2005 Saab 9-3 Owner's Manual - Page 166

164 Starting and driving Sentronic, manual gear selection Move the selector lever to the manual position (M) (to the left position D) to select gear manually. Select a higher gear by pressing the selector lever forward or a lower gear by pulling it back. The selector lever will return to a position adjacent to the letter M after each gear change. An example of when you may wish to make manual gear changes is when overtaking, to enable you to remain in a low gear for an extended period of time. If the road surface is slippery, you may wish to start off in 2nd or 3rd to reduce the risk of wheel spin. When descending steep hills you should select a low gear to increase the braking effect of the engine and thus spare the brakes. Steering wheel controls for manual gear selection (optional on certain variants) Manual gear selections are displayed on the main instrument panel. The letter M and the current gear are displayed. When the selector lever is in the M position, as opposed to the D position, the engine is much more responsive to changes in accelerator position. The accelerator has a different feel. When changing down, the desired gear can be selected but the transmission will not change down until the engine speed is low enough to avoid overrevving. Certain variants also have steering wheel controls for manual gear selection. On these models, it is possible to change gear manually using the selector lever and the steering wheel controls. The steering wheel controls are only active when the selector lever is in the M position. Select a higher gear by pressing the right-hand button and a lower gear by pressing the left-hand button.