[NOLA Saints]

I was curious as to how this works.

I assume you just hit "-" to down shift and "+" to hit lower gears. I also assume this is done just by hitting the buttons without having to take your foot off the gas pedal or anything, right?

 

[JRacer]

You can not use the manual gear switching if the transmission is in standard drive (D). It must be in a lower gear for it to work. Also you can set it at a gear number and it will not shift higher. So you can then use the transmission as a 4 or 5 speed instead of the 6 speed.

The salesman told me about using it when we test drove the vehicle. I tried it and it appeared to work as he said. I definitely was not able to use it once I shifted the transmission into "D".

You are right as far as just pushing the buttons without letting off the gas. I do believe there may be a computer program that will not let it downshift to soon as to not over rev the motor or tear up the transmission.

 

[Joe-drum]

curious!
what does making your car a 4 or 5 speed do?
and after reading manuals ,they don't really say you can use the buttons on the shifter
as a manual type shift .
does anyone really know about this?because all my dealers i went to did not.

 

[JRacer]

You can use the buttons to shift the transmission up or down while driving as long as you have the transmission selector in the position before Drive(D). The gear numbers will show up on the display each time you push one of the shifter buttons "-" or "+". If you push the "+" button 4 or 5 times selecting say gear 4 or 5 before you take off then the transmission will not shift past that gear, making it act like a 4 or 5 speed automatic. This can save alot of up and down shifting of the transmission when your driving around town.

 

[Joe-drum]

what's the purpose and benefits
does it help the gas mpg or hurt it?

 

[Guest]

so lets say i drop it in "L" and i select 4, does it then shift differently or dows it shift the same just stop shifting at 4, it i keep it in 4 will it shift less like my four speed yukon xl or will it just sound like a a manual left in 4 needing to shift.

 

[JRacer]

It's supposed to shift like a normal auto transmission but not shift past the 4th gear. So when your in town it won't shift as much making your transmission work less.

 

[mss42]

is this similar to the overdrive function?

 

[Guest]

It's supposed to shift like a normal auto transmission but not shift past the 4th gear. So when your in town it won't shift as much making your transmission work less.

cool .

it is not really like over drive, it just lets you select the range of gears it can shift in to, like if i select 2 it will not go past second gear but will shift down to 1 when you slow down, so it is not a true MANUMATIC tranny.

 

[NOLA Saints]

I guess my main question is:

Can you manually down shift to pass a car (for example) once you set the gear range?

 

[gavine]

Here's the deal. You can downshift and upshift as you please (within limits). However, the unique set-up of the Enclave is that if you start in, let's say 3rd gear, it will shift automatically through 1st and 2nd and then stay in 3rd until you upshift or downshift manually. Other cars with manu-matics won't let you start in anything but 1st gear and you have to manually shift everytime you come to a stop.

I like starting-out in 3rd to let the transmission worry about 1st and 2nd gear automatically and then I take over from 3rd through 6th.

If you start-out in 6th, it will be fully automatic.

 

[antique]

Here's the deal. You can downshift and upshift as you please (within limits). However, the unique set-up of the Enclave is that if you start in, let's say 3rd gear, it will shift automatically through 1st and 2nd and then stay in 3rd until you upshift or downshift manually. Other cars with manu-matics won't let you start in anything but 1st gear and you have to manually shift everytime you come to a stop.

I like starting-out in 3rd to let the transmission worry about 1st and 2nd gear automatically and then I take over from 3rd through 6th.

If you start-out in 6th, it will be fully automatic.


My Mazda3 while in manual mode-shiftronic will allow me to start in 2 but I need to shift to 3rd and 4th as I accelerate. Never tried to start from 3rd, but I think it will not start in 1st and shift to 2nd than hold in 3rd until I shift it to 4th.

 

[txag93]

Most automatics (not related to the manumatic in the Enclave) will start in 2nd gear (skip first) if you choose 2nd. This is an ice/mud gear. Not sure how the Buick truly behaves, it might be skipping 1st altogether if you choose 2.

