Is Paddleshift Pointless?

I'm going to entertain the idea momentarily that there may be some better and more experienced drivers on here than me (of course, as a man I am not quite ready to concede that, but purely entertain it for a moment)...

I am trying to understand the point of Paddleshift..

I drive everywhere in Sport mode as the gearbox is a lot more responsive and as such provides smoother power delivery, more rapid progress is made, and there appears to be zero difference in terms of economy when tested over 6,000 miles against standard Drive mode.

If I decide to drive very aggressively, the car appears to notice that very quickly and will take me a certain point in the rev range before change of gear (I think it's about 4,500 RPM)...if I am driving more steadily, it changes gear before 4,500 RPM albeit later than in Standard Drive mode.

In an attempt to drive even more aggressively and take it to the top of the Rev Range, I switched to PaddleShift...but...the car (being far wiser and more sensible than me, and with self preservation in mind) changed up automatically when I hit 4,500 RPM (or whatever the 'change point' is for the Sport mode)...which meant PaddleShift became exactly the same as Sport mode.

Ahh...I hear you say...what if you are mid range in Sport mode and want to suddenly accelerate by knocking down a gear to overtake someone...well, a stamp of the foot in Sport mode does exactly that for you...no need for Paddleshift.

But what about engine braking facilitated by PaddleShift to speed up deceleration (if such a phrase is acceptable)...well, truth be told that it doesn't really work (the 911 does it very well, but I've not known any other Paddleshift to effectively support engine braking).

So am I missing something? Am I doing something wrong? Am I a worse driver than I think? (of course I am a worse driver than I think I am, that goes without saying, but am I even worse than that!)

And of course...if the Sport mode driving experience is so much better than Drive mode (which it is)...and it senses how your right foot is behaving and therefore how you wish the car to behave (which it does)...and the fuel economy is about the same (which it appears to be)...does that make 'Drive' mode redundant as well?

Can't comment on the Evoque as I've not got one yet, but based on when I had my RRS I'd say having the paddle-shift lets you anticipate what's coming, for example chaging down for a bend so you're ready to power out of it, or nudging the gearbox into a higher gear on a long stretch if you're not going to need the acceleration for a while.

Didn't tend to use 'S' much, but in 'D' I could usually get a significant increase in fuel economy by using the paddle shift rather than just leaving it to the box. In 'D' after a minute or so the box chages from Command Shift back to auto automatically, but if - for example - you were driving along in 'D' in 5th but then used the paddle shift to change up to 6th, even when the box switched back to auto it would stay in 6th for you until it really needed to be in 5th.

The paddles only get used in mine when I want to drop down in D to overtake somebody, 90% of the time they don't get used and might as well not be there.

EDIT - just realised that off course with the eye catching Jaguar rotary selector you have to have them to give you what is otherwise called Tiptronic in "Audispeak", also very useful off-road for you to prevent up-changes or down changes when you don't want them

Mostly pointless - I've had many autos with paddles, about the only use is to get into a lower gear for some engine braking when on longer hill descents. In theory they are supposed to faciliate more driver involvement but in truth the transmission electronics will override to protect the internals anyway/

I suspect many would privately admit that they had a play in the 1st couple of weeks and then settled for D or S mode and enjoyed the experience...

There are some kinds of transmissions where the paddles really work as intended - semi-auto sequential gearboxes for example.

In the three hours i drove a paddleshift car, I can honestly say i didnt use it once.

I use them quite a lot when I'm in D because it allows me to change up more quickly than the slow witted gearbox does. In sport, which I prefer, ( but its the same in D ) I find that on take off the gearbox defaults to second gear, which is why I believe many people complain of slow initial take off, so, whenever I need to make a quicker getaway I always paddle it into first.

I use them when towing and want to maintain a certain gear, otherwise I don't really use them day to day.

They work great in my 09 Acura TSX (European Honda Accord to ya'll) in fact I prob use them about 75-80% of the time.

I believe they are almost, but not quite, true sequential. When in 'D' mode, the car is in full auto mode and the paddles can be used to up or down shift when needed (like merging into traffic) but after a few seconds, the car returns to full auto mode.

In 'S' mode, the shifters, once activated and for the most part, will stay in whatever gear I select, up or down. The engine will not up shift when I hit the red line but it will downshift for me when I come to a complete stop. Note: I havent taken it all the way to red, but I've gotten pretty close many a times -the extreme engine reving reminds me to shift lol.

I was hoping the Evoque's 'S' mode would be like the TSX's. Guess this is not the case

This is pretty much how it works. I've not revved it so much as to force it to up gear but I have forgotten i've been in S mode the car has revved up and thats reminded me to shift.

I spend a lot of time in S mode shifting myself, not only for acceleration but at highway speeds I don't believe the car always selects the most fuel efficient gear. This and I'm used to using it after my Audi A3 had the same.

I don't think its pointless. Its for when I want 100% control or a bit more fun when driving.

I have a manual but test drove an auto. the problem I had with the auto was that I had set up the car for a fast bend, the balance and speed were spot on and I enterd the bend with a small amount of throttle to maintain the speed and hence the balance, then bugger me it changed up a gear which upset the balance. Not particularly dangerous in a road car unless you were on the limit but its not clever. This also happened in a friends BMW 3 series 335d, very unpleasant. Using the paddle shift stops this happeneing just like in a manual