http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...d_transmission

 

Well, 6-speed Autos are already here and 7-speeds are being developed for street use (have been used in F1 for a while now). I think they should spend their $1 Billion+ to make their cars better and not a stupid transmission.

 

I know they're here but I think it means manual as we know it will go the way of the dinosaurs

 

Ford and GM making a tranmission.

Ford's contibution = Mechanically flawed.
GM's contribution = Electrically flawed.


Omer

 

http://www.mbusa.com/brand/models/S500V.jsp


Read 1st line under picture. Its supposed to make gearshifts smoother, flatten out the powerband, and eliminate auto-tragics "gear hunting" tendencies.

 

I think manuals will still be around for quite a while as far as sports cars are concerned. I can see them become very rare on sedans. High performance cars in the future will be shifting towards manuals with electronically controlled clutch similar to the Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG) on the M3s.

 

Those guys have it all wrong...

SMGs are the future. They are lighter and faster than automatic. The only problem is cost, but it'll drop with time.

SVTs is another future... Which is a inifinitive automatic gearbox... not just 6. They have few things to improve with SVTs, but we are getting there I guess.

I'd bet 6speed automatic will go the way of the dinosaurus

 

I drove a E500 with the 7-speed auto. Very smooth... I pressed the accelerator to the floor and it was hard to tell when the AT was shifting gears all the way up to 90mph.

 

Yea those variable ratio belt driven gears are interesting, perhaps gears wont even be necesary with an alternate power source (as if they'd ever let that happen..dreams on) we're wholly stuck on the oil track till..

 

I think you mean CVT = Continuously Variable Transmission.

In response to Jetpilot718's post, I don't think people realize that the Mercedes S500 he pointed out has a 7 speed automatic. When I saw the headline on the front of Yahoo yesterday about the 6-speed... I thought, big deal, not like one doesn't exist w/more speeds already.