How does paddle shifters work?
 

The other day I was driving on a local street around 25MPH on auto Drive. I accidently hit one of the paddle shifters and the car stalled to almost a complete stop. I pulled the car off to the side, stopped, and started to drive away again. That was scary.

What happens when i drive at high speed (50+ MPH) on the freeway and accidently hit the paddle shifter? will the car grind to a halt?

What you probably did was hit the down shift lever. The car would have felt like you suddenly hit the brakes if you managed to down shift to 1st gear. On the highway the results wouldn't be as dramatic as you would simply drop from 7th to 6th, which you wouldn't even notice except that the RPM's would come up slightly. The car will not let you make an illegal gear change, i.e. one that would over-rev the engine or stall.

Hang on - you were in auto "Drive" mode, not in manual mode? In other words, there was a "D" (not 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7) displayed at the bottom of the tach when you hit the paddle shifter? If that was the case (i.e., you were in auto/D mode), then nothing should happen when you hit either of the paddle shifters and you should take your car in to the dealer to have it looked at!

VCuomo, that is incorrect. You can shift with the paddles even in auto mode! However, after you haven't shifted for a time while driving, the car resumes control over shifting. The same happens when you have been using the paddles in auto mode and brake to a stop and are waiting at a light.

That is absolutely correct. The car was in D as in Drive. I accidently touched the paddle shifter(most likely left paddle) and I could see it changed from D to 1 M.

I stopped the car, then it changed back to D automatically. I never touched anything else except the paddle shifter once by accident.

nothing to be afraid of, you just downshifted the car. Like Chris said, it wont be as dramatic at higher speeds, you'd just notice a raise in revs and if you left it alone, it'll go back to D on its own. the car is still ultimately an auto, so it wont stall or anything.
when your car is in D, the paddle shifters will still work, as you can see. i tend to downshift 1 or 2 gears when trying to get the revs up and then just leave it to shift back into D.
you should spend some time driving around and testing out the paddle shifters to get comfortable with them :)

:shakes head: Shouldn't this be part of the dealer orientation when you buy the car?

When I bought my car the dealer orientation consisted of giving me the car key and no manual, and sending me out the door...:ugh2:

thanks. i'll definitely find a quiet street to test it out soon.

Left paddle = Pass button.

Also, if you want the car to revert back to D mode, just switch the shifter to M and back to D real quick.