Drew Dowdell

you're jumping ahead of me Lamar, but yes. it ABSOLUTELY needs a 6th gear. you'll see why in the full review

I could TOTALLY drive that as long as it had bluetooth, NAV, heated and cooled seats, 27 speaker surround sound, and could run the Nurburi No really, I'd be interested in that Jeep if they built it.

Reg, I think I need to understand you better. When you say "lag" are you referring to the amount of time it take the transmission to shift from one gear to the next or are you referring to the amount of time it takes for the car to decide to shift down after you mash the gas?

I thought part of the idea of Alpha was that it was able to scale up better than Zeta was able to scale down. Thus you could still get most of the Zeta sized cars onto an Alpha platform without sacrificing size. Only the largest of the Zetas (Park Ave) wouldn't be able to make the switch.

Final entries need to be by tomorrow at 3pm eastern.

A slow shifting transmission is not an indicator of a crappy product

And why not?

LOL! Christmas crackers.

The atheist owner of the site posted a picture of his Christmas tree..... how far do you think you're going to get with this joke.

That's from two factors, first, they are reluctant to kick down for fuel economy reasons, second they are "soft" in their kick down for comfort reasons. I know it's not a passenger car, but that F-350 really smacked through the gears. If you put it in Tow/Haul mode it seemed even worse. The GMC was super super smooth and probably what you'd call "lazy" but when you wanted the speed, it would drop two gears for you and charge forward like a freaking locomotive. It really just has to do with the tuning of the transmission.

Bump. I'm reviving this thread so you all can post whore in here again. Why? It's the highest ranking f@#king thread according to google. We get 480 clicks per month on this thread for the keyword "Motivational Posters" To put that into perspective, the next highest search term is "Cheer and Gears" at 210 clicks per month. So have at it monsters....

Newest one I've driven was an '09 Audi A4. I didn't time it, so I don't know, but it felt "rubbery" compared to a double down shift in a 6-speed

A wider spread is an asset for either launch speed, cruising MPG, or a little of both. What Dwight is saying it that if a CVT's final drive matches a 6-speed's final drive, the 6-speed will have a better launch because the first and second gears are lower than what the CVT can manage. If the CVT's lowest ratio matches the lowest ratio on a 6-speed, the 6-speed will have better cruising mpg because the final drive ratio will be lower. And Reg, I find a fault with your assertion that a conventional automatic can't change the ratios as quickly. In some situations it would actually be quicker. The GM 6-speeds (and Toyota 6-speeds if I recall) can jump down two gears when needed, so you'll get a 6->4 shift or a 5->3 shift if you really mash the gas. A CVT has to sliiiiiiide down.

Before you two come to blows over this: Reg, just because the Subaru Legacy CVT runs at a lower RPM than a Subaru Legacy Automatic doesn't mean that an automatic can't run that at that RPM. It just means that Subaru, for whatever reason, choose a different top end ratio for the automatic. I don't remember exactly the RPM the 4-Cylinder Terrain ran at during a 70mph cruise, but it wasn't much over 2,000 rpm.

Saab engineers have all the fun.

It's been there for about a year now ;-) Before that it was in the same spot but said "View New Posts"

How very Eastern PA looking....

I think that's a good idea Camino. We can have another thread for dream cars once this one is done.

^ that's the kinda write up I'm looking for!

Can't hotlink to net car show Croc

Only answered what I could so far

How about Fiesta v. Polo.....

This is quickly turning into a "how many concepts of the last 50 years can we find pics of?!" thread. Try and whittle it down a bit and give me a why the concept is important or significant.

Oldsmobile Aerotech rip off!