Why didn't you tell me automatics are so good!

[MikeGMT]

My second car, and first experience of a auto transmission was a GM 3 speed Opel Ascona. A nice car for it’s day. The only problem I had with it were it needed the vacuum modulator replacing twice. I remember one nice sunny afternoon driving past a pub with the beer garden full of people enjoying their drink, that was until I passed by, pressed the throttle and left a smoke screen the Red Arrows would be proud of. The vacuum modulator had failed allowing the engine to suck the transmission fluid into the intake.

[Thekilt]

I seem to remember somewhere (going to take a while trying to search for it given the parameters needed come up with loads of junk) but so many sports cars with high horse power need automatics as manuals are heavier and less reliable. With higher power comes more force needed to release the clutch (heavier pedal) which leads to nasty driving around towns, which is why so many older sports cars were pigs to drive at slow speeds.
Also with the driving characteristics of sports cars around tracks, drag racing etc takes their toll on clutches. The 911 is one of the very few high power cars you can get in a manual, but this article puts it quite well: https://www.motortrend.com/news/pors...-or-automatic/

That is for sports cars. However for average Joe mulling around town and back roads, I feel (as the article above mentions) you are free in an automatic to be more involved and more controlled. Any newer vehicles with a decent auto will be my pick, but each to their own. The next car I get as a run around which i am looking at in the next few months ready for winter will probably be a manual, purely because the price i want to pay and the year (pre 2010) manual is far better option than automatic variants.

[XC90Mk1]

Originally Posted by green van man

Does the number of gears really matter? More gears, more weight to carry around.

All my volvosges have been manual from my first 360 tof my xc70 via a v70, all had sufficient torque spread to not needed more gears than they had be it 5 or 6.
In fact my P1 v70 was apreaciably more frugal than my current P3 xc70, but that is due to emissions and safety legislation not its number of gears.

One has to ask why would a road car need 9 gears? In truth even with 6 I find I rarely need the lower 3 once on the move, 5 the and 6th are mostly all I need, 4th if uphill in a 30 zone,
420 Nm of torque largely makes a gearbox redundant..


Paul.

The number of gears does matter quite a lot yes as it allows you to constantly be in the correct rev range, and each gear is probably 1kg extra in weight.

Of course, once you go above 8 speeds for example how much difference does it make, not much I doubt.

[Baxlin]

Originally Posted by Bonefishblues

This. It's why CVT boxes are so designed.

Funnily enough, Mrs B’s CVT-boxed 1.2 supercharged Nissan is not as economical as my 1.4 turbo with a 7 speed DSG box

[Bonefishblues]

Originally Posted by Baxlin

Funnily enough, Mrs B’s CVT-boxed 1.2 supercharged Nissan is not as economical as my 1.4 turbo with a 7 speed DSG box

Supercharging is a recipe for consumption, by and large

[Sotosound]

I really enjoy the 8-speed automatic in my 2014 VEA-engined V70 D4.

The availability of 8-speeds means that the engine normally stays in a narrow rev band where there is little noise and loads of torque. Therefore, progress is very refined unless I'm in a real hurry.

This is a far cry from the old-style automatics wherein loads of engine compartment fury often took quite a while to be translated into forward motion.

Another bonus from having 8 speeds is that it's possible to have a very, very high top gear of well over 40mph/1000 rpm. This is more than twice as long a top gear as the one that I had in my first car, which was a Ford Zephyr Mk 4 V4, complete with column gearchange, and it makes for extremely quiet motorway cruising.

A bonus of having a Geartronic gearbox is that one can waft around in Normal Mode, or change the whole character of the throttle and gearbox relationship to a sporty one by using Sport Mode. Sport Mode even seems to tighten up handling a bit because the engine and gearbox take a more active role in braking.

In terms of economy, I can't say whether or not a manual gearbox would give greater economy, but I can say that over the years, and for most cars, there seems to have been an ever-widening gap between official figures and what's actually achievable.

If economy were that significant to me, however, then I'd buy a Toyota Aygo. After all, to be honest, the main influences on fuel economy are size of car, size and power of engine, and driving style, not choice of transmission.

I chose an automatic because it's what I prefer to drive, but I'd have one of each, however, if I had the cash, as I also like the feel of a well-sorted manual gearbox.

[green van man]

Originally Posted by Baxlin

Not sure, Paul, so just guessing, but by staying in one gear, you are using a wider rev range. However, I would have thought that on the basis that constant engine speed running is more frugal, having more gears means a smaller variation in revs, keeping revs ‘in the sweet spot’, particularly with the almost imperceptible gear changes made by DSG-boxed cars.

Malcolm

Indeed on a camy engine with narrow power band I would agree. I have built and driven such engines with no power or torque to speak of below 4000 ram.

But take volvo D5 with polestar optimisation. My 175 D5 was transformed to 195 +20 bap and not worth talking about ready, what made the huge difference and truly transformed the car was the uping of the torque to 420Nm and the distinct flattening of the torque curve. This engine produces max torque at 1700rpm, because the curve is flattened it is still producing max torque far higher up the rev range. In comparison my landrover discovery produces 113 bhp and about 150Nm of torque. That thing you do have to row along on the gears, especially if towing.

I took a roundabout in third gear when on an advanced driving lesson in the volvo, my instructor said afterwards, I thought you had stuffed it there when you went into the roundabout in 3rd, I would of needed 2nd at least in my car, this thing has amazing torque doesn't it.

Paul.

[ustari]

Can't see myself ever having an automatic as a daily car ever again. Particularly the newer autos that give you the benefits of manual when needed.

[Bonefishblues]

Originally Posted by ustari

Can't see myself ever having an automatic as a daily car ever again. Particularly the newer autos that give you the benefits of manual when needed.

Are you sure you said what you intended?

[Whippy]

Originally Posted by Bonefishblues

Are you sure you said what you intended?

Yeah, no, but, I think I know what he means, I've got 'flappy paddles' too and while I'm more than happy to let the box do its thing, it's nice occasionally to be able to override it.