Discussion
Been driving a few decades now and have sampled many auto boxes, some good some bad.
However, I recently drive a non dsg 9 speed auto and what a f
king horrible experience.
The gearing is way too short and it js country trying to stay in a higher gear as possible, and runs out of steam way too quickly.
Surely this can’t be good for emissions with it constantly kicking down whenever you press the go pedal?
I am sure I read somewhere there is even a 10 speed?
I mean, why?
Madness.
However, I recently drive a non dsg 9 speed auto and what a f
king horrible experience.The gearing is way too short and it js country trying to stay in a higher gear as possible, and runs out of steam way too quickly.
Surely this can’t be good for emissions with it constantly kicking down whenever you press the go pedal?
I am sure I read somewhere there is even a 10 speed?
I mean, why?
Madness.
119 said:
Been driving a few decades now and have sampled many auto boxes, some good some bad.
However, I recently drive a non dsg 9 speed auto and what a fking horrible experience.
The gearing is way too short and it js country trying to stay in a higher gear as possible, and runs out of steam way too quickly.
Surely this can’t be good for emissions with it constantly kicking down whenever you press the go pedal?
Real world? No.However, I recently drive a non dsg 9 speed auto and what a f
king horrible experience.The gearing is way too short and it js country trying to stay in a higher gear as possible, and runs out of steam way too quickly.
Surely this can’t be good for emissions with it constantly kicking down whenever you press the go pedal?
119 said:
I am sure I read somewhere there is even a 10 speed?
I mean, why?
So that it can be in the "perfect" gear when driven at absolutely minimum throttle during the test regime for type approval to get the very best economy and hence best CO2 etc. I mean, why?
Same with many other test fudges that make them worse to drive in the really real world but shave a few g of CO2 off the figures.
119 said:
Been driving a few decades now and have sampled many auto boxes, some good some bad.
However, I recently drive a non dsg 9 speed auto and what a fking horrible experience.
The gearing is way too short and it js country trying to stay in a higher gear as possible, and runs out of steam way too quickly.
Surely this can’t be good for emissions with it constantly kicking down whenever you press the go pedal?
I am sure I read somewhere there is even a 10 speed?
I mean, why?
Madness.
That's just your opnion, others may disgree, go for a manul change instead.However, I recently drive a non dsg 9 speed auto and what a f
king horrible experience.The gearing is way too short and it js country trying to stay in a higher gear as possible, and runs out of steam way too quickly.
Surely this can’t be good for emissions with it constantly kicking down whenever you press the go pedal?
I am sure I read somewhere there is even a 10 speed?
I mean, why?
Madness.
Edited by lancslad58 on Tuesday 23 April 12:30
lancslad58 said:
119 said:
Been driving a few decades now and have sampled many auto boxes, some good some bad.
However, I recently drive a non dsg 9 speed auto and what a fking horrible experience.
The gearing is way too short and it js country trying to stay in a higher gear as possible, and runs out of steam way too quickly.
Surely this can’t be good for emissions with it constantly kicking down whenever you press the go pedal?
I am sure I read somewhere there is even a 10 speed?
I mean, why?
Madness.
That's just your opnion, others may disgree, go for a manul change instead.However, I recently drive a non dsg 9 speed auto and what a f
king horrible experience.The gearing is way too short and it js country trying to stay in a higher gear as possible, and runs out of steam way too quickly.
Surely this can’t be good for emissions with it constantly kicking down whenever you press the go pedal?
I am sure I read somewhere there is even a 10 speed?
I mean, why?
Madness.
Edited by lancslad58 on Tuesday 23 April 12:30
I did try manual mode and turning right out of junction in first and having to get to second almost instantly made for entertaining hand shuffling on the steering wheel.
As an aside, does anyone feel a little bit out of control reversing an auto if you have to give it some gas?
I've always driven manuals but my neighbour, whom I'm friends with, asked me to give his Skoda Octavia auto a run out every so often when he was away for a few months. No issues except, where he parks, you have to reverse up a very slight incline. If it was level I could just let it roll and cover the brake, but as it was slightly uphill I had to give it a bit of gas and, to me, there was too much acceleration. In a manual I'd just slip the clutch a bit to control it but in an auto there's no such option - it's like an on/off switch. Made me wonder how I'll get on when I eventually get round to buying the BMW 440i that I'm currently hunting for.
I've always driven manuals but my neighbour, whom I'm friends with, asked me to give his Skoda Octavia auto a run out every so often when he was away for a few months. No issues except, where he parks, you have to reverse up a very slight incline. If it was level I could just let it roll and cover the brake, but as it was slightly uphill I had to give it a bit of gas and, to me, there was too much acceleration. In a manual I'd just slip the clutch a bit to control it but in an auto there's no such option - it's like an on/off switch. Made me wonder how I'll get on when I eventually get round to buying the BMW 440i that I'm currently hunting for.
yeah, i dont understand why autos need so many gears. hired a new mustang in california last year, which has a 10(!) speed auto box. infuriating.
any speed above about 50mph its already shuffled up to 10th gear, where there is absolutely no torque. approach a slight incline, and it has to downshift from 10th to 4th to actually be able to go up hill. then back into 10th when you crest the rise. rinse and repeat, since bits of california are actually quite hilly...
i'd have been quite happy if gears 6-9 were disabled, so you just had the ratios of 1st through 5th, then 10th as a crusing gear. gears 6-9 were totally redundant in my opinion.
any speed above about 50mph its already shuffled up to 10th gear, where there is absolutely no torque. approach a slight incline, and it has to downshift from 10th to 4th to actually be able to go up hill. then back into 10th when you crest the rise. rinse and repeat, since bits of california are actually quite hilly...
i'd have been quite happy if gears 6-9 were disabled, so you just had the ratios of 1st through 5th, then 10th as a crusing gear. gears 6-9 were totally redundant in my opinion.
