Originally Posted by JACKPAC

Your car will always downshift into 5th when you put it in manual. Nissan figures that if you are crusing in 7th, and shift over to manual, you're probably planning on passing someone. Why else would you shift over? So the engineers designed the tranny to be able to instantly shift to 5th so you can pass easily then you can either go back to auto, or shift up yourself. You don't have to look at the indicator window when shifting... just always know that you are starting in 5th! I actually like this feature. Very handy!