Yes OP you can use the paddles but the knob works better. :bowrofl:

I personally think the paddles shift faster then the knob. Although I use the knob 90% of the time.. At the track, paddles. :driving:

Ya true, but either or its still gonna throw you back in your seat. :tup:

As the driver, I never get thrown back in my seat haha..

My old car used to throw my neck back compared to the Z.

Actually, on the freeway if your in D...and you punch it.. I hate the lag and whiplash you get haha!

Hope you have a passenger then! Or waste of a good pull. :icon17:

For the highway you have to give it a lil initial tap so it climbs up to the rev you are using and then floor it. Then no lag. :driving:

When i want to pass someone I just use the left paddle and drop into 5th and go around someone. I gave up on using "D" to pass people or do a pull.

Id rather punch it in 4th and have the pull be consistent and manageable

I never drive my '12 sport AT in manual mode but is still very herky-jerky especially when I brake and it downshifts from 2 to 1. Do others with the 7AT feel this "jerk" or is my transmission defective? At the dealership I almost bought the manual but decided for the auto only because I have driven manual my whole life and had read that the auto was faster. However, I'm kind of regretting it now after a year because it makes me "cringe" everytime I feel this hard downshift. I recall one time as I was driving home from work when the downshift from 2nd to 1st was so violent I thought the car behind me had lightly tapped my bumper lol. Although I don't drive my Z too much (7000 miles in one year) I doubt my tranny is going to last more than 5 years.

i pretty much only drive mine in manual mode but in either mode the downshift from 2 to 1 is usually a pretty decent jerk. i think it's just because the rpms are usually pretty low when it does shift down and 1st gear is 4.924 and the manuals is 3.794. the auto 2nd gear is closer to that lol 2nd in the auto is 3.194

it really doesnt bother me though. im just used to it i guess.

Ok thanks. I've kind of gotten used to it as well but it just seems that some days its worst than others. I guess it depends how I drive that day lol.

i dont mind it really since the first and second gear are so mean off the line i dont care about the bit of harshness when stopping lol

sounds weird to me. i shift it into drive when stopping because it does it so smoothly. shouldn't jerk at all.

See this is what worries me and leads me to believe that something's not right with my car. This is not the first time others have told me the same thing, that in drive it shouldn't jerk at all.

The first few gears are low. Maybe it shouldn't jerk very hard but the shifts are always fast. I think it is kinda cool that I can leave it in drive and take it through the twisty back roads and not even have to think about downshifting and always being in the mostly correct gear. Yes... mostly correct. It is a pretty decent tranny but they'll never be perfect. Even though I still like my 7at, I'm going back to the dealer this week to drive a nismo and a sport 6mt to see if i've gotten over my hatred of the nissan clutch feel. All i know is i keep placing my hand around the shifter as if i'm going to be shifting a manual. But then I weep a little. lol! we'll see what happens at the dealer. might be on the other side of the fence by the end of the week.

Just to make sure.. You aren't using the paddles or the stick right? And you're in D and not M? Only time it jerks is if I manually shift from 2 to 1. Maybe reset the ECU? Idk maybe that'll do something. Mine is as smooth as butter.

It can sometimes shift a little rough in D.

Probably somewhere in the torque map that requires the ECU to interpolate, and the result is a slightly harsher than usual gear change.