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Old 10-27-2008, 10:14 PM   #11 (permalink)
The Atomic Ass
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Mason, OH
Posts: 535

Overland - '24 Nissan Versa S 5MT
90 day: 36.05 mpg (US)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ptero View Post
The biggest key to high mileage in the Smart is probably understanding the transmission. A lot of people - and a lot of journalists who should know better (and even some dealer reps!) - seem to think the Smart has an automatic transmission and it has a problem of being too slow between gears. But that's not the case at all. The Smart has a manual transmission with an automatic cluch that shifts according to an optimized high mileage program. It is marvelous and it works perfectly. It even allows you to defeat the high mileage overlay with manual shifting similar to a Tiptronic that you find in high end sports cars and sports sedans.

This is the first transmission I have ever seen that is designed to do this. It even took me a while to figure out what it was. I was also under the illusion that the transmission was faulty in some way. I was even told at the dealer that I should lift my foot between shifts for proper operation. That is not the case.
I'd like to know more about this transmission if you have info on it, or a link that describes the mechanisms in greater detail...

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