OT: Manual or automatic gearbox? and XC60 opinion...

Take care - CVT is sometimes used to describe a Hybrid - yet many think it means the cone pulley / Belt/ Chain arrangement. My hybrid uses a planetary differential to combine engine and motor. Some call it CVT.

Yup - that was the fault of Toyota on the original Prius. Used to describe what is more a differential drive. Perhaps CVT wasn't a copyright name?

They called it an 'e-CVT'. Which is what it is, an electronic continuously variable transmission. The innards don't bear much relation to the belt drive CVT, but the way it drives is like a CVT (although with a slightly different - less squishy - feel).

(Some CVTs have fake-manual gears which are just fixed ratios on the CVT you can select - possibly useful for getting you out of a snowdrift but otherwise mostly pointless given the computer can select an infinite range)

Theo

Just tell her red is in fashion and buy her a red 7K one.

IGMC

The Suburu does. Utterly pointless to me, undoing one of the advantages of CVT

A few years ago I said I would never have a diesel car.

Actually there is nothing wrong with them.

And as you said - automatics are for girls (and spastics).

I miss rear wheel drive no matter what fuel it is.

From the driving POV, they have got very good. The VAG 2L diesels are very nice to drive (for an ICE vehicle). My 3L V6 Jag was also lovely. Environmentally though, well?

And manuals are for dinosaurs. ;-) Better still, ditch the whole gear shifting nonsense and go EV.

Good news is that quite a lot of EVs are RWD.

Tim

Audi do/did make a steel band version "multitronic", it was also programmed to be have discrete steps rather than be continuously variable (at least in certain modes)

I've flip-flopped between manual and auto over the years

I'd only had petrol until 2007 when I got a 2.2 diesel manual, then in

do Fiat make DSGs?

previous car was 4wd with sports diff to vector torque from side to side as well as rear to front.

current car auto switches from fwd to 4wd, it improves fuel economy compared to permanent 4wd, but I preferred the sports diff.

Well Adam, I drive a not quite 300bhp diesel rear wheel drive car. Jaguar XF S

If you don't like the auto box, stick it into manual mode and use the flappy paddles...

The only model of Levorg they sell in the UK is like that... they claimed that that is what drivers preferred! (not to mention that 1.6 turbo is the only engine option)

(personally I would have the JDM 2.5L Turbo with a conventional gearbox)

Got it and loving it. It probably helps that it has a fair bit of grunt but it's a joy to drive. I'm a convert.

I feel i'm always on the brakes though, doesn't seem to slow down nearly as much as a manual when you come off the gas. I presume they are clever enough to use the engine/gearbox during braking? Or do they chew through pads?

And what do folk tend to do at traffic lights? I'd normally neutral and handbrake but that's less intuitive in this. I'm guessing this is why i've been sick of staring at other's brake lights for years, i've probably been behind autos.

I've never owned an automatic. The few times I've driven one as a hire car when going on business journeys, I've found that I have to fight them. Mind you, the last time I drove an automatic (Ford Focus) was about 20 years ago, and technology has changed.

With that caveat about old technology, I found it difficult to accelerate smoothly through a roundabout. In a manual I would change into the correct gear (eg 3rd) as I had finished braking and as I was about to enter the roundabout, and then I would *stay* in that gear as I accelerated round and out of the roundabout, changing up to a higher gear when I'd finished the acceleration.

Automatics tend to change down as I increase the power, so I get a sudden, unexpected surge of power. I never mastered the trick of being able to get just the right amount of accelerator pressure so I accelerated in the

At traffic lights, and when doing a hill start, I would *always* use the handbrake to hold the car. And in traffic lights, I'd go into neutral so the car would not creep forwards: I will not hold a car on the footbrake because this dazzles the car behind (especially at night) with my brake lights. My instructor (ex police Class 1 instructor) drummed into me "footbrake for stopping the car; handbrake for *staying* stopped". If I stop in a queue of traffic, I go into neutral with handbrake if I anticipate that I will not be setting off again for more than about 10 seconds.

Oh, and in an automatic I *always* use my right foot for braking, as in a manual, because my left foot has too much muscle-memory of big clutch movements rather than small, precise footbrake/accelerator movements. The only exception is for manoeuvring inch-by-inch, when accelerator alone doesn't give enough control (the car tends to move in surges) and where in a manual I'd keep constant engine speed (maybe foot-off idling) and control the speed by letting the clutch up to the bite point and then lowering it again once the car is moving.

Even in out manual Honda CRV which has hill-start assist, I do not use this feature because I do not trust it: I've had the car roll backwards a foot or so, so I always use the handbrake - that's that it's there for.

I'd be interested to try a DSB (automated manual gearbox) where I could control *when* the car changed gear but the gearbox took the hassle out of

My ideal car would be a DSG with a manual clutch pedal that was only used when setting off from rest, and where an automatic clutch or torque converter can engage a bit jerkily.

Is that either/or, or both :)

Similar timeframe, it's a completely different beast to what I recall driving and the way my dad's cars behaved.

I find i'm driving it gentler than I would my manual for partly this reason, it *might* make me a 'better' driver. But i'm learning to accelerate with less caning by progressively depressing the pedal. I think it has an eco mode for gentler operation, I need to RTFM.

I wondered if i'd be inclined to take over gear changes, it has a manual mode. I've had the car since Friday, been out a good few times (as you do with a new one) used the manual side once briefly and concluded that I will probably use it very rarely. Perhaps on hilly & bendy roads.

Just get an EV and all these daft problems go away. ;-)

A nice ICE automatic can be very good and whilst I liked by VW DSG box, in terms of refinement, my Jag XF box was much better. It seems it?s hard to beat ample power and a good ?slushbox?.

Tim

The engine stops when I come to rest so a light touch on the brake keeps the battery from rolling me forward. I don't have any trouble with judging acceleration. And the left foot should do nothing while driving. Right foot for loud and soft pedals in all cars, whether manual or auto.

And Americans.

I once worked with a guy whose father worked for a car-hire company at an airport. An American had booked a hire car, and because he hadn't specified automatic, had been allocated a manual car. When my friend's father heard the guy's accent, he offered to find an automatic instead, realising that an American may not have ever driven a manual before.

The American said he was happy to have a manual. He was led out to the car, which was parked in a line of cars parked nose-to-tail. He got in, revved the car up to about 2000 rpm and the car lurched forwards violently when he let the clutch in, hitting the car in front and sending it into the car in front of that. Before the hire employee could stop him, he put the car into reverse to try to extricate himself, and did the same thing to the cars behind.

In about 10 seconds he had written off five cars: the one he was driving, the two in front of him and the two behind. He lost his no-damage deposit...

Yup. Most who say they hate autos have never tried a decent modern one.

Is it a torque converter transmission? They do tend to sort of freewheel a bit at low revs. Ie, around town where you brake the most. So to save braking too much you need to come off the power rather earlier (when you guess you're going to have to stop, or just use the brakes. Pads are cheap enough. ;-)

My auto has a near conventional friction clutch - no torque converter. And if you leave it in drive with the handbrake on, it tries to creep against it. Which to me, means unnecessary wear. Footbrake on when stopped disengages the clutch. But of course means the stoplights are on. So I just plonk mine in park at traffic lights, etc.

With a TC transmission, that creeps too. So for the very best MPG neutral or park should help. But leaving it in drive, handbrake on, won't cause any extra wear.