Greetings from the frozen north
 

Just picked up a new 2013 nc hdtp convert last week in Mpls. Grand Touring model has lots of fun stuff; mine is bone stock and will likely stay that way. One crazy option: this is an automatic transmission - the car has paddle shifters for the manual mode !

Welcome to the forum!

What are the additional options that come with the Grand Touring?

Does the paddle shifter take full control of the shifting or does the ECU override your decisions sometimes? In other words, does it hold a gear at redline if you tell it to or does it go ahead and upshift against your commands?

Paddle shifter
 

The paddle takes you right up through the six gears. It does hold the gear - does not revert to automatic. Only difference no clutch. Have to be careful when downshifting and will take some practice. You better be Really slow when you drop it into 1st !!! Preferably with no one behind you !
The 2013 brochure is here http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/disp...hicleCode=MX5:

I could not find the paddle shifter listed in the options / packages.

I drove a rental car with paddle shifters on the track once and I had trouble with the paddles not being where my hands were if I was in the middle of a turn. I expect that practice and increased familiarity would have helped.