Xenoous said:
The 8speed ZF is fantastic, quite why they decided to do a 9 speed, I don't know. The e-pace we tested had the 9 speed box, stupid thing.
It's an impressive gearbox as an auto but I find 8 ratios way too many for driving in manual mode. You approach a tight corner and bang it down a few gears only to find you're still in fourth. I'm sure I'd get used to it if I persevered but I've given up and just let it get on with what it does best, being an auto. I don't feel it would have been a worse box if it took all of the clever stuff but 'only' had 6 ratios but I guess the 8 helps in terms of optimising efficiency and emissions. The other thing with all these gears is that accelerating through the box using every gear sounds like a truck or a tractor going through their plentiful supply of cogs. I quite miss sound of an engine chomping it's way through a long ratio. I'm sad, I know 
Xenoous said:
The 8speed ZF is fantastic, quite why they decided to do a 9 speed, I don't know. The e-pace we tested had the 9 speed box, stupid thing.
My only experience of the 8 speed ZF was in a 2.0d Jaguar XE R-Sport.The gearbox was so dimwitted that smooth progress was very difficult. If you put both the gearbox and the car driving mode into 'Sport', it spent all its time changing up if you relaxed your foot, only to attempt to change down about 6 gears and then bounce straight off the rev limiter if you so much as flexed your big toe.
The manual 'box in the same model was so much nicer and remains one of the nicest manual transmissions I have ever used.
Gad-Westy said:
Xenoous said:
The 8speed ZF is fantastic, quite why they decided to do a 9 speed, I don't know. The e-pace we tested had the 9 speed box, stupid thing.
It's an impressive gearbox as an auto but I find 8 ratios way too many for driving in manual mode. You approach a tight corner and bang it down a few gears only to find you're still in fourth. I'm sure I'd get used to it if I persevered but I've given up and just let it get on with what it does best, being an auto. I don't feel it would have been a worse box if it took all of the clever stuff but 'only' had 6 ratios but I guess the 8 helps in terms of optimising efficiency and emissions. The other thing with all these gears is that accelerating through the box using every gear sounds like a truck or a tractor going through their plentiful supply of cogs. I quite miss sound of an engine chomping its way through a long ratio. I'm sad, I know Pica-Pica said:
Gad-Westy said:
Xenoous said:
The 8speed ZF is fantastic, quite why they decided to do a 9 speed, I don't know. The e-pace we tested had the 9 speed box, stupid thing.
It's an impressive gearbox as an auto but I find 8 ratios way too many for driving in manual mode. You approach a tight corner and bang it down a few gears only to find you're still in fourth. I'm sure I'd get used to it if I persevered but I've given up and just let it get on with what it does best, being an auto. I don't feel it would have been a worse box if it took all of the clever stuff but 'only' had 6 ratios but I guess the 8 helps in terms of optimising efficiency and emissions. The other thing with all these gears is that accelerating through the box using every gear sounds like a truck or a tractor going through their plentiful supply of cogs. I quite miss sound of an engine chomping its way through a long ratio. I'm sad, I know It certainly seems modern gearboxes rely on their speed to change gear rather than being in the right gear for the speed you're doing. You know, like how you're taught to drive! I assume it's all for emissions sake rather than the driveability.
We had a new GLC Merc a couple of years back was a 9 speed auto and unless you kept it in the sporty setting, it was never in the right gear and was just changing all the time. The 7 speed auto in my CL isn't bad but it's a fairly gutsy engine so it doesn't do too much stirring of the gearbox thankfully but on a smaller revvier engine it could be annoying.
I honestly found the old 5g gearbox in my ancient E Class really nice. At slow speeds it'd stay in 3rd or 4th and due to the torque it would get moving without changing down.
We had a new GLC Merc a couple of years back was a 9 speed auto and unless you kept it in the sporty setting, it was never in the right gear and was just changing all the time. The 7 speed auto in my CL isn't bad but it's a fairly gutsy engine so it doesn't do too much stirring of the gearbox thankfully but on a smaller revvier engine it could be annoying.
I honestly found the old 5g gearbox in my ancient E Class really nice. At slow speeds it'd stay in 3rd or 4th and due to the torque it would get moving without changing down.
brillomaster said:
yeah, i dont understand why autos need so many gears. hired a new mustang in california last year, which has a 10(!) speed auto box. infuriating.
Ditto (ish, Florida and a few years ago). I really quite liked the car apart from two things, the engine and the gearbox. The worst of it being the gearbox which was utterly infuriating. Even in manual mode it was inconsistent with some gearchanges taking a fraction of a second and others feeling like they took minutes. I read somewhere that the high number of gears is so the engine can stay at or around peak torque. Although you'd think with the big V8 torque output nowadays it wouldn't matter that much. I like the powerglide in my Impala cos it's a big lazy cruiser, but prefer a manual for smaller zippier cars.
The XFR with the ZF8 gearbox, if you put it in sport mode and switch dynamic mode on and then use the paddles to change gear it will display with a large number which gear you are in and only change down automatically to stop stalling. If using the paddles in normal drive mode then the number display is much smaller.
Edited by NortonES2 on Tuesday 23 April 15:58
Xenoous said:
...The e-pace we tested had the 9 speed box, stupid thing.
I had an E-PAce as a rental and fully agree. It pulls away in 2nd by default, but if you give it a boot after pulling away if will lurch into first.
As it has so many gears they are really close together and it isn't shy about changing gear so you are either at idle or redline - almost acting as a CVT.
You could drive it in a manual mode to stop it changing, but that seems to be defeating the object.
(we won't mention the terrible 4 cylinder petrol engine).
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