smart gearbox: light at the end of the tunnel?

[SuperGeek]

Originally Posted by NCC1701

This is would be great! I wish the smart 2.0 upgrade had addressed it.

There's a downside to shifting into neutral - freefall on a downhill slope. I went up to Birmingham in March, saw a sign that said, 6% grade, use lower gear. I was ready to downshift, but I just let off the gas and maintained a perfect speed. Others around me were riding their brakes to the bottom.

But I agree that in city driving, disengaging the clutch for those little downhill dips would be helpful for fuel economy. If we could have the option to choose, though... I don't know how they'd engineer it, but I always like a choice.

[homeslice]

Originally Posted by fortow

As far as going up hill and turning is concerned, when in auto the computer is programmed to use an absurdly low rev for every gear and so you really do need to gear down under those and other circumstances. This is part of the absurdity I've been referring to. Why put up with that when using the manual mode is so convenient, easy to use, and suitable? You can choose more suitable shift points and keep it in a specific gear when that's required, and also shift far more smoothly.

That's one thing I liked about Saturn. They have some kind of sensor that knows when you go up a hill and it helps downshift the car automatically without you having to floor it to do so. I remember seeing it in a commercial and something many years back. I wish all automatic cars would address that with a simple mercury switch. When the car hits a certain grade and meets a certain vacuum level, the car should downshift automatically.