2008 Mazda CX-9: Long Way Down to 1st Gear

1st is really, jumpy in this crossover, a lot of power.

Great looking gated shifter! In my opinion, more manufactures should use gated shifters instead of column shifters.

The Challenge Stradale shouldn't be too much worse than the Mazda, it doesn't have a clutch pedal afterall.

At least the manual shift lever action is arranged properly (pull toward to upshift and push away to downshift)! :o)

Get that transmission going, though, and its the best in a crossover. I guess everything has its drawbacks.

Gated shifters are cool, but only if they hit every gear solidly like Mazda designs them too. The one in our new Forester and a rental Toyota Sienna I had in Florida make it too easy to pop the shifter into 4 lo (in the Sienna's case) or the Sport mode (in the Forester's case). Then again, the one in my dad's 6s GT is a little clunky feeling...

I love driving a manual. :D

P.S. The new Sienna is a tire-squealing menace. That thing gets up and GOES!

Suby-

Why are Mazda and BMW the only ones who can get that right??

I'll bet that guy in the Ferrari is wearing a Members-Only jacket with stripes to match the ones on his otherwise beautiful car! Do you have to get stripes with the CS??

The shifter and gate look good in the picture, but I think that you'd get a lot of glare off that thing while actually driving.

And as far as a "right" and "wrong" way to do the manual shifter, it seems to me that for most people who haven't driven a stick they'd think it was more logical to push forward to upshift since you upshift as you're going faster, and vice versa. In fact when I mentioned the manual shift pattern in Mazdas to my mom, who is looking into buying a Mazda3, she looked at me like I was crazy for talking about a "right" and "wrong" way to shift. She's even a stick-shift fan.

"And as far as a "right" and "wrong" way to do the manual shifter, it seems to me that for most people who haven't driven a stick they'd think it was more logical to push forward to upshift since you upshift as you're going faster, and vice versa. In fact when I mentioned the manual shift pattern in Mazdas to my mom, who is looking into buying a Mazda3, she looked at me like I was crazy for talking about a "right" and "wrong" way to shift. She's even a stick-shift fan."

How is it more logical (I'm not asking you, stovt001. I'm wondering about people in general.) to push forward to upshift when a person's weight is being transferred backward when accelerating? I think it makes more sense to use a motion that works in concert with the direction one's inertia is taking him or her.

There is no glare from the shifter.

therez no Glare from this gate,
and it's very smooth to pul the shifter between the gates,
except when you switch between D and M,

"How is it more logical (I'm not asking you, stovt001. I'm wondering about people in general.) to push forward to upshift when a person's weight is being transferred backward when accelerating? I think it makes more sense to use a motion that works in concert with the direction one's inertia is taking him or her."

There are a few ways to think about this. Firstly, people naturally equate a forward or upward motion with positive (+) and a backward or downward motion with negative (-). Anything other than a forward upshift and a backward downshift seems, well, backward. Secondly, this is analogous to an aircraft. Push forward on the throttle to go faster, pull back to slow down. Or similarly, push forward on the stick and you gain speed by losing altitude, or pull back and you lose speed by gaining altitude. Thirdly, if you want to take inertia into account, why not pull back on the gas pedal to accelerate? After all, that is where inertia is taking your foot. That arguement really doesn't hold water.

I believe that there is no "right" way to set up an automanual. I've said this in previous comments. To say one way is "right" implies an absolute, which this obviously is not. It's a matter of opinion, of personal preference. Would you be OK if I said the "right" candidate for president was McCain? I could come up with all the reasons in the world (race car drivers like McCain, inertia naturally sends you towards McCain, McCain is more similar to a standard transmission shift pattern, etc) but that doesn't make it "right". No matter what I say, there are a lot of people out there who prefer Obama (or, sadly, Clinton). The same with automanual setup.

That said, I prefer the opposite of the Mazda, if I have to drive an automatic with manual gates. Pushing forward to upshift just comes more naturally. But is it the "right" way? Well, that depends on your personal preference.

"more manufactures should use gated shifters instead of column shifters"

How many new cars can you name that use column shifters?

The argument definitely holds water, why are we going to pull back to accelerate, is that even reliably possible? The gear shifter should go the way of inertia.

That's an excellent argument, greenpony!

Different strokes for different folks. :o)