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Why do British people have such a dim view of Automatic cars? (self.askuk)

submitted 10 months ago by Oneeightnine to c/askuk

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I've been driving an automatic since I passed nearly a decade ago. In that time whenever I tell anyone I drive auto, it's usually met with some level of derision. I think that attitude is changing, but I'm still kind of confused by it in the first place.

Why?

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[–] dragontamer@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

CVTs are always "in gear", and quickly adapt to whatever torque vs RPM band your engine needs. At no point is your engine every "out of gear". Their "noise is wrong" to anyone used to older transmissions, but their performance cannot be denied or ignored. I'm very impressed with their tech. Its just a matter of getting used to it IMO.

Manual transmissions can "shift ahead of time", so with enough brainpower and paying attention, you should usually be in the correct gear for any situation. But any particular gear-shift takes time to accomplish. The exception are 0-60 kind of drag-races (erm, 0-100km/hr for yall Brits), where the manual effort to gearshift is unavoidable, but typical driving with a manual is very pleasant because normal roads are far more predictable and no one is trying to drag-race around every corner on public roads.

Traditional Automatic transmissions all take time, and the clock starts after the user pushes the pedal (unlike manual which starts when the driver notices that another gear would be useful, often ahead of time).. So automatic transmission is always slower.

[–] mannycalavera 6 points 9 months ago

0-60 kind of drag-races (erm, 0-100km/hr for yall Brits)

Brits still use miles per hour. You might be thinking of the Irish, they use KM/H.... although they don't like being called Brits 🫠.

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 2 points 9 months ago

And yet any time you change throttle input they change gearing and have horrible "lag". While they may be always engaged they're never in the right "gear".