Something neat and totally unnecessary I noticed about the shifter
 

When you press the shifter buttons, it responds with haptic feedback. It's a nice touch but the buttons already give a nice satisfying click, so what's the point? Good on the Audi bean counters to leave that feature in though, I wonder how much more expensive the shift knob is because of this.

I'm so confused. The only button my shifter has is the "P" park button?

I'm confused.

yep :confused:

@belzebutt is talking about the shifter release button (silver) that you press with your thumb in order to shift. But, it's not actually haptic feedback – what you're feeling is the solenoid releasing to allow the mechanism to actually shift. Even though it's electronic and not mechanical, the shifter has a locking mechanism to prevent accidentally bumping it with your hand and shifting into Neutral while at speed, for example. When you press the release button with your thumb, it allows the shifter to move and tell the transmission to actually change gears.

Ahh... I figured it wasn't feedback when I realized later it doesn't actually happen unless you're sitting in Park on the driveway. It feels like a phone vibrating.

What I'm more impressed about is if you have it in manual mode and shut off the car, the shifter returns to the D mode automatically.

Thats my favorite “extra”.

I need to start using that capability more!

Unlike my past BMW's that you could easily knock into neutral if you hand is on the shifter and you hit a bump. Poor implementation.