Is 5-speed auto gearbox useful on our roads ?

[Darth_mel]

Taking account of the speed limit and often congested road conditions.

[Zyrofillica]

Taking account of the speed limit and often congested road conditions.

 

more gears means more energy efficient and hence fuel efficient. why not?

[Kangadrool]

more gears means more energy efficient and hence fuel efficient. why not?

 

Not always true. I switched off my OD (effectively only 3 gears) and drive around Singapore, the FC is better than putting the OD on (4 speed).

 

But, no harm having 5 gears auto car 'cos can drive in the North more comfortably.

[Zyrofillica]

Not always true. I switched off my OD (effectively only 3 gears) and drive around Singapore, the FC is better than putting the OD on (4 speed).

 

But, no harm having 5 gears auto car 'cos can drive in the North more comfortably.

 

physics and science cant be wrong. perhaps your car got Hantu assist with 3 gears selected.

[SimonTan]

There is very minute differences between OD if you never go higher speed.

But the more gears better for pick-up smoothness.

 

 

 

[Trex101]

Taking account of the speed limit and often congested road conditions.

 

The more gears there is, the better is the power as it's always in the sweet power spot. I have both a 4 speed and a 5 speed i sure can tell that the 5speed is much livelier then the 4 speed.

[Ben5266]

For the japanese make, 4AT, the ratio gap between 3rd and 4th is quite big. 3rd gear is usually 1.0 and 4th 0.7.

For 5AT, they could have 4th gear at 0.9 or 0.8 then 5th gear at 0.7 or lower.

5AT with closer ratio gap will be better when driving upslope on cruising speed. When you start to lose speed going up slope, it can drop gear to 4th, giving you enough power to drive up.

 

Speed limit is not a concern as you will be driving at 5th gear at 70km/h.

Congestion condition? 4AT and 5AT are the same since you will be driving at gear 1 and 2 only.

CVT and DSG will be better for congestion condition, no wastage of energy by the gear.

[Watwheels]

Not much diff. Since MT is also 5-speed.

[ER-3682]

Taking account of the speed limit and often congested road conditions.

Cars now come with 6 or 7 gears is getting common,now some BMW & Lexus is using 8 speed,soon Mercedes will be using 9 speeds gearbox in the new S class....anyway my 370z will shift to 7th gear when the speed hit 75 km/h.

Edited September 10, 2010 by ER-3682

[Happily1986]

In general, more gear ratio means that the manufacturer have more gear ratios to play with. The final gear ratio i.e. the 5th gear can be made to have the tallest gear which allows your car to attain a higher top speed. This gear ratio business of course ignores and do not take into account the other limiting factors regarding your top speed.

 

The second point is that having more gears, the more frequently used gears i.e. 2 and 3 especially in urban environment could do with a much closer ratios. Better for acceleration. You could say this will cause poorer fuel consumption but hey, you can always shift up to utilise a taller gear ratio to offset that.

 

That' the point, having more gears means i as the driver have more choice over gear ratios. Having lesser gears sucks because i am condemned to lesser gear ratios and some of them are nonsense in our road conditions.

[Coupecabriolet]

More gears definitely better for FC (if thats what most drivers are concerned about). also depends on how the gearbox is tuned.

 

for e.g 7speed DSG from VW is short-shifting (upshifts very fast). at 50km/h (gradual acceleration), already at 5th gear. at 70km/h, 7th gear is reached. at 100km/h 7th gear, RPM is at 2K or 1.9K and during all of these, gear changes are done between 3-4K RPM only.

 

of course, under hard acceleration, 1st gear is changed to 2nd gear at 80km/h.

 

in singapore roads especially city / neighbourhood driving, i seldom reach 7th gear or 70km/h. usually dwindle between 5th and 6th, after that need start from 1st gear again due to traffic lights

[Sleepy-T]

More gears definitely better for FC (if thats what most drivers are concerned about). also depends on how the gearbox is tuned.

 

for e.g 7speed DSG from VW is short-shifting (upshifts very fast). at 50km/h (gradual acceleration), already at 5th gear. at 70km/h, 7th gear is reached. at 100km/h 7th gear, RPM is at 2K or 1.9K and during all of these, gear changes are done between 3-4K RPM only.

