Joining the party late on the shift knob debate but I have now had my MY14 for 3 weeks and think the knob is perfectly fine in the LR4.
I can easily be turned into sport mode when in a sticky situation and needing to squirt through traffic with a couple taps of the flappy paddles.
Most days I drive the truck in sport mode. Call it habit out of having sports sedans with the paddles and using them. Don't care too much for the vehicle deciding when it wants to shift.
In terms of using the transmission to slow the vehicle down going down a hill, I again do this on a daily basis going down a hill my my town on the way to the gym. Kick it down to 4th and she will stay at 35 on the dot all the way down the quarter mile hill with no fuss and once I get to the bottom just tap the paddle to shift back up to 7 or 8th gear and roll on along.
I will say the only struggle I have had is trying to break the ingrained nature of the BMW iDrive controller which at times has almost caused an issue as I want to Zoom Out and I reach for the knob thinking I am controlling the Navigation. Could end badly, lets hope not.
I can easily be turned into sport mode when in a sticky situation and needing to squirt through traffic with a couple taps of the flappy paddles.
Most days I drive the truck in sport mode. Call it habit out of having sports sedans with the paddles and using them. Don't care too much for the vehicle deciding when it wants to shift.
In terms of using the transmission to slow the vehicle down going down a hill, I again do this on a daily basis going down a hill my my town on the way to the gym. Kick it down to 4th and she will stay at 35 on the dot all the way down the quarter mile hill with no fuss and once I get to the bottom just tap the paddle to shift back up to 7 or 8th gear and roll on along.
I will say the only struggle I have had is trying to break the ingrained nature of the BMW iDrive controller which at times has almost caused an issue as I want to Zoom Out and I reach for the knob thinking I am controlling the Navigation. Could end badly, lets hope not.