Drove off the lot with a 2010 Fit Sport yesterday. Automatic. It's for the wife to go back/forth to work, shopping, etc. No high-performance driving, no road trips, no weaving through orange cones blasting rock music, etc.

She has no interest at all in paddle shifting, and in fact, wonders if she might on accident hit the paddle and up/down shift without intending to. Can those things be disabled?

Thanks. I look forward to participating in the forum.

 

I wouldn't disable them, they could potentially save your wife's life someday if she learns how to use them. Being able to control your gear can be crucial in certain situations.

 

The best way to disable them is not to use them. Use the hand lever on the counsole to put it in whatever gear you want and go. If you totally forget the paddles are there it drives like any other car with an automatic transmission.

 

Trade it for a Canadian Fit. We don't get the paddles on Sports.

 

I can't imagine hitting them accidentally, or causing a problem, even if I did; it's probably easier to accidentally push the shift selector to neutral reaching for a cup than it is to hit a paddle inadvertently.

In auto mode, the + paddle won't upshift if the car isn't going fast enough, and the - paddle will drop you only one gear; either way, it's a temporary change, and goes back to wherever the transmission wants to be depending on driving conditions.

Drive, don't worry. It's not a Toyota.

 

Well you can take a hacksaw & a pair of plyers............................................ .I'm quite sure if you remove the steering wheel center you will find the wiring, but why?
She might like jamm'en down on the RPM's and pick'n on some Toyotas!

 

super glue?

 

I thought that the Sport has an S position on the shifter that enables the paddles to emulate a manual tranny. However, if you leave the shifter in D the paddles don't function. I probably have that wrong, my car has three pedals for a reason....

 

yea you can drive in D (drive obviously) you can still use them, but if you tap it and dont do anything after it'll go back to the normal gear. the only reason for this i would imagine is for hills. and even in Sport (S) it drives like a regular auto until you engage in shifting or clicking i guess you call it, but once you do you have to use them to shift or you'll just rev forever

 

The paddles function in either D or S. In D, if you stop playing with them the transmission will resume shifting when it wants to. In S it stays in whatever gear you have selected.

Having driven multiple cars with 3 pedals, and multiple with automatics, I see no reason at all to play with paddles. The transmission shifts when it should. Crucial in certain situations? I can't think of any for shift paddles. Brakes and steering can be crucial. Maybe stomping the accelerator, but it'll downshift faster on it's own than I can think about hitting a paddle.

Paddles are silly.

 

I think the paddleshifters might be interesting to learn, but when we were test driving, my husband thought he was hitting cruise control & it was a paddleshifter instead & something changed & it felt like something was wrong with the car, but I think it just downshifted. But in some situations if someone's borrowing the car that could be dangerous if you expect to maintain your speed & suddenly go slower. We're proficient in driving...I think my husband's previous cars had cruise control in the same place as the paddle shifter & I also think some of the cruise control labels were close to the shifters.

 

Either ignore them or get a Sport (w/o paddles) or Base steering wheel.

 

I really wonder about them too? I really wanted to grab a Fit with a manual tranny to begin with. I was too impressed with the condition of the Fit offered to me, and the deal my dealer gave me, so I made the compromise and took a Fit with an automatic tranny. Anyhow compared to a car with a manual transmission, I don't see much benefit coming from the paddles.

 

I don't know how to drive manual, and hell I hardly knew what the paddles were for at first. I had to start a thread to have someone explain it to me lmao. But I wouldn't worry about 'accidentally' hitting them.

First of all, if you're in Drive, it'll just go back to where it's supposed to be in a few seconds. And let's say you're going the complete wrong speed and you hit a paddle, and the gear you've accidentally chosen will do something bad to the car, it won't even shift, it'll just flash the number at you in the display and go back to where it was. Kind of like a "no, bozo, this gear is bad, mmkay?" message from the car, hehe.

It's not like they're in the way of anything else. I don't use them except to downshift when I'm slowing down so I get rid of the little lurch on the way to a smooth stop. So I'm making progress! But they're nothing dangerous or that you need to disable. If you don't want to use them you don't have to.

 

They're better for gas mileage in stop and go traffic. Better for technical courses, with hills and turns.

 

The paddles are so that you can hear the sweet music of 6800 rpms of vtec on every gear even when you aren't at WOT. I personaly don't use the paddles too often. I do, however, like to shift (or rather move the gear selector) into sport before passing as it will cause the tranny to shift to the lowest available gear PRIOR to initiating the pass (unless you are going 55 mph or slower, in which case you will still need to pull the paddle to get down to 2nd) . Also, if one is trying to have some fun canyon carving, an automatic will upshift when you slow down to take a turn after the straightaway, but this is the opposite of what you want, so the paddles will allow you to remain in a lower gear throughout a turn without having to do a kickdown.

The paddles are useless in a drag race as they will not improve times over the computer comtrolled sport mode. It does allow you to bounce off the rev limiter though so you can pretend you have a manual. But, if you are actually concerned about straight line times, you shouldn't have got an auto to begin with. 0-60 is about 10.75 seconds in the auto. Brake torquing will oddly offer no improvement in launching either . You will get a slight advantage with an automatic if you turbo since it will continue to provide power through the shift but it still does not nearly make up for the drivetrain losses.

Anyway, I've strayed from the topic. The nice answer is, yes, you can disable them. The mean answer is "Illusory Superiority" If you can't handle an unexpected shift, then you certainly are not better than the average (or rather median) driver.

 

I doubt I can do a better job conserving fuel than the Fit's programming in stop and go. For control in technical courses I think you're absolutely right, but I'd feel silly having an automatic in those circumstances.

 

I think differently. In S mode and using the paddles you have a manual transmission without a clutch. You manually shift the gears !!

 

Try pulling out into a situation where you really need to get up and go or you could get hit by cross-traffic. Paddles are your best friend in this situation. Imagine you're being chased by somebody, paddles are your best friend in this situation. You don't have to get off on them, but don't go calling them silly. I agree that in most situations the tranny shifts when it should but you should get off your damn high horse.

 

Chased? I hope to god it's not in a Fit (with or without paddles). heh, the view is quite nice from up here neeeeeeiiighhhhhhhhh.