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Doesn’t most automatic transmissions have that? My old VW Touran have paddles on the wheel for changing gears. I only use it when driving down steep hills thoug

by Thlom 8y ago

Doesn’t most automatic transmissions have that? My old VW Touran have paddles on the wheel for changing gears. I only use it when driving down steep hills though.

sebazzz 8y ago
Older automatics (my previous Opel/Vauxhall Astra G) had 3 modes, two being for slopes. But not always manually choosing the gear you like, which modern automatic transmissions do appear to have.
- esaym 8y ago
  Nearly every automatic transmission pre-2000's was a basic double planetary gear system. Which means you got 3 gears. So normally you'd have a gear selector of 'park'-'reverse'-'neutral'-'drive'-'2'-'1' where 2 and 1 were the actual gears that you could force the transmission into for increased engine breaking (for going down mountains so you don't melt your brakes). Or sometimes for low traction, you could leave it in '2' which would make it harder to spin the tires. After 1980, an 'overdrive' gear was added to most transmissions. "Overdrive" in this sense means that for one turn of the input shaft, the output shaft would turn slightly more than one. After the early 2000's, we started to see the introduction of 3 and 4 planetary gear sets bringing the total gears anywhere from 6 to 9.
NikolaNovak 8y ago
Yes, but automatics with "paddle shifts" have very soft transition and very soft/delayed gas pedal reaction; whereas dual-clutch/sequential with "paddle shifts" have very fast transition and very straight gas pedal reaction. The true automatics, or CVT, there's limited need (or fun:) in paddle shifts outside of hills, poor traction, etc. For sequential/dual-clutch, paddle shift operation is direct... and fun :)
- rootusrootus 8y ago
  The only thing going away faster than the manual at this point are dual clutch transmissions. Never really perfected in most instances, and the latest slushboxes actually outperform them. Faster shifts, more reliable, cheaper. I prefer my manual very much, but I have to hand it to the engineers, they've turned what used to be a performance-killing design into the best you can buy.
  - NikolaNovak 8y ago
    Hmm Is there a car in price range of golf gti that has that level of gas pedal responsiveness? I would love to take it for a test drive and see if my skepticism is warranted :)
    - rootusrootus 8y ago
      Well, unless you're looking to actually buy, who says it has to be in the right price range? ;-)
      - NikolaNovak 8y ago
        I am though- need to replace my manual wrx with something fun that my wife can drive :)
        rootusrootus 8y ago
        I can't really help, then, I'm not really familiar with what the state of the art in four-cylinder hot hatches are at this point (and in any case, Subaru will not be leading edge in that regard; I have loved all my Subarus, especially my two STIs, but automatics are definitely not something Subaru is any good at). The newer A8 and A10s that GM uses in their performance cars (and Ford in some cases), as well as the latest stuff from MB, are fantastic automatics. Until this latest generation came along, I assumed DCT was the future. Now I'd be surprised to see it hang on much more than a few more years before being phased out.

by Thlom 8y ago

Doesn’t most automatic transmissions have that? My old VW Touran have paddles on the wheel for changing gears. I only use it when driving down steep hills though.

sebazzz 8y ago

Older automatics (my previous Opel/Vauxhall Astra G) had 3 modes, two being for slopes. But not always manually choosing the gear you like, which modern automatic transmissions do appear to have.

esaym 8y ago
Nearly every automatic transmission pre-2000's was a basic double planetary gear system. Which means you got 3 gears. So normally you'd have a gear selector of 'park'-'reverse'-'neutral'-'drive'-'2'-'1' where 2 and 1 were the actual gears that you could force the transmission into for increased engine breaking (for going down mountains so you don't melt your brakes). Or sometimes for low traction, you could leave it in '2' which would make it harder to spin the tires. After 1980, an 'overdrive' gear was added to most transmissions. "Overdrive" in this sense means that for one turn of the input shaft, the output shaft would turn slightly more than one. After the early 2000's, we started to see the introduction of 3 and 4 planetary gear sets bringing the total gears anywhere from 6 to 9.

NikolaNovak 8y ago

Yes, but automatics with "paddle shifts" have very soft transition and very soft/delayed gas pedal reaction; whereas dual-clutch/sequential with "paddle shifts" have very fast transition and very straight gas pedal reaction. The true automatics, or CVT, there's limited need (or fun:) in paddle shifts outside of hills, poor traction, etc. For sequential/dual-clutch, paddle shift operation is direct... and fun :)

rootusrootus 8y ago
The only thing going away faster than the manual at this point are dual clutch transmissions. Never really perfected in most instances, and the latest slushboxes actually outperform them. Faster shifts, more reliable, cheaper. I prefer my manual very much, but I have to hand it to the engineers, they've turned what used to be a performance-killing design into the best you can buy.
- NikolaNovak 8y ago
  Hmm Is there a car in price range of golf gti that has that level of gas pedal responsiveness? I would love to take it for a test drive and see if my skepticism is warranted :)
  - rootusrootus 8y ago
    Well, unless you're looking to actually buy, who says it has to be in the right price range? ;-)
    - NikolaNovak 8y ago
      I am though- need to replace my manual wrx with something fun that my wife can drive :)
      - rootusrootus 8y ago
        I can't really help, then, I'm not really familiar with what the state of the art in four-cylinder hot hatches are at this point (and in any case, Subaru will not be leading edge in that regard; I have loved all my Subarus, especially my two STIs, but automatics are definitely not something Subaru is any good at). The newer A8 and A10s that GM uses in their performance cars (and Ford in some cases), as well as the latest stuff from MB, are fantastic automatics. Until this latest generation came along, I assumed DCT was the future. Now I'd be surprised to see it hang on much more than a few more years before being phased out.