Two stage accelerator?

[Corey_R]

Yeah, the manual isn't the clearest of things.

I just wanted to clarify though some of the wording in your post in relation to the "two stages of pedal travel before "full throttle" is reached."
Effectively there isn't two stages. Only 1. The 2nd stage does not apply any more throttle. It only engages the kick down.

Thus, if you push your foot down until you get resistance, then you have 100% throttle or "Wide Open Throttle" as some people might call it. Any further, and you get kick down - which may in fact kick down 2 or 3 gears depending on the situation. And yes, it can go well into the redline. You should really be changing gear up yourself when you're in M anyway...

[stickshift3000]

This features on nearly all auto cars produced in the last 25 years....

[Corey_R]

No it's not. You misunderstand what is being discussed.

We're not talking about driving along in D, having 5% throttle and you pushing the pedal down to 50%, and the gearbox dropping a gear.

We're talking about driving around in Manual, having the pedal already pushed down to 100% throttle, then pushing the pedal further down past the resistance point and hitting an ACTUAL BUTTON UNDERNEATH THE PEDAL. That button is what tells the car to "kickdown" even though you're in manual.

[elephino]

No it's not. You misunderstand what is being discussed.

We're not talking about driving along in D, having 5% throttle and you pushing the pedal down to 50%, and the gearbox dropping a gear.

We're talking about driving around in Manual, having the pedal already pushed down to 100% throttle, then pushing the pedal further down past the resistance point and hitting an ACTUAL BUTTON UNDERNEATH THE PEDAL. That button is what tells the car to "kickdown" even though you're in manual.

Most autos I've driven have the same or similar button in the same place.

[Corey_R]

We'll just have to agree to disagree.

I've never driven and auto with one. I've driven Autos from Toyota, Holden, Ford, BMW, Mini, Suzuki, Hyundai, the list goes on. And even most dyno operators have never come across one, nor most car enthusiasts, since in almost every single "dyno thread" or "DSG" thread on these forums, someone complains about how the DSG won't stay in gear even in Manual, and someone has to then explain about this button underneath the accelerator pedal, and then people are surprised.

So if "most autos" have actually had them (and not just your last car), this would then mean that "most people" here are ignorant, and "most dyno operators" are ignorant. And I'm sure that none of those are the case.

[MkVIGTI]

I know Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi don't have it either. Some have an O/D switch on the gear lever though. But then again, the manual mode of the dsg will still shift up when the engine reaches cut-out.

[stickshift3000]

I think you guys need to get out and drive more cars.

The kickdown button behind the pedal used to be common in older cars, instead nowadays it often relies on throttle position and ecu parameters (revs, load etc) on most newer cars.