mazda 3 tiptronic shifting info

so i just picked up an 04 mazda 3 2.3L with tiptronic...just wondering if theres anyone out there who has the same car if you could share with me when you are shifting with the tip...by that i mean what rpm

if u wanted to manualy change gears, then you should have manned up and bought a manual.

OUCH!!!  That hurts....

I would treat it just like the manual.  Your best power crossover is right around 52-5300 rpm, but you can certainly shift at lower speeds than that.  I mean, who wants to shift that high all the time.

BTW: Welcome to the forum!! I also have an '04 2.3 HB.  (5-sp MTX though)
You may find out sooner or later that I call the tiptronic the Man-u-mati, so I may as well tell you now.  I've heard much worse...  Tit-tronic, i.e. 

yea like me, i let my balls hang low now since i got mine in manual its cool man. but you don't have to worry about when to shift you can shift whenever.

     I have an auto 05 2.3. It's the same engine as the 04 with only 4 gears. I always drive it in manual mode because you have more control of the car. If I want to save on gas or the engine is cold, I upshift as soon as possible. I am in 4th between 20-25mph. I don't really look at the RPM's. When the RPM is around 3000, that's when you feel more power. If you are doing tight lane changes or weaving in and out of traffic, it's best to stay above the 3000 range. You press the gas and feel the car pick up and go. The best gears to work in for lane changing are 2nd and 3rd. I have gotten a ticket for aggressive lane changing, 3 points. 
 
    The car wont allow you to upshift if it's too soon to. It will stay in the gear you are currently in until you reach a higher RPM. Downshifting is like a mirror effect. The car won't let you downshift if the lower gear will be too high in the RPM. It will blink the gear you are in. You can't downshift into first until you are around 25mph. You can't downshift into second until a little below 65mph. The car will NOT upshift automatically if you redline or go higher. I would forget sometimes that the car was in manual and i would accidently go above redline.
 
    I didn't know how to drive stick when i got the car and my dad was paying for it and he wanted me to have automatic. I also lived in Miami where there was constant traffic and having a manual was not an option. I now know how to drive manual and love it. I know that my next 3 will be manual. Unless mazda comes out with SMG and paddle shifters, then i'll choose that. Hope I've answered some questions.

paddle shifting..... *spits* unfortunatly it looks more and more like the days of the manual transmission are numbered, even in economy cars (new lancer for example) they are begining to offer paddle shifters. it disgusts me realy

paddle shifters are nice on 500hp plus cars luxury rockets (AMG mercedes, M series BMWs, etc), and the technology offered today is just as efficient, if not more than the manual transmissions of today.

but, as long as its offered, i will always opt for manual transmission.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lupae3s

paddle shifters are nice on 500hp plus cars luxury rockets (AMG mercedes, M series BMWs, etc), and the technology offered today is just as efficient, if not more than the manual transmissions of today.

but, as long as its offered, i will always opt for manual transmission.

Flappy paddle gearboxes are rubbish if you ask for me - for people with more money than driving skill...if you get my drift.

For fuel economy, upshift when your RPMs hit 3000.  Try to quickly get up to at least 3rd gear to get decent MPG.
 
Definitely downshift when your hitting the gas, and your RPMs are under 2250.
 
Never mind the idea that the manual will become extinct ... ANY transmission with gears will be going the way of the 8-track within 10-15 years.  The CVT is here, and with some additional evolution, will emerge as THE choice. 
 
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/techcenter/articles/45104/article.html
 
 

The manual trans will live on no matter what, and the future of CVT is not certain though. I truly like the dual-clutch automated transmission, (i.e. VW's DSG, direct shift gearbox, (TM)), and think CVT might have a tough time to compete with DSG. CVT might find its ways into low hp hybrids. I have started another thread for the dual-clutch trans., no torque converter, just gears and a dual clutch pack. It has three shafts, a co-axial input shaft, one shaft for even gears, and one shaft for odd gears and reverse. upshift time is 8 millisecond, 10 times faster that fastest human hands can do. 

I have driven vehicles with a CVT a few times, they are interesting, the main thing the current ones lack is giving the driver an ability to rev up the engine for torque/power, like we M3 owners have with a stick or the tiptronic.   I have read engineers are currently working to develop different ways to give the driver more input - perhaps a switch to flick (ie. economy versus performance mode), or a lever to move (the further you move the lever, the higher the engine revs when accelerating, but not beyond where maximum torque is delivered). 

They could try to make CVT more like a 21-speed bike with an array of cogs.....i have not driven a CVT, Urb, what would you do with CVR if you are in a hurry (like with MTX, you can drop down a gear or two)?

quote:

ORIGINAL: wineye

They could try to make CVT more like a 21-speed bike with an array of cogs.....i have not driven a CVT, Urb, what would you do with CVT if you are in a hurry (like with MTX, you can drop down a gear or two)?

 
If you had a "pure" CVT, you'd punch the gas, and you'd live with the performance the CVT chose to give you.  Which in my experience (since I tried punching the gas just to see) is not bad, but not great either, smoother and better than a non-tiptronic traditional geared auto, but the CVT certainly does not allow the engine to rev up much, which limits the power. 
 
Audi has a CVT available (they call it a multitronic transmission) in several of its models, which they purposely programmed to have 'slight hiccups' so that it would feel like it has gears when in fact it does not.  And it has a manual shift mode, which has 6 simulated gears, which functions just like the Mazda tiptronic, but since the gears are fake and no real shifting is occuring, there is no shift lag and thus better performance, with the additional plus being that rapidfire shifting activity puts virtually no additional strain on the tranny (versus what would be the case in a tranny with real gears).  Audi has had this out for about 4 or 5 years now in various models.
 
The Dodge Caliber (a mediocre car IMO, but nevertheless a cheaper production model on which you can get a CVT now), has what Dodge has dubbed a "CVT2" which gives the driver manual control with six simulated gears - marketed as the autostick® feature - which is a not very well disguised ripoff of the Audi idea.