 

of course, under hard acceleration, 1st gear is changed to 2nd gear at 80km/h.

 

in singapore roads especially city / neighbourhood driving, i seldom reach 7th gear or 70km/h. usually dwindle between 5th and 6th, after that need start from 1st gear again due to traffic lights

agreed with u bro,

Hit D7 very fast, so how ur Roc?

smooth ?

[Kiadaw]

In Sunny Singapore, 4 speed auto doesn't seem a big trade off, but a gear or 2 more will certainly help, in both acceration & fuel economy (if gear is properly set up), On high speed roads, 4 speed auto are a pain, especially low cc cars, even granny will disapprove of. That could explain why you seems see people drives small cc auto cars in Western European countries.

 

I personally will avoid getting a 4 speed auto box car. But I guess in Sunny Singapore, its not such a big deal, especially most auto conomic cars comes with this configuration.

[Zyrofillica]

In Sunny Singapore, 4 speed auto doesn't seem a big trade off, but a gear or 2 more will certainly help, in both acceration & fuel economy (if gear is properly set up), On high speed roads, 4 speed auto are a pain, especially low cc cars, even granny will disapprove of. That could explain why you seems see people drives small cc auto cars in Western European countries.

 

I personally will avoid getting a 4 speed auto box car. But I guess in Sunny Singapore, its not such a big deal, especially most auto conomic cars comes with this configuration.

 

no matter where u are, more gears always means better energy efficiency/fuel efficiency. unless you talking about 9 speed close ratio gearbox of those dragsters.

[Dadiao]

Just curious, how does 5-speed compare with CVT ?

 

Will we be having a slower pick-up, but significant economy improvement ?

(Was wondering why we are having Auto while Japan are having CVT, thought our

traffic patterns are similar in terms of packed city driving.)

[Coupecabriolet]

Hi bro.

 

smooth acceleration (doing it gradually).

 

you won't feel much of the gear changes, but can hear the sound. so in order to cruise at 70km/h and above, i need to hear 6 times of those

 

under "D", priority of gearbox is low FC. so make full use of 7 gears, always constantly trying to shift to the next higher gear if possible.

 

under "S", becomes 6 gears (havent been able to shift to 7th gear). rev is held longer in each gear, gear change takes place at higher revs. and aural feedback is much better!

 

regarding reduction of 1 gear in S-mode, my family friend's C350 also performed the same. 7G-tronic but 6 gears in "S". why ah?

 

-----

 

for 6speed or 7speed auto gearbox, if suddenly depress more pedal during cruising, how many gears does it drop down then accelerate?

 

7DSG can drop 1 or 2 depending on pressure on the pedal. if 4AT, how many ah?

 

sorry for the questions, trying to find out more

[Sleepy-T]

Hi bro.

 

smooth acceleration (doing it gradually).

 

you won't feel much of the gear changes, but can hear the sound. so in order to cruise at 70km/h and above, i need to hear 6 times of those

 

under "D", priority of gearbox is low FC. so make full use of 7 gears, always constantly trying to shift to the next higher gear if possible.

 

under "S", becomes 6 gears (havent been able to shift to 7th gear). rev is held longer in each gear, gear change takes place at higher revs. and aural feedback is much better!

 

regarding reduction of 1 gear in S-mode, my family friend's C350 also performed the same. 7G-tronic but 6 gears in "S". why ah?

 

-----

 

for 6speed or 7speed auto gearbox, if suddenly depress more pedal during cruising, how many gears does it drop down then accelerate?

 

7DSG can drop 1 or 2 depending on pressure on the pedal. if 4AT, how many ah?

 

sorry for the questions, trying to find out more

Yap I agreed, my ride hit D7 in relavent short time,

Hummmm I never experience that in my golf S mode,

maybe tomorrow I will go try and see it.

 

[5936]

Jus to share with you on switching off OD.

 

My brother had a Spacewagon, that time only 2L engine 4AT. sluggish power. So he switched off OD. After 1yr+ gearbox KO.

 

Fo me, I would prefer more gears.