 

[osli]

However, the unique set-up of the Enclave is that if you start in, let's say 3rd gear, it will shift automatically through 1st and 2nd and then stay in 3rd until you upshift or downshift manually. Other cars with manu-matics won't let you start in anything but 1st gear and you have to manually shift everytime you come to a stop.

Not all that unique... many Mercedes transmissions have behaved this way going back over twenty years.

 

[gavine]

Most automatics (not related to the manumatic in the Enclave) will start in 2nd gear (skip first) if you choose 2nd. This is an ice/mud gear. Not sure how the Buick truly behaves, it might be skipping 1st altogether if you choose 2.

The Enclave ALWAYS

 

[gavine]

Most automatics (not related to the manumatic in the Enclave) will start in 2nd gear (skip first) if you choose 2nd. This is an ice/mud gear. Not sure how the Buick truly behaves, it might be skipping 1st altogether if you choose 2.

If you select 3rd gear from the start, the car will start-out in 1st and shift automatically to 2nd and 3rd and then from there, you take over.

 

[raftdoc]

There appears to be an engine protection algorithm the car's computer uses that doesn't allow you to downshift to a gear that would result in too high an rpm for the engine to take safely. Based only on my observations of its behavior rather than any technical research/reading, this software also plays a role when you move the shift lever from D to L, downshifting to the lowest gear the computer feels comfortable with as a starting point for your manual selection. As a consequence, when preparing to pass or doing some other acceleration maneuver, simply moving the shift lever from D to L effectively downshifts for you. You then either manually upshift or move the shift lever back to D as the car accelerates to accomodate the higher speed and off you go.

 

[Guest]

There appears to be an engine protection algorithm the car's computer uses that doesn't allow you to downshift to a gear that would result in too high an rpm for the engine to take safely. Based only on my observations of its behavior rather than any technical research/reading, this software also plays a role when you move the shift lever from D to L, downshifting to the lowest gear the computer feels comfortable with as a starting point for your manual selection. As a consequence, when preparing to pass or doing some other acceleration maneuver, simply moving the shift lever from D to L effectively downshifts for you. You then either manually upshift or move the shift lever back to D as the car accelerates to accomodate the higher speed and off you go.

THANKS for that info, i haven't tried it on the enclave yet, IF I COULD EVER TEST DRIVE ONE, anyway, i think that most vehicles have that now, when i ask for power at a low speed i usally down shift, auto or manual (yes i know how to drive a stick), and in my yukon xl when i down shift her it didn't really shift back to first gear until i let off the peddle and it slowed down alittle bit, its a great feature, so if i mess up and do it to soon it wond hurt the tranny.

 

[gjgalati]

There appears to be an engine protection algorithm the car's computer uses that doesn't allow you to downshift to a gear that would result in too high an rpm for the engine to take safely. Based only on my observations of its behavior rather than any technical research/reading, this software also plays a role when you move the shift lever from D to L, downshifting to the lowest gear the computer feels comfortable with as a starting point for your manual selection. As a consequence, when preparing to pass or doing some other acceleration maneuver, simply moving the shift lever from D to L effectively downshifts for you. You then either manually upshift or move the shift lever back to D as the car accelerates to accomodate the higher speed and off you go.

I have asked this question to my dealer and none of the sales people had an answer. Based on what was said above it sounds like if I am driving 60 mph down a 2 lane hwy and decide I need to downshift in order to pass someone quickly, I can shift the lever from D to L and this will downshift for me to a gear which will not overload the engine/tranny and then I can manually up :clap:shift using the +/- rocker? Is this correct. If so that's awsome!!! :clap:

 

[mss42]

NOW, what i am getting from this is that this car can go either way (manual vs automatic). the problem w/this is i do not know how to drive a stick shift and therefore would have problems trying to downshift to pass a car. this is an interesting concept since my volov just takes off at the slightess tap of the gas pedal. :-\