Took awhile for me. I still find myself glancing down from time to time. But the logic mentione does make sense.

 

First time I drove my car I was like "What the..." 15 minutes later I was like ahhhhhh this is so natural!!

It is my first steptronic and I think it is a must have for lazy bastards like me who drive in trafic!

 

Pushing forward to go backwards and pulling backwards to go forward was not natural for me. But I am getting used to it after 3 days...

 

It's like the idrive IMO, there's a small learning curve to it...

 

Think about it this way. In a manual transmission car, when you start off, you pull the gearshifter to the left and push it forward into 1st, then pull down to get to second. In this case, the first few steps are the same so it absolutely makes sense. Pull the lever to the left to put it in sport mode and push forward to get to first (considering you are stopped) and pull down to get to second.

 

I think of it like a jet figher control. To go up you pull back and to go down you push forward.
I just have to find a way of getting the car into the air, then whack on some missiles and I'm sorted.

Good morning to all.

 

You're talking apples to oranges here. How does your analogy work if you continue to accelerate and shift from 2nd to 3rd?

 

I'm saying that the first few steps are the same, as I stated in my reply. Not the whole process. It is more similar the way you start off then if it was the other way around. The other way, there is really nothing similar. This is why it makes sense to me that BMW would make it this way. Trust me, I don't think its anything really CLOSE to driving a manual. Just similar in the starting process.

 

I understand that you're drawing a parallel to the "first few steps starting out" but it falls so completely apart after that (accelerating beyond 2nd gear, slowing down, downshifting, etc).

What you're saying is kind of similar to the way a stopped clock still displays the correct time twice a day...

 

It depends on it if it's a digital clock.....

There is not going to be a tiptronic that is just like a manual, but I can see this making more sense than the other way around. At least some of it is similar. If it were the other way, none of it is similar. Not trying to say it's the 'right" way, but the argument was on if its counter-intuitive. Your typical manual (which tiptronic is supposed to simulate) starts off just like the BMW's tiptronic. Comparing it the other way around would be completely backwards. Imagine having a manual gearbox where 1st was right and down, 2nd was forward and so on... It would be considered counter-intuitive to anyone who has driven a left hand drive manual. Either way, everyone is going to have their own opinion on what they feel is intuitive, based on their own natural instinct or previous experience. The same argument could be had with paddle shifters. Who is to say that the right paddle can or can't be used to downshift? Which way is more intuitive or the "right" way?