Automatics changing my view. - Page 2

GasSavers_Pete · 12-20-2008, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkjones96

I
It has that adaptive throttle-by-wire system and it's learned my driving habits very well!

This is the key to the new generation of auto boxes.
The old days of the the "dumb and dumber" slush boxes are gone.

The new ones are faster smoother and more FE than some of the best manually driven cars.
Sad but true.

Let's face who these days even know you are meant to blip the throttle on the downchange to equalise revs?...apart from people on this board I mean.

Pete.

Minicity · 12-18-2008, 08:22 AM

It depends on dealers as well. My father had to special order his jeep with a manual.
Personally, I don't like a lot of automation. I'm afraid of robot overlords, and I refuse to buy anything new because they all have computers.

theholycow · 12-18-2008, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minicity

I'm afraid of robot overlords

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

GasSavers_Scott · 12-18-2008, 08:14 PM

Well today I spent the entire day driving around Baltimore and managed to get my MPG down to 26 from 28.8. Tomarrow I have to go to D.C., so the MPG should pick up a bit. There is something I noticed after driving stick everyday for 2 years. The throttle blipping you have to do, timing your clutch release, lugging, or mildly overrevving is eliminated. I sat in neutral at each light, accelerated lightly, but not moving like a cement truck, I kept the car moving in one smooth non jerky motion and I noticed allot of the waste and inertia loss of a stick surging between gears was lost. This I believe gives the auto the advantage of better city mileage than the stick.

Now on the open highway, the lock up torque converter engages at 50 and I should be at the same rpm as the stick without slippage and the mileage loss of the automatics of old.

I mean this is a luxurious car, spacious, big and economical, I almost feel Im trapsing about in a Mercedes diesel. Luxury and MPG, who'd a thunk it.

theholycow · 12-19-2008, 02:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott

I kept the car moving in one smooth non jerky motion and I noticed allot of the waste and inertia loss of a stick surging between gears was lost. This I believe gives the auto the advantage of better city mileage than the stick.

With good manual control and obedience from the automatic, or good FE programming, it could certainly be possible to beat the manual's city FE.

Quote:

Now on the open highway, the lock up torque converter engages at 50 and I should be at the same rpm as the stick without slippage and the mileage loss of the automatics of old.

It is probably far less than the RPM of a stick if it were available in that car. My unscientific observations have been that most cars have a much lower "high gear" in their manual transmission than their automatic. Automatics can get away with taller gears because of the torque converter, and because a lazy driver doesn't have to be annoyed by the need to downshift on the highway.