I would like to know more about the 370z's Paddle shifters.

Waiz

You could possibly save gas by going into a higher gear earlier when merging onto an interstate but normally the ECU will pick the most efficient gear for you by default.

Another handy use for downshifting is to save your brakes when coming to a stop at a light. Downshifting sooner will require less braking but will subject the car to a higher RPM then if you would have just let the car shift down prior to you stopping. For those like me who run aggressive/dusty brake pads this comes in handy

ElVee

If you try to upshift or downshift in a way that is not good, the car
- won't do it
- will beep at you in judgement
- will flash the gear indicator at you

There *will* be times you forget what gear you're in and try to go up or down before you can, and you'll be fine.

The *only* gotcha is if you want to go down, so you pull the paddle just as the car naturally goes down, and you might go down another notch. Again, nothing terrible and won't ever hurt your car, you just might get a little extra engine braking than you expected. Be kind to anyone behind you and feather the brake so they know you're stopping.

And even then, it's nothing like other cars. My Eclipse will happily drop down into first and lurch me to a near-halt. I've never had anything close to that in the 7AT Z.