Add new comment

I really wanted those paddles, as a former stick driver, in mountain driving. But ended up buying a Foz with only D-L, and no paddles. My manual car prior did what manuals do for drivers who can manage a stick - brakes went ~90k before service. The motor didn't care about holding speed on downhills, and lasted well. And the gearbox was still 100% after 200k+miles. The CVT Subaru without manual paddles, though, is pretty darn good at predicting what you want it to do. I'm impressed. It's the only "modern" auto that I've come down big grades with, that held speed without some manual gear selection. It seems to note what speed you want, and downshift to what gets you that speed. It doesn't try to upshift aggressively like modern autos, but is very responsive, in an anticipatory way, toward what your desired speed is. You're relying a lot on programming to do what you could do with a stick, but Subaru has done a pretty amazing job of constructing that programming.