Ok just re-read your question VQ.... Letting the car shift by itself in DS will not harm anything, but read what I wrote below:

if you're in 2nd gear in DS mode (hard to tell which gear you're on unless you've gotten used to the car) and you downshift to 1st gear, then you "could" hurt the tranny, by how much I have no idea but it will harm something in there. I've done this a few times while not paying attention and the car just revs up to the red-line and the car gets pulled back because of going down to 1st gear.

On a side note, I drive in manual mode 95% of the time, I like to know which gears I'm in and I like to shift it myself.

I need to put a bit more faith in DS but I just don't like not knowing which gear I'm in, which is why I mostly shift up first if I'm ever in DS and then see which gear I'm in and then downshift accordingly.

This is just my personal preference and as to how much harm you'll do to the tranny I dunno, maybe someone else could better answer this question.

 

ok Def and rpm... I need to give some thought to what you're both saying here. Hopefully others have some input.
Trying it without some sort of damage is my obvious goal.

On a side note, the manual states not to exceed the following mph speeds:
1st - 39
2nd- 64
3rd- 92
and so forth, and since we would only come close to '92' but never exceed that the rest o' gears are irrelevant.
The speeds listed above appear to be for a clutch operated tranny.

 

Your first question is misleading/confusing (maybe it's just me). You said:
DS is fully automatic so why would the driver have to take over the shift points?

 

Sorry to be confusing.
In fact I've never put the car in DS unless I wanted to take over the shifts, which is what I thought DS was for. So I must be the one that's confused here.

I was just out driving and played around a bit (for those who know me, I left the VDC alone) and here are my findings so far:

While in DS, if you want to shift -you can- otherwise [as you say rpm] its fully automated. Leaving me to think the only advantage is that if one leaves the lever in the DS shift gate, one can respond to the urge of manually shifting much faster.

 

lol I'll make this simple

D = Is for normal driving conditions, the car shifts by itself at an easy pace

DS = Is for Spirited driving, the car will shift by itself but will hold rpms for longer and downshift sooner than when in D

Manual mode (when u see the numbers) = You're in full control, you decide when to shift and when to downshift.

Hope that's made it clearer, there's nothing really to it, and from you're questions I'm guessing this is your first car? and I'm guessing you've never driven a manual car before correct?

 

Defratos- you're despicable.

 

Nono

D is for wife to drive, DS for me normal driving and M for me spirited driving.

LOL

 

You don't have to shift in DS mode unless you want to. What is not known by many is that you can manual shift in D mode if you have paddle shifters. I believe this could also be the case if you could disable DS mode when moving the shifter into the shift gate in order to use your UP/DOWN selector.

I use both modes often staying in D and using the paddle shifters. It will stay in the selected gear for some magical period of time and I think it senses travel direction so as not to drop back into D when it may be undesired (traffic circle for example). In the case of the traffic circle I use the paddle shifter so D doesn't shift in the middle of the circle which sometimes occurs at the 20 mph of the circles in this area which causes the car to sometimes do strange things.

Perry

 

lol Why thank you

but on a serious note, if you've driven a manual car before I believe you'd have a better understanding on all driving modes.

 

I can't believe what I started....

I have actually owned & driven quite a few manual vehicles, but I think it's the lack of 3rd pedal that's throwing me off.

 

lol oh ok, my bad

You'll get the hang of the car soon enough, I never even knew what an Infiniti was until I bought one

 

yeah Def.

I foolishly bought the car for my wife, thinking I'd get plenty of wheel time to play as a side bonus.

Funny you mention about Infiniti. I actually am into cars and I know that it's Toyota/Lexus, Nissan/Infiniti, VW/Audi among others but a lot of people don't know this about Infiniti.
When we bought, a number of our friends asked 'whats an infiniti?'

Meanwhile I had been quietly waiting since 07' to buy our X ....

 

oh yeah... Honda/Acura

 

+1 on what Defratos said by upshifting to throw it in manual rather than downshifting if you're not sure what gear you're in.

 

But DS never goes into 5th gear. It should be D$ for all the gas money you're wasting leaving it in DS mode all day. I only use it going down curvy hills when I don't want to use the brakes as much.