ib516 bought a new vehicle today

ve7prt wrote:

wilber1 wrote:

larry barnhart wrote:
Hard for me to understand needing more gears. Our GMC Acadia has 6 speeds, our 98 Buick park avenue had 4 and it was a great set up. Our 5 speed trannie in our chev works great .
chevman

It's hard to understand until you have had them. Automatics have gone from two speeds, to three speeds, to four speeds, to five and six speeds. So far I have never heard anyone say they wanted to go back to a transmission with fewer gears.

Personally, I can't see why you need so many flippin' gears for a gas engine? Sorry, but if you get the engine turning too slowly for a given speed, it's gonna lug something fierce. Or the tranny is gonna be constantly shifting to maintain speed up and down hills.

Now, for a diesel engine, I could see having 8/9/10 gears. I know my truck is a 6 speed, and I'd love to see 8, or 10, in it. Maybe one more OD ratio, but certainly a couple more straight ratios.

But, 8 or more gears for a gas engine is getting stupid. Besides, when you go into OD, doesn't the engine have to work harder to maintain speed than if you were at 1:1?

Cheers!
Mike

I'm no engineer (understatement, LOL) but I've read just the opposite theory, that with their wonderful torque curves diesel engines can get by with less gears due to better ability to stay "in a sweet spot," whereas gasoline engines require more gearing options to keep in their optimal powerband.

The only drawback I see to more gears is more shifting, which logic would dictate means more wear over a given set of miles than less gears.

Having said that, I certainly would think that multiple-speed (8,9,10) speed trans would be programmed to skip-shift when conditions allow, eliminating the "more wear" scenario from excess shifting.

Anyone know if the 8 & 9 speed boxes that recently hit the market (Ram/Jeep/Chrysler for instance) skip shifts or do they roll through each gear?

Ib516?