Kizashi Club

Question: when driving the kizashi, does it hurt the transmission any or car at all while shifting the stick over from auto to manual while in drive at speeds over 30?

It shouldn't do - why do you think it does, something you've read?

As I often find myself down-shifting into 5th around 80.......

@murcod: no, ive been doing this a few times since i bought one a week ago, plus this is my first car to own that has the manual option so i was wondering.

shouldn't be a problem, i sometimes even downshift to 4th at 80km/h XD

Keep in mind that the car doesn't actually have gears with a CVT. The six "gears" are actually just presets for the sensation of shifting. The transmission is not actually shifting into gear, but moving the belt to the preset position. The CVT is actually just a belt that continuously moves around for the optimal transmission ratio for the engine speed.

Either way, improper shifting in any transmission can damage the engine and transmission, especially if the engine revs are very high.
There are quite a few videos on youtube of guys blowing holes in their engines by mis-shifting (in a manual trans.) when their engine was in the red line zone. Transmissions gears can also get sheared when people rev hard and then dump the clutch. I've seen an example of this at a Subaru dealer with a STI transmission. Located right next to the sign that said no test drives for the STI.

the Kizashi even offers the ability to switch "gears" or downshift without switching to manual at anytime using the paddle shifters. This is great for highway driving when you need that extra boost. Just downshift to 4th and off you go.

You can flick it over to manual at any speed. The transmission will not let you downshift if the speed is too great. I don't necessarily recommend pushing it during break in. You may be surprised (and uncomfortable) when downshifting at how high the engine will rev but it will only let you downshift so much. In manual mode, go to "second", get in the upper rpm range and right before redline and try tapping into first. It won't do it. On upshifting in manual mode if you don't shift, you will bounce off the rev limiter. Once again I don't recommend driving around like this (at the upper limits) but when you use manual mode, the car with its pre-programmed gears, can be fun to experiment with.

When all is said and done, I'm not sure if you can do anything "faster" than just mashing down the pedal in auto mode, but it adds a different driving dynamic . I find myself mostly tapping down into off ramps and stops and shifting up as I take off from starts, then I get lazy and throw it in auto.

I'm not trying to get you to damage your vehicle, just trying to help you get to know it.

If anyone else has had experience contrary to mine, please advise.