Comments on: BMW Sports Automatic Transmission With Double Clutch

By: WVB

WVB — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:29:39 +0000

I don’t think it’s a case of ‘don’t try anything new’ its more about manufacturers themselves fully understanding their own technological directions, innovations and markets before kicking off on the public ‘test’ programs thinly disguised as sales.
Having an R&D background with a red sun maker I can say with some certainty that top end manufacturers are always keen to push the boundaries of what consumers will accept technologically and then get middle level management to oversee damage control when needed. Adding a lot of extra mass, complexity and enormously increased servicing costs to a modern car for relatively little gain is questionable. I don’t doubt BMW spent millions on this transmission but again it’s really only a case of them flexing their engineering prowess and shouting ‘we make the most complicated cars in the world’

By: Reckless1

Reckless1 — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:48:45 +0000

“sound nice on paper. Volkswagen’s DSG has weird behavior as well as reliability problem. There is no basis to assume BMW will do better in its first generation. Wait and the upgraded version later. ”

Idiotic comment. It’s about as stupid as saying “current autos and manuals never have problems, don’t ever use anything new”

DSG only has weird behaviour when you don’t understand the way they work.

By: WVB

WVB — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:44:02 +0000

…forgot DSG of course.
Having said all that IMO the CVT is probably by far the longest living, most reliable and fuel efficient-ish form of seamless transmission so far but getting it cope with more than odd 85Kw, maybe not

By: weirluo

weirluo — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:26:13 +0000

sound nice on paper. Volkswagen’s DSG has weird behavior as well as reliability problem. There is no basis to assume BMW will do better in its first generation. Wait and the upgraded version later.

By: WVB

WVB — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:45:55 +0000

Multiplate clutches, pre-select gearboxes, manu-matic, easi-drive its all been cracked at before. Unless you are Lewis Hamilton history usually singles out the car consumer set that doesn’t really give a sh*t how long it takes to change gear or whether it can pre-think their next gear change blah, blah blah. I’m sure most consumers these days demand long term reliability in their ride, so I guess the odd ‘friday’ BMW represented here would again spend more time with its service provider and their resultant hair loss than its owner. I wouldn’t be surprised being a BMW if the sat nav didn’t interrupt itself en-route by congratulating the owner with a‘that’s your fastest gearchange yet, well done sir/ma’am’

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:45:26 +0000

Well, even Focus has DCT type gearbox now, so will just be a matter of time before they replace more and more autobox, which is without a doubt a good thing.

By: ihatemycardotcomdotau

ihatemycardotcomdotau — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:16:36 +0000

Good to see technology progressing in the right direction,the way I see is that hopefully in 5 years time we will see smiler technology introduced in cheaper cars.

By: Reckless1

Reckless1 — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:20:51 +0000

“With our men in blue hanging about every corner with, what we like to call ‘revenue-raising-guns’, the point of gaining a tenth of a second in gear-changes may be seem irrelevant to most, but really, we care, and we know you care too.”

Whoever wrote this tripe should be ashamed.

The point of DSG clones is fuel economy and to do away with torque converter automatics. The fact that gears change more quickly is simply because they can in this type of transmission.