Ford Fiesta MPG review Man vs Auto

[basslover911]

Regarding the Auto Transmission;

Do you know when the car "auto" starts and stops? Does it have to be in neutral? in gear? stopped?

Im wondering if you can drop it in neutral while going lets say 40mph and then the engine shuts off automatically (thus then going into defco... yay!)

[IsaacCarlson]

I love driving a manual, but the temptation to burn a little rubber is sooooo strong......

[gone-ot]

...humor: "...dogs 'mark' fire hydrants and bushes, hot-rodders 'mark' pavement."

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by trikkonceptz

Manual - 19.9 mpg avg
Automatic - 29.9 mpg avg

The proof is in the pudding. I wonder how long before they drop the manual all together? There is really no reason to buy a manual anymore when the double clutch gear box has this real world advantage.

[basjoos]

It has that real world advantage when they give the automatic a taller gear than the manual. I wonder what the results would be if the automatic and the manual had identical gear ratios.

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by basjoos

It has that real world advantage when they give the automatic a taller gear than the manual. I wonder what the results would be if the automatic and the manual had identical gear ratios.

Nobody would want to buy a car like that. Try driving a double clutch gear box some time. A human being will never shift the way this thing does. The shifts happen much faster and much more often. It'll accelerate in third and immediately jump up to 5th or 6th as you start lifting off the gas. decelerate down to a stop and it'll keep the trans in 6th gear the whole way to minimize revs with the injectors turned off. Basically any time you're not accelerating or climbing a hill, you are in 5th or 6th gear no matter how slow you're going. Since the shifts happen so much slower it would be a waste of time for a human to try to mimic its behavior. Instead they would be frustrated by the overly tall gears. I encourage anyone to drive one of these. Its very different from any automatic I've seen. My experience was in a VW with a very similar double clutch box.

[kgwedi]

I have a friend in South Africa with a Ford Fiesta Turbo Diesel, and he drives in the city commuting daily. In 2 years, he has averaged 62 MPG. (3.75 L/100km)
He keeps good records, but doesn't use any ecomodding techniques. I would love to get my hands on that car for a few months to see what I could get out of it.
Why can't we buy a car like that in the USA?

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by tjts1

Nobody would want to buy a car like that. Try driving a double clutch gear box some time. A human being will never shift the way this thing does. The shifts happen much faster and much more often.

I've got some driving time in a friend's new Audi A3 1.9 TDI with DSG .
It didn't seem to shift that much more - but it surely shifts fast

His mileage is a whole lot worse than with his previous (much lighter) A3 though.
Both cars are (were) driven in a similar way, without paying much attention to saving gas.
That worked well and effortlessly in the old manual 1.9 TDI, but doesn't work in the new A3 with DSG.

[Mustang Dave]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...humor: "...dogs 'mark' fire hydrants and bushes, hot-rodders 'mark' pavement."

I resemble that remark!

[basjoos]

Originally Posted by tjts1

Nobody would want to buy a car like that. Try driving a double clutch gear box some time. A human being will never shift the way this thing does. The shifts happen much faster and much more often. It'll accelerate in third and immediately jump up to 5th or 6th as you start lifting off the gas. decelerate down to a stop and it'll keep the trans in 6th gear the whole way to minimize revs with the injectors turned off. Basically any time you're not accelerating or climbing a hill, you are in 5th or 6th gear no matter how slow you're going. Since the shifts happen so much slower it would be a waste of time for a human to try to mimic its behavior. Instead they would be frustrated by the overly tall gears. I encourage anyone to drive one of these. Its very different from any automatic I've seen. My experience was in a VW with a very similar double clutch box.

The Chevy Cruze comes with a either a 6 speed manual or a 6 speed dual clutch automatic, both with the same gear ratios and the manual gets 4 mpg better city and 1 mpg better highway mileage. From your description above, the dual clutch automatic goes into 6 gear engine braking whenever you let up on the throttle rather than the no drag freewheel that's available with just the touch of the clutch pedal on the manual. And with freewheel easily tapped, it is a lot easier to hypermile your way to even greater mileages than the EPA stickers would show. They've sold a lot of manual Cruzes overseas, so it must be enjoyable to drive.

I have very tall gears on my manual Honda Civic CX and manual Ford F150 and have no problems or frustration driving them.