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 have the ZF 8 speed behind a Turbo DI gas engine and it is with out a doubt the nicest transmission I have ever owned. The torque converter is only used in idle, reverse and to launch the vehicle, then it locks until just before you come to a stop. Shifts are super fast and when the converter unlocks it often feels like a manual clutch disengaging as you come to a stop. It doesn't split shift on the way up but it can kick down directly from 8th to 2nd. It is a six speed with 2 OD's and all the six speed autos out there are four speeds with 2 OD's, so you have two more gears than a six speed between 1st and 1:1 and you never feel like you are stuck between a gear too high and a gear too low.

What makes me curious is why MOPAR took an eight speed with two OD ratios and made it a nine speed with four OD ratios. I'm sure they had a reason, I'd just like to know what it was.