Quote:
Originally Posted by Haldex
Thanks Quacker, always good to hear from you! What you wrote makes sense.. You just confirmed my worries though  Even though I won”t be towing - I tend to drive a bit aggressively - I am quite curious how will the overcomplicated DCT hold up to my foot.. Granted I intend on keeping a new car no longer than my current one - 4-5 yrs max. By that time cars as we know them may be extinct 
Checked with the dealer again today - they seem to have another model/drivetrain with DCT available for a test drive - I’ll have to satisfy my curiosity sometime next week before I part with €€..
Still eager to hear other forumers’ thoughts 👍 |
To put people's mind at ease, just in case my post alarmed, this type of transmission is increasingly being fitted to heavy road trucks and off-road agricultural tractors as well as cars. In big tractors the choice is often between a semi-powershift, which is like a car's automatic but with several ranges to give maybe 24 ratios from six powershift/automatic steps, or a full power-splitting CVT or the 8 speed plus four or more ranges for the powershift/automatic DCT transmissions. The semi-powershift and DCT transmissions tend to be more efficient on the road but the infinite ratios at fixed RPM of the CVT has distinct advantages for some workloads.
If you see a Fendt or current model JCB tractor it will have a CVT transmission. Other brands commonly give a choice of any of the three types, but never a manual transmission these days.
I have been very impressed by my Kia's transmission so far. It is impeccably smooth and very fast changing. Quite how it achieves that combination under all conditions is a mystery to me. Other brand's offerings are not known as the only other DCT's I've briefly tried were a Ford six speed and a VW seven speed in a Golf. As far as I could tell they were OK but both had a mixed reputation at the time, a few years ago.
In about five year's time, electric cars will probably be the best sellers and that does away completely with gearboxes as we know them today, basically only needing final drives. A great advance on IC engines in every way apart from refuelling at long distance. However yesterday's incident at the cross channel electric cable terminal which has led to a massive shortfall in UK capacity and an even greater increase in wholesale gas and electricity prices that is likely to last until around March '22 has highlighted the vulnerability and supply security issues of our National Grid's and its marginal generating capacity.