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Chevrolet Malibu -/+ - not true tap up/down?

yuryyury Member Posts: 146
edited March 2014 in Chevrolet
hi, all

i have a question related the L mode and +/- controls on 05 LS. It's been mentioned somewhere that this is not a 'true tap up/tap down' type of control. i know what it does in bu and use it actually to force lower gears on some ramps and curvy descents.
so, what is true tap up/tap down? is it about control layouts or there's more?
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Comments

  • prdmprdm Member Posts: 145
    The engineers ran out of room on the console to include he normal 1 and 2 on the gear shift indicator so they compromised with the +/- buttons on the shift lever. It's not intended to be a "manumatic" the best of which have paddles behind the steering wheel to row through the gears.
  • yuryyury Member Posts: 146
    "not intended" only because of inconvenient control placement?

    btw, i find it's not that bad, i guess steering wheel controls will be better, but even on the lever is fine, after all that where your shfiter is on standart tranny cars :)

    so...if that's the only difference i think it can happily act as a manumatic. just stick it to L and have access to manually controlled range all the way up to overdrive.
  • prdmprdm Member Posts: 145
    Not intended by design. Once the lever is in Low then the +/- buttons only cycle through first and second gear. They will not reach third and forth. A true "manumatic" will operate all gears (except maybe reverse) at driver's command.
  • yuryyury Member Posts: 146
    it most certainly will, full range 1 to 4.
    i am talking about 05 LS. 06 LT is the same, i drove it too.

    as a matter of fact once you put it in L it goes into 3rd, which is handy on high speed ramps. then i can tap it down all the way to 1st or up to 4th.
  • prdmprdm Member Posts: 145
    I'm going to have to steal my wife's car and check this out.
  • yuryyury Member Posts: 146
    :) you don't even have to drive it, just shift to L and play with +/- buttons :)
  • tiger0810tiger0810 Member Posts: 3
    I've played with this feature before myself, and I definitely noticed that it's not a true "manumatic" as well. Although you can go through all the gears with the +/- control, when shifting up you are still waiting for the car to catch up, you don't actually have control over up shifting...only down shifting and holding a lower gear.
  • yuryyury Member Posts: 146
    hence the question what the term "true manumatic" means exactly.

    i have always been under impression is that what is referred to as "manumatic", "sport shift", "tipronic", "auto with manual mode" is no more than a shift range limiter, where the true "manual" action if forcing it down to a lower gear while being in a higher gear. upshifts are done automatilally up to the selected gear.

    I kinda suspect that while the core piece is a hydraulic auto transmision you can't really implement manual upshift control...because it's not fully computer controled, the way it would be in, say, double clutch transmissions.

    But i am no expert by any means....that's why i opened this topic so i can be proven wrong :)
This discussion has been closed.

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