job of keeping the revs up in order to come off a corner. Surprisingly good job... Too bad the chassis twist's up so easily.

 

For me personally, when I got on cruises with other cars I like to keep both hands on the wheel and use the paddle shifters around turns to slow and maintain revs. It's honestly a lot of fun, and without the paddles there and the ability to downshift I'd definitely be slowing much more down in some of these turns.

 

Shifting on the console or paddles..... two purposes for me:

1 - When I choose to take an entrance ramp at high RPMS so I can enter the highway like a bat outta hell.

2 - When I'm driving a bit too fast, see a cop, and want to rely on engine breaking to slow down with the (probably false) hopes that my "Oh $$it" response isn't noticeable...