Quiz Time2: What car is this?

Has to be the G8. The manual shift gate is on the wrong side and the shift gates are backwards from what they should be! When are manufacturers going to learn, push for downshifts and pull for upshifts.

Looks like a lot of cheap-ass plastic. Must be the Pontiac.

G8. Right hand manual shift gate for RHD original design. Typical chrome on the bottom of the shift lever. This was easier than the Focus.

And Mazdaspeed ion, I still don't think there is one correct way to do it. I found the shift gate direction on my mom's Mazda3 to be counter-intuitive. Mazda and BMW fanatics (and I consider myself a fan of both, but maybe not a fanatic) firmly state that is the correct way to do it, but I have never once heard a definitive reason why. Everyone who says that is the right way has a different reason for saying so.

G8 GT...
strange thing is that the Holden it is based on has the Gate on the opposite side (away from the driver as well) and the +/- is in correct order

ssaxsma, the G8 has been praised for having a good quality interior. Oh that's right, its a GM product so we must resort to knee-jerk out-dated stereotypes right?

You should have made it harder and taken pics of only the DSC/seat warmer switches..

That's an odd place for the stability control button... my 2¢ on the G8. Seems like the smarter place is to the left of the steering wheel.

Ya, its the G8. And I agree that they really botched that shift lever....on the passenger side? And push for an upshift? Only BMW and Mazda get this right. Still, this is a nice feature either way....are you listening, Honda?

Anything but the Stig. *sigh*

It looks very expensive. There is no mistake this is the Porsche 911 GT2. That silver stuff must be real aluminum trim painted to look like painted plastic, so people don't steal your car.

@stovt001
"And Mazdaspeed ion, I still don't think there is one correct way to do it. I found the shift gate direction on my mom's Mazda3 to be counter-intuitive. Mazda and BMW fanatics (and I consider myself a fan of both, but maybe not a fanatic) firmly state that is the correct way to do it, but I have never once heard a definitive reason why. Everyone who says that is the right way has a different reason for saying so."

Really if you think about it, that is the most natural way to have it. When you downshift/decelerate your inertia pushes you forward and when you upshift/accelerate your inertia pushes you back. Why should you fight physics to change gears? There is a reason that racing sequential transmissions are gated like that.

stovt001,

I've driven the G8. I'll admit I'm no lover of GM, but I will give credit where it's due, and I find that the G8 could learn a thing or two from the Malibu interior. However, it's all moot since it's going away soon, anyhow.

@carguy622: Exactly. The stability control switch should never be located where you "friends" can mess with it when you're not looking--like seat heaters.

The passenger side lever placement is the driver's side in Australia, the place where this car was designed, built and first sold as the VE Commodore. It's generally deemed too expensive to make mirror image versions of shifters. So do it, most don't.

G8 because the controls and seaters are in the center

i won't bother guessing since i believe that about 10 other people already got it

come on edmunds, not hard enough still

"Really if you think about it, that is the most natural way to have it. When you downshift/decelerate your inertia pushes you forward and when you upshift/accelerate your inertia pushes you back. Why should you fight physics to change gears? There is a reason that racing sequential transmissions are gated like that." I've heard that argument before, but couldn't you say you just as often downshift because you're about to accelerate? Say you're on the highway going 55 in top gear, and you pull out to overtake a slower car. You downshift to pass, yet you accelerate, pushing you back. So then you're fighting physics that way.

i indentified it as the G8 due to the quality of the plastics. they have a lowsheen yet nonpremium quality that i don't see on any other car. its not a bad thing but it looks more like laptop plastic than automotive interior plastic.

@stovt001
"I've heard that argument before, but couldn't you say you just as often downshift because you're about to accelerate? Say you're on the highway going 55 in top gear, and you pull out to overtake a slower car. You downshift to pass, yet you accelerate, pushing you back. So then you're fighting physics that way."

Ok, so you found the ONE instance where you might have to fight inertia to downshift! Congratulations. But really, why would you even need to use that while driving on the freeway? It would downshift just fine if you mashed the throttle. The shiftable option is really there for more spirited or performance oriented driving where you would be downshifting as you brake into a corner so that you are in the correct gear to keep power through the corner and accelerate out.

I miss my car...

^ GXP!

I find it equally useful (or useless, depending on how you look at it) for both situations, getting it in the right gear for passing ahead of time (because waiting until you're in the process of passing for the computer to realize that's what you're doing and calling up a downshift a few seconds later isn't so good) and downshifting going into a curve.

I'll second the "pull back to upshift". It just makes more sense, and feels right.

In a manual transmission, the most satisfying shifts are 1-2 and 3-4. These are where you pull the shifter back towards yourself.

Stovt001 - "I find it equally useful (or useless, depending on how you look at it) for both situations, getting it in the right gear for passing ahead of time (because waiting until you're in the process of passing for the computer to realize that's what you're doing and calling up a downshift a few seconds later isn't so good)"

So if you downshift before the manuever (before getting on the gas to pass), then you would lurch forward slightly after the downshift. Then you hammer the gas, pass the car, and upshift again, where you feel that backwards pull. So again, push forward for downshift, pull back for upshift.

It just seems to make more sense that way.