I believe that this idea started with a press photo of the paddles on the wheel of a prototype car, both with a '+' mark on them. This looked odd to me, as it might require you to move one hand almost off the wheel to downshift, rather than just move one thumb and keep griping the rim. The USA Today review said you 'push and pull' the paddles to shift up and down! The C&D reviewer didn't say how they functioned. I would think that if the different reviewers actually drove the car they'd know how it worked, but then I don't placed a lot of trust in the slicks for good info - one is abviously wrong in this case. Like you said, we'll find out soon enough....