Bazillion speed auto trannies.

[Xist]

I did fine on in San José with eighteen speeds.

[H-Man]

I'd really dig my car with an 8 speed manual. Give me a triple overdrive, a stump puller 1st, a 2nd that looks like a first, then have third through fifth be the business gears. With the way my route is, I could use 2 extra overdrive gears (I have some spots where I'd be able to do 75 at 1800 RPM without lugging the engine and then some spots where I'm cursing the gap between 1st, 2nd, and third-- I'm effectively spending a quarter of the time accelerating and another quarter coasting with the hilly route I have).

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by H-Man

I'd really dig my car with an 8 speed manual. Give me a triple overdrive, a stump puller 1st, a 2nd that looks like a first, then have third through fifth be the business gears. With the way my route is, I could use 2 extra overdrive gears (I have some spots where I'd be able to do 75 at 1800 RPM without lugging the engine and then some spots where I'm cursing the gap between 1st, 2nd, and third-- I'm effectively spending a quarter of the time accelerating and another quarter coasting with the hilly route I have).

On any kind of declination, I generally pull out of gear and kill the engine. Cruising in-gear is only for level ground and inclines in my cars, and lean burn in 5th can't be held if there's more than the mildest headwind or incline.

Actually, upon consideration, the 2800lb Civic could probably go a little taller, the 1.3L still has some pep, despite being at <1800RPM @ 55.



Some more options between first and third would be nice though.

[H-Man]

Originally Posted by Ecky

On any kind of declination, I generally pull out of gear and kill the engine. Cruising in-gear is only for level ground and inclines in my cars, and lean burn in 5th can't be held if there's more than the mildest headwind or incline.

Actually, upon consideration, the 2800lb Civic could probably go a little taller, the 1.3L still has some pep, despite being at <1800RPM @ 55.



Some more options between first and third would be nice though.

Not enough slope for that. Can't P&G for a number of reasons so I usually end up having the engine burn half its fuel to spin itself. I'm doing 3k at 60 in 5th- great gearing to go up most interstate standard hills, but horrible on the flats. There is a 60 mile stretch where I'm shifting only between 5th and neutral and back to 5th.

[Ecky]

The Insight rolls at the slightest provocation. I expect I could probably maintain 50mph on less than a 2% grade with the engine off. Even if I'm stopped on level ground at a stop light, a good gust of wind can send me rolling forward.

[H-Man]

If my transmission had 2 diff ratios and used it to reuse 4th and 5th, with a 3.1 high diff ratio and a 4.31 low diff ratio my RPM at 65 MPH would look like this:

gear     ratio            RPM
3rd      1.31*4.31      5096
4th     0.969*4.31     3770
5th     0.815*4.31     3171
4th H   0.969*3.1      2711
5th H   0.815*3.1      2280

As far as RPM goes, that 4H and 5H look pretty good, I'd be at cruising RPM at highway and freeway speeds. Right now I can hold 5th at 35 MPH and don't need to think about downshifting if I'm over 45 MPH.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by H-Man

I'd really dig my car with an 8 speed manual. Give me a triple overdrive, a stump puller 1st, a 2nd that looks like a first, then have third through fifth be the business gears. With the way my route is, I could use 2 extra overdrive gears (I have some spots where I'd be able to do 75 at 1800 RPM without lugging the engine and then some spots where I'm cursing the gap between 1st, 2nd, and third-- I'm effectively spending a quarter of the time accelerating and another quarter coasting with the hilly route I have).

Haha you're crazy, I don't think I'd be able to get used to 8 gears in a H pattern.

I advocate 7 gears because usually 1st gear is a little short to be useful outside of getting off the line, and 2nd is usually a little tall and sluggish unless you have monstrous power.

On cars with big engines they just gear 1st fairly tall, but this means your clutch gets roasted really fast in stop and go. A lot of "supercars" with dry clutches have very short clutch life, and I suspect it's because they're geared so tall.

7 gears means you can have 2-6 be the 1-5 in a close ratio road racing style gearbox with 2 and 3 as the versatile acceleration gears, 1st gear be a stump puller for heavy traffic/clutch preservation, and 7 as the extra tall cruising gear for fuel economy. Kind of like how a lot of the dual clutch gearboxes are set up.

[JRMichler]

I estimate I would get almost 1.0 more MPG if I replaced my five speed manual with the six speed manual transmission from the 2016 Chevrolet Colorado, plus swap my 3.73 rear end for a 3.42. That would result in a lower first gear, a higher sixth gear, and a fifth gear slightly lower than my present fifth.

The dollar return would be negligible, but it would get me THAAAT close to 40 MPG in summer. 40 MPG is much more impressive than 39.5.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by ksa8907

One big downside to more gears is that the computer has a hard time deciding which gear to choose when downshifting. I have said it before, but the chrysler 8 speed is particularly appalling in this regard.

It's a ZF unit and it is not much loved in any brand it's found in.

Originally Posted by user removed

Actaully the really crappy CVT's were Subaru Justys and Honda's. Not sure who is making them besides Jatco which is a subsidiary (wholly owned) of Nissan.

Audi also offered CVT's for a few years. They went to some lengths to get it to mimic a more traditional automatic via electronic "shift points". It was a chain drive affair. Also unloved, also suffered from reliability woes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitronic

I drove a CVT equipped v6 Nissan Maxima for a week or so some years ago. My immediate thought was that there was something wrong with the transmission! But I soon realized it must be a CVT, due to the engine going to 4500 RPM during acceleration and just sitting there as the speedometer rose. It was cool for a week but to be honest I'm not sure I'd want to live with it. My biggest gripe was that it did not seem to hold back the car when attempting to use the gearbox for decelerating, for example when "downshifting" on a decline to keep from gaining speed.

My folks just bought a new CRV. It has a CVT. (My that's a lot of C's and V's.) It's much less obtrusive than the Nissan's. Technology marches on I guess.

[H-Man]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

Haha you're crazy, I don't think I'd be able to get used to 8 gears in a H pattern.

I advocate 7 gears because usually 1st gear is a little short to be useful outside of getting off the line, and 2nd is usually a little tall and sluggish unless you have monstrous power.

On cars with big engines they just gear 1st fairly tall, but this means your clutch gets roasted really fast in stop and go. A lot of "supercars" with dry clutches have very short clutch life, and I suspect it's because they're geared so tall.

7 gears means you can have 2-6 be the 1-5 in a close ratio road racing style gearbox with 2 and 3 as the versatile acceleration gears, 1st gear be a stump puller for heavy traffic/clutch preservation, and 7 as the extra tall cruising gear for fuel economy. Kind of like how a lot of the dual clutch gearboxes are set up.

8 isn't that bad. A double H for most stuff and a HHHH pattren for all the gears but protected by shift gates and springs.

Rb 1 3 5  7
|GG|-C-|--|
L  2 4 6  Ra
A saner 7 speed:
1 3 5  7
|-C-|--|
2 4 6  R

Something like that. A -- indicates that the spring is stiffer so that you don't over shoot a set of gears, a GG indicates that there is an electronic shift gate to keep you from missing 1st and hitting R while moving if R is in position Rb instead of Ra (or missing 2 and hitting L). L is back so that the L->1 is in the normal shift pattern. A C indicates where the shiftier centers.