Touring with Sport mode transmission operation

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Mazda CX5 Touring with PEP
I have done one test drive of a 2017 CX5 touring, I might be a buyer on say Monday or Tuesday. During my test drive I put the vehicle into Sport mode to see how it reacted. Once was on a 2 lane residential road with a limit of 35mph, and I noticed that the vehicle settled into a bout 4000 rpm or so and would not shift up unless i gave it more throttle which would have put me up to 50mph in the 35 zone to get the up shift. Not feasible for the location so I popped out of Sport and back to normal. Next opportunity was merging onto a freeway, so I hit the button and floored it and the vehicle was a bit more responsive, not something that knocked my socks off, but the shift pattern kind of elongated and was ringing out every ounce of power to hit the next shift point.

My question is, is it best practice to hit the Sport button and then slap stick it to the left and control shift points manually or leave it alone and let the computer do the thinking? I drove standard shift vehicles from 1983 to 2010, so am real familiar with the sound/ feel/ need to shift dynamic that makes driving a standard shift fun. My MX5 is the auto with slap stick and paddle shifters, I suck at the paddle shifters, slap stick works for me much better.
 
I have done one test drive of a 2017 CX5 touring, I might be a buyer on say Monday or Tuesday. During my test drive I put the vehicle into Sport mode to see how it reacted. Once was on a 2 lane residential road with a limit of 35mph, and I noticed that the vehicle settled into a bout 4000 rpm or so and would not shift up unless i gave it more throttle which would have put me up to 50mph in the 35 zone to get the up shift. Not feasible for the location so I popped out of Sport and back to normal. Next opportunity was merging onto a freeway, so I hit the button and floored it and the vehicle was a bit more responsive, not something that knocked my socks off, but the shift pattern kind of elongated and was ringing out every ounce of power to hit the next shift point.

My question is, is it best practice to hit the Sport button and then slap stick it to the left and control shift points manually or leave it alone and let the computer do the thinking? I drove standard shift vehicles from 1983 to 2010, so am real familiar with the sound/ feel/ need to shift dynamic that makes driving a standard shift fun. My MX5 is the auto with slap stick and paddle shifters, I suck at the paddle shifters, slap stick works for me much better.

i think it depends on the driving situation. the computer does a good job of deciding when to shift gears on it's own, but sometimes you would want to shift yourself, like for example you are going around a bunch of corners and want to hold the car in a lower gear. so it depends on your preference and what sort of driving you are doing. generally, I would leave the sport mode only for when you are doing lots of cornering which optimally requires that you stay at a higher RPM.
 
I have done one test drive of a 2017 CX5 touring, I might be a buyer on say Monday or Tuesday. During my test drive I put the vehicle into Sport mode to see how it reacted. Once was on a 2 lane residential road with a limit of 35mph, and I noticed that the vehicle settled into a bout 4000 rpm or so and would not shift up unless i gave it more throttle which would have put me up to 50mph in the 35 zone to get the up shift. Not feasible for the location so I popped out of Sport and back to normal. Next opportunity was merging onto a freeway, so I hit the button and floored it and the vehicle was a bit more responsive, not something that knocked my socks off, but the shift pattern kind of elongated and was ringing out every ounce of power to hit the next shift point.

My question is, is it best practice to hit the Sport button and then slap stick it to the left and control shift points manually or leave it alone and let the computer do the thinking? I drove standard shift vehicles from 1983 to 2010, so am real familiar with the sound/ feel/ need to shift dynamic that makes driving a standard shift fun. My MX5 is the auto with slap stick and paddle shifters, I suck at the paddle shifters, slap stick works for me much better.

It is a normal trait for the CX-5 (or any other 6 speed Mazda auto transmission with sport mode) not to shift into say 5th or 6th when sport mode is engaged because it is holding the revs around the peak power and torque band in anticipation of more urgent throttle inputs.

IMHO use sport mode when necessary such as merging onto freeways or overtaking and at other times leave it in normal mode which is fine under most circumstances and you get better fuel economy.
 
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My question is, is it best practice to hit the Sport button and then slap stick it to the left and control shift points manually or leave it alone and let the computer do the thinking? I drove standard shift vehicles from 1983 to 2010, so am real familiar with the sound/ feel/ need to shift dynamic that makes driving a standard shift fun. My MX5 is the auto with slap stick and paddle shifters, I suck at the paddle shifters, slap stick works for me much better.

With Sport mode on, I usually control the shifting when operating at higher speed. For example, sport mode on and merging into the highway where the car could be in 3rd or 4th gear. In this scenario, I am fine with manually controlling the shifts if I want to.

When driving with Sport mode on and operating at a lower speed, like when the car is in 2nd gear or even 1st gear, I leave the transmission in auto mode if going WOT for the most efficient gear shifts. I used to manually control the shifts even at lower speed, but I have found that at times I don't shift fast enough to shift to avoid the RPM cutoff. Since there is a slight delay between flicking the shifter and the gear shift actually happening, it is tricky especially when going WOT in 1st gear to get the perfect shift.
 
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