With commensurately big repair bills?My 2015 Volkswagen with automatic transmission does engine breaking automatically.
Is there a manual engine braking option? (as opposed to the car doing it automatically)
With commensurately big repair bills?My 2015 Volkswagen with automatic transmission does engine breaking automatically.
They certainly are. Mine has 6 speeds, the top gear is only suitable after 50mph. At the UK limit of 70 mph the engine is turning at about 1800 rpm, indicated. It has to be because with a theoretical max speed of 155mph this equates to ~4000 rpm which is about max power (probably actually coming at 4250 or so), with the redline coming at 4500 (it's a big diesel).For those of us not in Germany, a lot of the engine/gearbox range is unusable due to speed limits off a racetrack. Cars are getting ridiculously fast.
Yeah and as one of the best gearbox/gearchanges in modern times the EP3 should be a joy in any situation.Sick of manuals? No, not at all. Still quite happy with my 03 EP3 Type R
Granted now that I'm retired it is now a toy / errand runner / mtb and canoe hauler.
I never minded it in traffic. Traffic jams, any manual sucks, but the worst I've had is a heavily modified CRX. Clutch was a stage away from on / off and the flywheel lightened and balanced. That thing was a beast in stop and go but otherwise pretty docile on the street. Track was where it came alive though.
Ford have always had really good gearboxes, I don't know why. Other manufacturers must know but don't seem to be able to perform the same trick. The list is long - Type 9, aside from its ratios which were geared around sales reps on the motorway at 90 at one end and getting heavy caravans moving at the other, with the others tossed in at random, was lovely to use. The earlier Type 4 4 speed was reckoned to be better again. I remember the early FWD boxes in the Fiesta, both 4 and 5 speed, having lovely shift quality. The Puma being a Fiesta in a party frock, I'm not surprised that the gearbox was a delight. I never had one, a shame. At the time I was doing big trips to the hills most weekends, it wouldn't suit, so I ended up with rather boring saloons to lug all the kit.Conversely, when I had my Ford Puma (best manual gearbox ever and I've had a few) it was a joy to stir and pick the right gear, especially on twisty country roads.
Maybe 'lurched' is a bit OTT, but I've driven several and they all behave exactly the same. There's nothing to sense a bend coming so there's no guarantee it'll be in the right gear mid-bend, which it often isn't. In normal driving its not much of an issue but its enough for me to disagree with those who assert that the ZF auto is 'perfect'.
Nothing beyond routine maintenance as of yet.With commensurately big repair bills?
Is there a manual engine braking option? (as opposed to the car doing it automatically)
If it had 6 ratios, it can't be a CVT, surely?On the first part, yes. but I wonder if criticism of CVT automatics depends on details. I have only had one - an Audi A6 with a V6 2.5L diesel engine and a multitronic gearbox. It was the 6-ratio version and used a chain rather than a belt. I ran the car for 175,000 miles and had the ATF changed on schedule. There were rumours of unreliability, and during the warranty period I did indeed get the "flashing PRNDS" problem which Audi fixed. Otherwise it worked perfectly. I thought that this CVT gearbox was good.
As was pointed out to me when I was training, most people behind the wheel aren't drivers, but pedestrians in a hurry to get somewhere with the least effort and concentration. Road markings? Signs? Stop lines? Parking safely? Driver stuff, not for me! And if you view others (or maybe even yourself if you are honest) it explains a lot.But let's be honest: the vast majority of people driving on the roads are not driving for pleasure, but rather because they need to be somewhere. For that use-case, an automatic is better than a manual... assuming that using a car is your only viable option.
The multitronic box, IIUC, combines automatically selected fixed ratios with the usual (but chain-driven) conical pulley variable ratio arrangement via its software, to achieve a stepless continuously variable gear ratio. My experience was that this way of making a CVT does work well. But yes, perhaps I should have thought that people might be thinking of a CVT as just a pure conical pulley type and made this clearer.If it had 6 ratios, it can't be a CVT, surely?
I'm an automatic fan and was even when the choice in Europe was mostly crappy, British built 3 speed Borg-Warners. Guess what? Auto's has improved tremendously since then, nothing has happened to the 19'th century invention, manual gearboxes.
Still, my current car is manual, thankfully with 'only' 5 speeds to stir around with. An ordinary family car should have 4 speeds, only extreme sport cars should need 5.
.. you have a word or two missing there. Explains what?If it had 6 ratios, it can't be a CVT, surely?
As was pointed out to me when I was training, most people behind the wheel aren't drivers, but pedestrians in a hurry to get somewhere with the least effort and concentration. Road markings? Signs? Stop lines? Parking safely? Driver stuff, not for me! And if you view others (or maybe even yourself if you are honest) it explains a lot.
Only this morning driving my C4 6 speed manual. The high economy gearing is no fun.I'm an automatic fan...
... my current car is manual, thankfully with 'only' 5 speeds to stir around with. An ordinary family car should have 4 speeds, only extreme sport cars should need 5.
No words missing. Have a think about it... you have a word or two missing there. Explains what?
I have to admit, I used to be a "manual till I die" type. I still do drive a manual, but now having experienced driving autos (even crappy CVTs), my position is more open. In a daily run around I could happily live with even the worst of modern auto boxes (they're nothing like they were 20 years a go with 5 second delays between changes etc). I'm hoping to eventually get a Cayman with a PDK. I've not driven one yet, but if the PDK is even half as good as nearly all reviewers say it is, then I'll be more than happy to give up manual even in a drivers car. It has full manual control anyway, and in all honesty I've never liked car gearsticks, I cut my motoring teeth on motorbikes and car manual gearboxes just strike me as clunky and junk, and always have. All that stupid foot and hand moving just to change gear. At least on a motorbike everything is right there to hand/foot with no messing around.I agree G&T. Doing a long journey in today's heavy traffic becomes very tedious and tiring in a manual car. I've no desire to ever return to manual, they're horrid old relics.
This, I really don't get the anti paddle sentiment some people have. IMHO manuals should have always used something along the lines of paddle rather than the tractor like agrocultural solution of foot operated clutch combined with hand lever for changing the gear. Just think about it logically, nobody in their right mind would come up with such a solution if they didn't need to, so why it took so damn long to get rid of it is mind boggling to me.Petrolhead that I am, the ZF8 auto is superb. I won’t go back to a manual.
In the Giulia using the paddles it’s a tactile joy.