I had an AutoStick in my previous car, a 2000 Stratus ES V-6. You don't need to let off the gas to shift, just keep your foot in it when you slap up to the next gear. I used to shift up through the gears similarly to using a manual - let's face it, in normal driving you don't run a manual up to redline for every shift. Your shift points depend on how hard you're accelerating.
I also used the AutoStick to downshift when passing or approaching corners, slowing in traffic, etc. Same sort of situations where you'd downshift a manual, just no clutch pedal involved.
It's kind of like a sequential gearbox on a motorcycle; you can't skip a gear when you shift in either direction. I used to drop from 5th straight to 3rd under real heavy breaking in my old manual gearbox BMW 3 Series, so doing the double slap in the same situation with the AutoStick Stratus took some getting used to. You can have a good deal of fun with it, but in all honesty it's almost more of a toy. I mean that in a good way! I liked it, but don't really miss it with the PT either.
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