i think latest CVTs are fine for everything thats 2.5l powered and above (like in Camry 2.5l weight/power ratio). For less powerful cars, manuals are better or something like DSGs... as CVT's will simply make them feel slower, even if they are not.

For hybrids it is perfect application, as it is CVT only in theory and doesnt have anything to do with belt CVTs... plus it also helps one problem that CVTs have, which is slower response when in high ratio, as electric motors give it instant power.

In V6 and modern CVT, i dont think people will miss 6AT at all, unless they are literally driving it on track or something.

LOL okay man, whatever you want to think.

Here I'll help a bit.

With a traditional 4-speed automatic, if you're cruising around town in 3rd gear and a light turns yellow and you get on it a bit to make the light, the engineer doing the calibration has to figure out at which point the transmission should kick down to 2nd gear, and when it should just stay in 3rd. Relatively speaking, that's pretty simple.

With an 8-speed automatic, what was 3rd gear is now more like 5th gear, and now they have to consider when to kickdown from 5th to 4th, or from 4th to 3rd, or from 3rd to 2nd, or...... from 5th to 3rd, or from 4th to 2nd, or...... from 5th to 2nd, all in the same speed range.

But you think that ought to be easier. :egads:

What you're suggesting is simply absurd and beyond comprehension, that something more complicated ought to be easier. Nope, sorry. I'm an engineer. Calibration is something we work on all the time. Yes, I would know.

You sure do post a lot in this forum, which is fine. But with so many head-scratchers and occasional whoppers like these, I find it hard to believe even half of what you post even when you do sound like you might know what you're talking about.

Thanks for the laugh at least. :bigok:

I'm just gonna sign out of this one now.

LOL.

so condescending. great post.

4AT's have 2 real gear ratios that have to be used for all of your acceleration between 10 and 80 MPH. Very often people complain that they dont like their ratios as it is not suitable for their type of driving. I have a friend who is now looking to change final gear ratio on his car as he cruises a lot at 100 MPH and his car has short one. He has 6 speed car, and if it was 8 speed he would not have this problem at all.

With 8AT, you have 8 different ratios for transmission to chose, thus almost always being able to be in good ratio no matter what kind of driving you like - slow or fast.

What you are talking about it transmission logic which can be refined and updated and is not a big issue... once you select actual gear ratios, they are not changeable in the car anymore.