That's about what I would be thinking. There are two sources of heat that you can get around that area. 1) Your A/C piping. There is no insulation on the pipe going to the rear vents. As a result, if you turn the heat up on your A/C, your centre console area will heat up. This is also a good thing though cause if you have your A/C on cold, you can turn your console box into a cool box. 2) The bulb used for giving that green illumination around the shifter. As you can see in the above photo, it is in the exact spot that you have shown. As scootastaxisx6 said, it is quite possible that moving the shifter into that position can somehow create more heat. But I wouldn't say it's because of creating a gap... rather minimising the gap. I would say it's because the plastic that covers the shifter area moves to the right when you put it into 'S' mode and when you put plastic closer to the bulb instead of an air gap, you create more heat. Much like when you hold your hand 1 metre from a bulb, it barely feels the heat, but when you put it close to the bulb, it will warm up. On mine... I have no heat. ... but then again, I have an LED replacement there.