
Originally Posted by
Rocket36
Highly trained teams of engineers? LOL!!! What the? The reason most road cars are setup as "push forward to shift up" and "pull back to shift down" in their tiptronic gear boxes is to cater to the majority of people that will buy them. The lower gears in an auto box have always been pulled back, or towards the back of the car to shift to and the higher ones (incl. D) pushed forward towards the front. It is for THAT reason that they make + push forward (for higher gears) and - pull back (for lower gears) for road cars...
Laugh all you like, but the journalists that complain about it are 100% correct. Shifting up in tiptronic mode should be pulled back and shifting down pushed forward. It has nothing to do with "highly trained engineers" that makes most cars end up setup wrong, just that they have to cater for dumb people that think the right way is actually the wrong way.
Bottom line... + Pull Back, - Push Foward is CORRECT. + Push Foward, - Pull Back is WRONG.
Rocket, this goes as one of your posts that to me makes no sense. You state it's wrong, but don't provide any reason why.
Are you thinking of a corollary with joystick control, where push stick forward = go forward, pull back = slow down?
For what it's worth, most train and tram power controls in Victoria are push to activate - by your logic that would be wrong, yet there's some fairly fundamental reasons why it's appropriate, compared to push forward go faster, pull back slow down.
What about aircraft, where most people (as kids) think that it's push forward to climb, pull back to drop, but they're all set up the other way?
Personally, I've driven various VWs with Tiptronic boxes, and I've driven my old man's VE Calais. Either way doesn't bother me, in much the same way that switching between our cars at home (Passat and Mazda2) means that the indicator stalk changes side. Same thing again - each is valid, there's advantages and disadvantages with both, but there's no difference to the function required.
As for the stab about "highly trained engineers", I happen to be one, and I get quite amused when talking to car people about all sorts of things they believe, until some of the fundamentals are explained to them (a good example was trying to get my ex-father-in-law to explain why a 45 tonne semi, with rubber wheels on asphalt, took a longer distance and time to stop than a 150-tonne train with steel-on-steel).
Now I'm not saying your opinion is wrong, but really it needs to have some more substance to it than "motoring journos are right".
MY08 Passat 2.0 TDI Wagon
Trialling golf ball aerodynamics theory - random pattern, administered about 1550 on Christmas Day, 2011.
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