Manual Vs Automatic??

[blearyeyedboy]

culpz said:

blearyeyedboy said:

A slight tangent...

I understand that DSG gearboxes learn your driving style over time. What happens if you share your car with someone else on a regular basis?

Not true for DSG's, whatsoever.

They react accordingly to your inputs on the throttle, brake pedal and the speed that you're carrying.

Edited by culpz on Thursday 26th April 09:12

Every day's a school day!

Thanks, culpz. Genuinely good to know.

[NDA]

AngryChimp241 said:

I've never driven an Automatic, I've always been used to a manual however now I'm in the market people are telling me to get an automatic because it's a lot easier and there's no reason not to. My question is, is there any particular reason I should go with an automatic over anything else? What are the pros and cons for each? And more importantly im concerned if I drive an automatic for a long time, will that effect my ability to jump back into a manual?

I have had both (as many of us have).

I think if you have a small engined car, a manual might be better.... you'll need to wring every horse out of it and a manual is better for that. On a larger engined car, an auto feels easier to drive - in fact most supercars have an auto box, very few with a manual.

My current 'fun' car is a 4.8 V8 with paddles, it's also available as a manual. I've driven both and much prefer the auto - it's faster too.

[Frank7]

LarsG said:

Just out of interest:

When at a junction with an automatic, or at a level crossing etc do you:

Keep your foot on the brake?
Apply the handbrake?
Put the gearbox in Neutral?

What do you do? I have tried all three and usually resort to the foot on the brake and blind the drivers behind me for the duration of the stop.

At a junction, or light, that I know from experience will be red for some time, I engage Park, at a level crossing, definitely engage Park.
At a regular light, maybe 8-10 seconds on red, I’ll probably keep my foot on the brake, same on an unfamiliar light, but if it goes up to 15-18 seconds plus, engage Park, it takes a millisecond to touch the brake and pull back into Drive.
I never apply the handbrake in those situations, in fact I never apply it at all, unless I’ve parked on an incline.

[jjwilde]

LarsG said:

Just out of interest:
I have tried all three and usually resort to the foot on the brake and blind the drivers behind me for the duration of the stop.

You're not blinding anyone, no one cares. The whole of america drives like that and if it was causing any issues they would be the first to complain.

[cmvtec]

Depending on how long the level crossing will be down, if it's a few minutes I'll put it in park and if it's a long few minutes, I'll kill the engine.

[Ninja59]

I would never use park in traffic in case you get rear ended. Neutral and handbrake possibly to avoid that scenario.

But the advent with many gearboxes of auto hold makes it pretty pointless anyway. The only time i might question it at a longer stop is some implementations keeping the rear lights on.

[cmvtec]

Old school traditional auto here, although Ford Jaguar have tacked on some sort of sequential shift feature that isn't very good. No auto hold nonsence.

[talksthetorque]

For the level crossing I’ll leave it in drive and pull the handbrake switch up. Start stop kills the engine when I stop, and I don’t like the way the car settles on to the stop on a slope in P
P is a button on my selector, not a position
So that’s the same but if I leave it in D and pull the handbrake, I can just depress the throttle and set off again.

[Amebix]

Ares said:

Amebix said:

I've got a 1999 2.0l Avensis estate with an Auto as my daily bus, and a modified 1991 Eunos with a manual as my weekender (amongst my old Motorbikes)

Spending enough time in one vehicle then going to the other makes me appreciate each one's attributes - Must admit though I've never found myself "Missing" the torque converter, I just know that the Avensis is a whole lot less frantic (and sometimes stressful) to drive as a daily!

Is there really anything about a 1999 Avensis that you would miss?

In 25 years of driving, I think the 2003 Avensis I was given as a courtesy car (In 2003) was possibly the worst car I've ever driven. It may have had a fight on it's hands with the ironically named Mitsubishi Charisma for ultimate top honours.

Whenever I’m struggling to think of something I ‘miss’ about it next time, I will at least feel comfort in the fact that somebody somewhere in PH land is still angered by its existence a mere 15 years after driving one 😂

It’s a £600 daily snot box that’s comfortable and quiet, massively practical, and happens to be a slushbox auto unlike my other vehicles to which I was comparing it to, which is the topic of this thread is it not?

[culpz]

Nanook said:

If I'm driving our DSG I use the paddles fairly regularly.

The auto mode works fine as an auto, but it can't think ahead.

I thought the whole point of DSG is that it does think ahead? It's only ever caught me out the once in a month of using the gearbox. It appears to be one step ahead the majority of the time.

[culpz]

Ares said:

culpz said:

For any one who has an modern automatic, how often do people actually use the manual mode via the gear stick and/or paddles?

In the BMWs I had, seldom.

In the Alfa, at least half the journeys unless sat in traffic....but part of that is not being able to resist the long chrome moose antler paddles.

That's quite interesting. Maybe it is down to the paddle design then? I do like how the one on the Giulia are so over-sized and well-made

The one's on my Scirocco are the usual black plastic ones. In fact, on the VAG cars, they're pretty much the same on all of them and a do feel cheap.

I have been thinking on getting some paddles extensions for them, so that might be a route to explore to get me to use them a bit more.

