Quote:
Originally Posted by JockoT
I drove for Stagecoach, here in the UK, and virtually all of our fleet of buses and coaches were automatic. The only ones with manual transmission were old hacks. Small buses that had come into the fleet from acquisitions of other companies. Everything from the small local buses, through the coaches, to the double deckers, which are used a great deal here.
I loved driving them, and in city traffic there is nothing to beat an automatic transmission, especially when there is nothing further from your mind than the fuel costs!
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Front-engined buses are still prevalent here in Brazil due to the lower investment, and so is the manual transmission, even in city buses. Coaches on the other hand are now getting automated-manual transmissions such as the i-Shift and Opticruise more frequently. About 10 years ago in a trip from Florianópolis to Porto Alegre, the coach driver told me he could go nearly the entire trip without touching the pedals, relying on the cruise control and the brake-retarder. Volkswagen offers front-engined bus frames fitted with an AMT but I haven't seen too many of them, even though they would not be so much more expensive compared to a regular manual and also easier for the maintenance crews to learn how to service them compared to an automatic, returning better fuel efficiency and reducing driver fatigue especially on hilly terrain and narrow streets. Once going from downtown Florianópolis to the apartment where my mom currently lives, I managed to count how many times the bus driver shifted gears, and could count more than 120 shifts.