Automatic gearboxes

[Captain Jack]

Let me make this absolutely plain - I have always disliked automatic gearboxes. They are rubbish, waste of power, never in the right gear and very unreliable. The hate started with my mum's 1991 Renault Clio, which had an automatic gearbox and in which I destroyed all forward gears.

Since then I have been constantly told that auto boxes are improving all the time. Welp, 2 years ago I was in Atlanta and hired a 3.5L Pontiac G6 GT for the weekend with an automatic gearbox. It was awful. I don't know if there was something wrong with the engine but it felt like there was absolutely no power and whenever I tried to accelerate harder, all that happened was that the gearbox changed down a gear or two, the engine made a lot of noise and nothing really happened.

Now, I am in Atlanta again. This time I was given a "compact" car, which is a 2.5L VW Jetta, with an automatic gearbox. The car is almost new and German, so once again, I gave the 'box some benefit of a doubt and hoped that it and the not-very-small engine would impress me. It didn't. It's exactly the same as the '91 Clio. Zero power, lots of noise and generally quite boring. I tried doing the manual gear changes (tiptronic?) but it's only marginally better.

Why are Americans so obsessed with auto gearboxes? Well, I know why. They are always on their "cell" phones and you can't really do that with a manual. Plus it requires extra physical movement. But other than a little extra convenience, I don't see why people bother with them. Even their MASSIVE F350 trucks with V8 engines have automatic gearboxes. Surely, if it's a pick-up truck, you want a diesel and "stick shift" for maximum torque. And I have seen a few VW Jetta's with TDI engines and manual gearboxes, so they obviously pass whatever legislations they have in the US. One of my colleagues has a Honda Civic (previous shape) SLi 1.8L with a manual box and I swear it's a much better drive than the Jetta.

I am told that Mercs make the best auto gearboxes. Now, I've never driven a Merc, but how different can it be from the others? All it will do is sap power and be in the wrong gear all the time.

I am sure DSG boxes are different as they have proper clutches but until I try one, I won't be warming up to one.

Rant over!

[Bailes1992]

The GF has a 1.6RT Clio Automatic. It's destroyed itself.. It goes but it's very rough and changes gear when it feels like. It's almost caused a few accidents because it changes in the middle of a corner and the back end steps out.
I drove a 520d E60 Beemer, quite liked the gearbox and the car was quite quick.
Drove a Vauxhall Omega 2.5TD Auto and liked that too.
Then again drove a 306 1.6 Auto and it was terrible.

I think it depends on the engine personally, but I'd rather a good manual.

[Welly]

Whilst in Spain a couple of weeks ago I had a Citroen C4 Picasso with a semi-auto and I loved it! You could drive in auto or flappy paddle mode but it's not an auto box rather it's a manual with an automatic clutch (if you get me).

This system works better for me as you still get a solid connection between the flywheel and the drive shafts so things like engine braking and acceleration are all connected properly.

I think an old skool slushmatic box is for people who have given up the will to drive (like a fat American, for example).

[steve_earwig]

I once saw a Top Gear (I think) that said there were certain circumstances (reversing uphill into a parking space for instance) where an semi-auto 'box made the car very hard to drive.

If it wasn't for loss of power/economy and relative unreliability I'd have an auto 'box in every car - I love 'em! Ok, you can catch them out by monkeying with the throttle but it's more a matter of knowing how to work the gearbox to get the best from it. I've had 2 automatic Avengers, both of which I blew the gearboxes up on, these were simple hydraulic units in old cars of course so very easy to confuse but they worked fine up until the moment they went bang, however in cars that old there's always the possibility of changing them for manual 'boxes. Granada Scrapio auto, which was ecu-controlled, it also had the lock-up on 4th gear, which was higher than 5th in the manual, so if you did lots of motorway driving you could actually gain economy over the manual. I drove my dad's Merc 300TE 4-matic quite a few times and that really was a lovely 'box (which blew up just after he sold it, scrapping the entire car) and lastly the Senny 3.0 24 valve express drawing room. That came with a fault on the 'box so it was in limp home mode, this turned out to be the switch for the ecu on the selector (a common problem). Once fixed it was a lovely 'box, the kick down in sport mode was like engaging warp drive but it had me worrying that the timing chain (single row chain, stupid design carried over into the Lotus version of that engine) would let go before it changed up.

[Welly]

That's a lot of auto boxes, and just as many failures!

We had a Automatic 2002 Toyoyo RAV4 at work until last year and guess what?.........

[steve_earwig]

Yep, the only one that didn't have a problem was the Granny 'box. I guess if I was loaded I'd be tooling around in an automatic but as things are they're just too unreliable.

[sirwiggum]

I've driven me dads 7 series autobox. Couple to a straight six it makes for a relaxing cruiser.

It put me in the mood for an autobox on my next car, though hearing some of these horror stories I'm not sure.

After my oil change shambles at least I know how to change gearbox oil now though

[Captain Jack]

Hmm, seems like there's a mixed opinion on these! I've never tried an automated manual and I am sure it's a very different feel. In all automatics I've driven ('91 Clio, '00 Avensis, '05 Jazz, '07 Chevy Aveo , the Pontiac and this VW) it feels like engine revs are completely independent to what's happening with the wheels. The scary part is that in this variety of cars and different engines there seems to be no difference in the gearboxes and actual power levels!

But then I hear that Mercs have horrible manual boxes...

[waue1978]

The BMW Steptronic is a good box, but I'm not too sure as far as reliability goes as I haven't owned one for long, but have seen a few 5 Series being sold with terminal gearbox faults. There's a difference of opinion with whether to service them or not as BMW say it's a sealed box & some experts say that they don't respond well to a filter change, but I've also heard a few people say that a gearbox service has improved them.

My experience with them did give me one insight though & that is that I wouldn't cope well with a semi-auto. Steptronics can be used as a sequential manual & when I tried it out a few times, I found myself second guessing what gear I was in & having to eremind myself with the dash display so ended up just leaving it in auto.

[FarmerPug]

My old merc had an auto a superb thing, you could still spin the tyres just rev it full in neutral then down into drive it must engaged gear through a pneumatic thing and the wheels did a good old elevensis, there was always torque on hand and kickdown was convenient even though being a 2.5 non turbo diesel in a huge hunk of an estate kickdown just meant more noise it did not mean the car went quick, it was undoubtably slow but very relaxing you felt obliged in the mercedes to be a gentleman about the whole thing and drive sensibly, if you didnt it would just oversteer and was a bitch to correct. I nearly bought a merc 300d manual you need to be the hulk to change gear in it, which isnt something you want in a big luxury car, you want to waft along in a merc. I know of the Beemer auto it claims to be oiled for life but to keep it going it needs its oil changed.
My uncle has a previa 2.4 auto about the best people carrier on the road because it has sliding doors and a feature called reliability which stops it breaking down, its ok to drive always lively but the main benefit of auto there is that its an mpv and as the passenger in a car this size smooth driving is essential, a manual in a people carrier is just terrible.

[rwb]

Autoboxes are sick and wrong
Trying to get the machine to guess what its operator wants it to do is just asking for trouble.

Nearest I've got to driving an automatic is Hydra-Shift semi-automatic on a 1212 and a 1694

Without being able to double-clutch it is impossible to change down, e.g., for engine braking, smoothly.

[FarmerPug]

its easy to slow down, in an auto you need to learn to drive with one foot, and its all very smooth, and kickdowns good if you have plenty of power for overtaking.