[quote=RLove;174818]This issue has been talked to death on this forum, I don't know how you could miss probably more posts about this than anything else about the car.
Didn't mean to bring up a subject that has already been "talked to death", but I am a newbie here, and still waiting on the arrival of my Smart. This subject was my real only concern about the purchase, and I thank all of you for your input.
It seems pronounced because the automated manual is a new type of transmission for most of us. Don't think of it as an automatic transmission since it is really a manual transmission that is shifted for you by the computer. So imagine that you're driving a stick. When you shift a manual tranny, isn't there a lag when you shift between gears, especially 1st and 2nd (assuming you've driven a stick before)? It's the same thing here; the computer takes a little bit of time to shift gears for you, the same way it takes time for a person to shift gears manually.
For what it's worth, the car does shift a lot better after the break-in period. I suggest reading some of the threads on this subject in the forum to get more insight on this issue.
minime,with most people coming from cars with automatic transmissions the typical perception is that the transmission is terrible. It does not work like they do. Conventional automatic transmissions are more efficient today than ever before with the biggest increase with lockup converters.
Our cars have an automated manual transmission that are a bit uncultivated until they get broken in. My car is coming up on a year old and works great. I thought the manual shift capability would be the only thing that would make the car interesting and now find myself in auto 99.9 % of the time thinking about how well it manages to do the right thing.
good luck with your choice
karl
If you have ever driven a manual transmission, this is exactly what is feels like. That said, this is a manual transmission. The only difference is that it engages the clutch for you and changes gears for you.
Minime, W/B is right on. All shifting while underway is controlled by the accelerator peddle.
You will quickly learn to select the gear you want to be in by getting the feel of the gas peddle. To acquire this skill, like riding a bicycle, you will need to practice. A fun thing to do in a Smart car.
As for this subject being overly discussed? Not so... As newbies come aboard, this will continue to be a prime topic. Hell, half the owners on this board still haven't figured out the relationship between the accelerator and the shift points in "D". A2Jack.
Thank you ever so much a2jack...and thanks also for your great response to the above reply! You Rule!!! If one is sick of the same topic......there are plenty of other threads to pull.
Hell, half the owners on this board still haven't figured out the relationship between the accelerator and the shift points in "D". A2Jack.
Which I don't quite understand. The transmission works the same as an automatic in that regard. Slow acceleration, low shift points; hard acceleration, it stays in the lower gears for a longer amount of time. ::::
We just got home from a 48-hour trip, having left the baby home. I started him to warm him up and go put gas in for the first time. (I was at 1/4 of a tank. It took 6 gallons, for around $11 and change of 93 octane. Sweet. First MPG: 34.5, almost all of it stop-and-go suburban driving.) I realized a cheat for the paddle-shifters, when taking a left: start the turn in 1, turn the wheel and accelerate, and as I'm crossing the road the + paddle is now right under my LEFT hand, so I can upshift to 2 as I finish the turn.
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