No need. The reason you need to relax the accelerator on a traditional manual is because while you have the clutch engaged, the engine is free to rev up very high, and will put a lot of strain on the clutch when it is reengaged, and needs to match the (now lower than before) speed of the transmission input shaft.

AUTOSTICK. AutoStick is a driver-interactive transmission feature providing manual shift control, giving you more control of the vehicle. AutoStick allows you to maximize engine braking, eliminate undesirable upshifts and downshifts, and improve overall vehicle performance.

How to Use Paddle Shifters

1. Upshift before the engine reaches the lower limit of the higher gear.
2. Downshift before reaching the upper limit of the lower gear.
3. Press one paddle while the other is being held down.
4. Press both paddles at the same time.
5. Try to shift to third or higher while stationary.

You won’t, and can’t damage the car by manually selecting gears with the paddles. The simple reason is that the computer controlling the transmission simply won’t let you select an inappropriate gear that will do damage. Overall, there’s no benefit to you manually changing gears when decelerating.

Do paddle shifters help you drive faster? Paddle shifters can help you to drive a car with an automatic transmission faster by allowing you to stay in a gear longer without shifting up than the automatic system would if you left it to it.

The transmission will not allow you to select a high gear if the speed is too low. So there is no risk of damaging your vehicle’s transmission if you paddle down (or up) rapidly.

Shifting too late can be bad for the overall health and well-being of a car as well. This is easily avoided by downshifting before accelerating though. Short shifting frequently gets confused with having a short shifter. Short throw shifters are a different thing entirely and not needed to short shift.

If you shift too early, you run the risk of lugging your engine, asking it to move your car forward at an unnaturally low RPM. For more details, and a side-by-side comparison of the fuel efficiency achieved in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th gears at identical speeds on the same stretch of road, watch Fenske’s video below.

Paddle shifters are levers attached to the steering wheel or column that allow drivers to manually shift the gears of an automatic transmission with their thumbs.

When you use a paddle, the clutch receives an electronic signal for gear selection, and the gear shifts. Paddle shifters give you more control on the roads and are actually quite simple to use. In fact, when you downshift properly, it can improve the longevity of your brake pads.

But the good news is that it doesn’t do any harm. Unlike a manual transmission, which forces you to use up a little bit of your clutch disk every time you shift, an automatic transmission uses a fluid to transmit power from the engine to the driveshaft. So you’re not really causing any extra wear and tear.

The biggest drawback of activating Sport Mode (or constantly leaving your vehicle in this mode) is that your miles per gallon rating will suffer. It’s going to take extra fuel to keep up with the sudden power demands, and although it may not seem like much of a difference in the beginning, it can add up over time.

Sport mode programming tells the gearbox to favor higher rpm, in order to keep the engine closer to the power band — the rev ranges where it makes the most horsepower and torque. It doesn’t squeeze extra power from the engine; it doesn’t hurt it in any way.

At its simplest, engaging SPORT mode makes the vehicle’s throttle more sensitive, for hair-trigger response. The automatic transmission may respond similarly: downshifting earlier and holding higher revs for longer periods to keep the engine’s power output within striking distance.

Absolutely fine. In any modern car with multiple driving modes the change in modes is managed by the vehicle’s electronic control unit(s).