I just got my G, and I am trying to get use to the Infiniti auto stick, but no matter what speed you are driving or even if your stopped, and you switch over to auto stick mode it puts you in 4th gear? Why??? I this really a usefully feature or is it a gimmick, I know on some other brands of cars the auto shifter or CVT or tiptronic or whatever you want to call it, really works nicely, Is my working right? And do you guys with the automatic tranny use your shifting system? I am still amazed at the power this car has WOW!

 

The Manumatic always start in 4th on our Sedans, mostly for reasons of durability it seems, so the engine does not over rev. On the Coupe it is different I think.
It is more automatic than manual and basically shift only as high as the gear indicated. In other words if you leave it in 4th and come to a stop, the tranny shifts only as high as 4th and you have to manually shift to 5th. You can downshift somewhat but the computer will only allow the downshift if the RPM is in the range programmed by Infiniti.
Hope this makes sense and welcome to our forum.

 

I think the assumption is that if you are in full automatic mode you are probably in 5th gear and that you want to downshift when you switch to manual mode - so it selects 4th gear (the first gear down) by default.

When you come to a complete stop it is necessary to bump the manumatic all the way down into 1st gear manually from whatever gear you are in (4-3-2-1 etc.). Then the tranny will respond to your upshifts and downshifts thru the manumatic feature. If you fail to downshift into 1st gear the tranny will shift thru the gears automatically as it will assume you forgot you were in manual mode. (I have done this before)

I personally find this feature most useful as a way to acheive engine braking going into turns or tight curves. With some practice it really isn't a bad system despite what some folks say. I don't want to row gears all day every day and this feature gives me the better parts of both worlds.

Play around with it and have some fun........GeeSpot

 

Hey, Thanks for the info, I guess I need more time in my ride. I look forward to that.

 

The main thing to realize is that the gear displayed on the dash is not the gear the car is in. It's the highest gear the car can be in.

If you're cruising on the highway in 5th, slide it into manual mode, it will downshift to 4th. If you're at a stoplight and slide it into manual mode, the display says 4, but when you go, the car will shift up through 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th... but not into 5th.

You can force it to downshift (unless you'd exceed the rev limiter). You can force it to hold a gear at high rpm. You cannot force it to upshift, you can only make the next gear available to the computer.

2003.5 G35 Sedan Desert Platinum/Graphite Premium/Sport/Aero/Nav/Winter