Help us car shop......

[infinite monkey]

Exactly. It wouldn't work well for my current commute.

[HungLikeJesus]

My wife's Audi A3 has a kind of manual/automatic transmission, which gives you the best features of both.

[infinite monkey]

You know, my car has some setting that you can shift it if you want. I've never used it. Where is the clutch? How does it work? I'd forgotten about it until you posted that.

[zippyt]

Our Mits Out lander has that to , they call it Sport shift , the clutch is automatic ,
I Have had to go to manual drop a gear get the engine Revving Way high go up a gear to get out of tight traffic situations befor , my wife Hates it when i do that !!!
But its fun

[HungLikeJesus]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

You know, my car has some setting that you can shift it if you want. I've never used it. Where is the clutch? How does it work? I'd forgotten about it until you posted that.

The Audi uses an S tronic transmission. Here's the description from Wikipedia:

The Direct-Shift Gearbox (German: Direkt-Schalt-Getriebe[1]), commonly abbreviated to DSG,[2][3] is an electronically controlled dual clutch[2] multiple-shaft manual gearbox, in a transaxle design - without a conventional clutch pedal,[4] and with full automatic,[2] or semi-manual control. The first actual Dual Clutch transmissions derived from Porsche in-house development for 962 racing cars in the 1980s.
In simple terms, it is two separate manual gearboxes (and clutches), contained within one housing, and working as one unit.[2][3][5] It was designed by BorgWarner,[4] and was initially licensed to the German automotive industry concern Volkswagen Group (which includes the Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, Škoda, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche, and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles automotive marques), with support by IAV GmbH.[citation needed] By using two independent clutches,[2][5] a DSG can achieve faster shift times,[2][5] and eliminates the torque converter of a conventional epicyclic automatic transmission.[2]

...
Operational introduction

The internal combustion engine drives two clutch packs.[2][4][5] The outer clutch pack drives gears 1, 3, 5[2][4] (and 7 when fitted), and reverse[2] — the outer clutch pack has a larger diameter compared to the inner clutch, and can therefore handle greater torque loadings. The inner clutch pack drives gears 2, 4, and 6.[2][4] Instead of a standard large dry single-plate clutch, each clutch pack for the six-speed DSG is a collection of four small wet interleaved clutch plates (similar to a motorcycle wet multi-plate clutch). Due to space constraints, the two clutch assemblies are concentric, and the shafts within the gearbox are hollow and also concentric.[5] Because the alternate clutch pack's gear-sets can be pre-selected[2][4][5] (predictive shifts enabled via the 'unused' section of the gearbox), un-powered time while shifting is avoided[2][5] because the transmission of torque is simply switched from one clutch-pack to the other.[2] This means that the DSG takes only about 8 milliseconds to upshift.[3][4] In comparison, the sequential manual transmission (SMT) in the Ferrari F430 Scuderia takes 60 milliseconds to shift,[18] or 150 milliseconds in the Ferrari Enzo.[3] The quoted time for upshifts is the time the wheels are completely non-powered.

[glatt]

These drive by wire cars make me nervous. You don't hear about the acceleration problem in cars any more, but I think it's just because the press moved on to the next scare story. Give me a mechanical connection to the throttle and to the transmission and I'm happier. All this routing the driver inputs through the computer seems unnecessarily complicated. What happens when a neutrino hits one of the critical paths in the processor and the driver's inputs corrupted?

[HungLikeJesus]

I understand, glatt. I bought a slide rule last year and I'm still trying to figure out how to use it.

[monster]

OMFG the nissan sales guy was Teh Slime....... :::shudder::: ::::need shower::::

[monster]

Originally Posted by jimhelm

If you decide to look at the Versa, I can be of some small assistance. I've never driven one, but as I recall it does do pretty well when compared to the fit and the yaris. Mortie git a fit, razz got a yaris. Maybe they will chime in.

Drove the Versa and the Fit today. Preferred the Fit. Wing mirrors on Versa are weird, way too small

[jimhelm]

did you drive the sedan or the hatchback? I just saw the 2012 sedan, and it's a LOT nicer looking than the 11. didn't really notice the mirrors....

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

Manual transmission is superior in every situation except stop and go traffic on the highway.

I prefer the manual in stop and go traffic. Some behind me do not. Because I do not accelerate quickly, then brake on the bumper of that car in front. And because I am not distracted by e-mail on my cell phone.

All automatic transmissions are trying to do what a manual transmission does better. An automatic transmission computer does not know what the 'human' computer sees and is planning to do. Too often, an automatic starts shifting while I am complaining what took it so long. Automatics tend to shift when it should have already been in that gear seconds ago. But then its computer does not know what I know.

A most common reason for getting stuck in snow is what the automatic transmissions does. What an automatic does makes a stuck wheel even 'stuckier'. A stick makes possible superior control and traction so that snow shoveling is even unnecessary. Again, because the 'human' computer knows more than a transmission's computer.

Many cars now offer the two best transmissions - manual or constantly variable automatic. A fixed gear automatic transmission will probably be obsolete by the next decade.

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

All this routing the driver inputs through the computer seems unnecessarily complicated.

Your car is already a computer network. The steering computer is not the computer that runs an engine or that controls the electric windows. Yes, even windows are now computerized. Often using a technology pioneered by Intel in the 1970s - CAN bus.

[plthijinx]

Originally Posted by tw

..... And because I am not distracted by e-mail on my cell phone.......

watchin' porn in traffic instead are ya??

just kiddin man!

[tw]

Originally Posted by plthijinx

watchin' porn in traffic instead are ya??

Keep your eyes on the road. What happens five miles up is also available for public viewing on the highway. And you don't even have to pay to watch.

Real life is always better than a script written in LA's Valley.

[Beest]

Originally Posted by monster

OMFG the nissan sales guy was Teh Slime....... :::shudder::: ::::need shower::::

Lol, he was a noob, three months on the job, Creative writing major. he was very excited that I had a pen.

He did all the tricks, kept going into the back to 'check with the manager'

it was funny at first but got old.

I'm renting a nissan versa and like it, pros and cons compared to Fit or Fiesta.

gonna be 3K more for a Subaru, and there aren't even any I can look at for 2 weeks and we'd have to order with a 4- 8 week wait, worth it ?