So I rented a Chevy Cruze on a recent vacation and it had the Triptronic or Sport Shift; whatever Chevy calls it where you slide the shifter over from drive and you can do the little plus minus thing. Sucks compared to a manual but whatever, I wanted to play with it anyways. However, I think it was setup backwards. On the Cruze away from me (forward, towards the dash) was UPSHIFT and towards me (backwards, away from the dash) was DOWNSHIFT. I swear this is backwards and I kept doing the opposite of what I wanted. But then I thought "GM is a huge company that has forgotten more about cars than I will ever know; how could they actually get a 'sequential' gear changer backwards?" So who's right? I still think forwards should be for downshifting and backwards for up-shifting....
P.S: The Cruze feels quick but it's only because 95% of the avaliable power is given to you in the first 5% of the gas pedal travel. To Chevy's credit I averaged like 34mpg and it actually handled the twisties pretty well.
No, they have it right, push up and pull down. 
They would handle better if they didn't come with 500TW all-seasons that berkeleying suck.
Pull back should be to upshift.
This is the way performance automatics are (PRN123) and it's the way every sequentual manual I've seen in-car footage of is laid out, too.
^ This, it's backwards from everything else.
For the simple minded you push forward to go forward. Pull back to slow down. For those that have never driven a manual this is intuitive to them. The problem is this is not intuitive to those that drive a standard as 99.9% of the gear box's out there the 1-2 shift is a pull down motion. The exceptions that I know of are the 928s4 and the 190e 2.3. I have driven both of these and it takes some getting use to a 1-2 shift in the up direction.
I prefer paddle shifters to the floor ones on manumatics for this reason.
mw
Dork
10/20/12 10:45 a.m.
On my dwarf car the shifter is right for upshift, left for down. I'm planning on switching to an up down arrangement, I will likely have back be upshift.
VW has it backward too. At least BMW got it right.
Pull back to "whoa', like on a horse? Push forward to "hammer down"? Maybe that helps to remember?
GM even screwed up the paddle shifters. On my Grand Prix both paddles operated the exact same way. Pull back to upshift and push away to downshift. In my mind the right paddle shifter should be for upshift and the left for downshift.
In all honesty I have to admit being a GM fanboi, and I loved that car. When the wife gets back form the store I'll have to go out and see how it's arranged in the Elantra. I have a feeling it's the same as in the Cruze.
Wife's Audi is the same way. Towards dash is up, towards you is down. Personally I think it's backwards and I have the worst time getting used to it.
Yep Elantra is the same way.