[culpz]

LarsG said:

Just out of interest:

When at a junction with an automatic, or at a level crossing etc do you:

Keep your foot on the brake?
Apply the handbrake?
Put the gearbox in Neutral?

What do you do? I have tried all three and usually resort to the foot on the brake and blind the drivers behind me for the duration of the stop.

For me, if i know i'm gonna be sat stationary for a while, i'll put it in park and then handbrake on. I know the ideal thing here would be to put it in neutral, but the issue with that on my car is that, for some reason, it'll disengage the stop/start and then re-starts the engine, which kind of negates the point of it in the first place.

The stop/start function actually works really well with the DSG so i tend to leave it on. If i'm just gonna briefly come to a halt, i'll simply leave my foot on the brake, which then conks the engine out, with anything more than light pressure on the brake pedal. As soon as i take it off again, the engine re-starts and then away i go.

P.S. You won't be blinding anyone behind you.

[Pica-Pica]

LarsG said:

Just out of interest:

When at a junction with an automatic, or at a level crossing etc do you:

Keep your foot on the brake?
Apply the handbrake?
Put the gearbox in Neutral?

What do you do? I have tried all three and usually resort to the foot on the brake and blind the drivers behind me for the duration of the stop.

At junction, I would use the foot (service) brake, my 335d has auto hold.
At lights/level crossings, it would depend on how long I judged I had to wait. Short time, then as for junctions, a long time, then I would kill the engine and put parking brake (a lever in mine) on.

Drivers won’t be blinded, if they choose to stare at your lights they may get irritated, they should be watching beyond and to the side anyway.

[Martin_Hx]

I've a new (less than a year old) 125d with the 8 speed auto sport box and its brilliant. I however only use the paddles when going down hills like i would do in a manual.

In sport mode the gearbox works beautifully (quick and violent) and in normal comfort mode pretty effortless.

[captain_cynic]

LarsG said:

Just out of interest:

When at a junction with an automatic, or at a level crossing etc do you:

Keep your foot on the brake?
Apply the handbrake?
Put the gearbox in Neutral?

What do you do? I have tried all three and usually resort to the foot on the brake and blind the drivers behind me for the duration of the stop.

Same as would in a manual, if I'm only there for a short time, foot on brake in gear. If I'm there for a long time, neutral with foot on brake.

I'd never apply the handbrake as I don't want to be a roadblock... Plus with old school autos, applying the handbrake in D didn't mean you could take your foot off the brake (the handbrake in D could be used as a primitive launch control in some Japanese/Korean hatchbacks of yore, see also: brake boosting).

[Toltec]

LarsG said:

Just out of interest:

When at a junction with an automatic, or at a level crossing etc do you:

Keep your foot on the brake?
Apply the handbrake?
Put the gearbox in Neutral?

What do you do? I have tried all three and usually resort to the foot on the brake and blind the drivers behind me for the duration of the stop.

At a junction where I'm expecting to move shortly I hold with my left foot on the brake. At a longer stop at a light controlled junction I hold on the foot brake then once a car or two have pulled up behind put the handbrake on instead and leave it in drive, unless I know we will be stopped for ages in which case I might go to neutral or even turn the engine off.

[Ares]

LarsG said:

Just out of interest:

When at a junction with an automatic, or at a level crossing etc do you:

Keep your foot on the brake?
Apply the handbrake?
Put the gearbox in Neutral?

What do you do? I have tried all three and usually resort to the foot on the brake and blind the drivers behind me for the duration of the stop.

Just foot on the brake. If going to the there for a while, and not need to suddenly move, slide into Park.

[Ares]

Amebix said:

Ares said:

Amebix said:

I've got a 1999 2.0l Avensis estate with an Auto as my daily bus, and a modified 1991 Eunos with a manual as my weekender (amongst my old Motorbikes)

Spending enough time in one vehicle then going to the other makes me appreciate each one's attributes - Must admit though I've never found myself "Missing" the torque converter, I just know that the Avensis is a whole lot less frantic (and sometimes stressful) to drive as a daily!

Is there really anything about a 1999 Avensis that you would miss?

In 25 years of driving, I think the 2003 Avensis I was given as a courtesy car (In 2003) was possibly the worst car I've ever driven. It may have had a fight on it's hands with the ironically named Mitsubishi Charisma for ultimate top honours.

Whenever I’m struggling to think of something I ‘miss’ about it next time, I will at least feel comfort in the fact that somebody somewhere in PH land is still angered by its existence a mere 15 years after driving one ??

It’s a £600 daily snot box that’s comfortable and quiet, massively practical, and happens to be a slushbox auto unlike my other vehicles to which I was comparing it to, which is the topic of this thread is it not?

I'm not angered about it?

[AstonZagato]

I have a car with the ZF 8 speed gearbox. I drive it on the paddles all the time. It is fabulous.

That's in for some warranty work and they have given me a single clutch manual with paddles as a loaner. I found the transition difficult. It needs to be driven differently - a lift every time you change gear. I perfected it back in the day, when I had a 360 Modena with F1 but it feels odd to revert to that - the muscle memory has gone.

[99Chimaera]

I really like automatic, I had a VW Golf GTI with DSG which I thought was fantastic as it was so easy to drive, I sold it last year. I missed it so much I started looking for another and ended up with another identical car but in manual form. While I do enjoy my current car, I still prefer the DSG car.