Originally Posted By: RamFan
Now that I have your attention.
It seems to me that a pivotal point may have been reached with transmissions. It seems like automatic transmissions have not only caught up with manual transmissions but in some cases have surpassed them in regards to shift times, acceleration, and also possibly reliability. From a performance aspect alone, most of the top performance cars out there are use paddle shifters, not a true manual, instead of a traditional stick. What are your opinions? Are automatic transmissions of today on par with, or "better" than their manual counterparts?
Depends on what you want to do with it. If you want to have fun driving... you can't beat a stick. Paddle shifters are just ridiculous IMO- its an automatic with a manual mode and toys to play with. And yes, that even applies to dual-clutch manumatics in my opinion. If you want a real manual transmission, it has to have a stick and a clutch pedal.
If you want the fastest possible 1/4 mile time- automatics have won that battle since the early 1960s, no question. Automatics have won most of the strictly performance numbers battle for 40 years now, except for things like autocrossing where fine control is more important. The new dual-clutch ones are no exception- most people just can't shift that fast manually.
Heavy towing? Not as clear-cut and depends a LOT on the specific transmission design. Automatics are generally a lower-cost way to go since clutches are expensive and generally have to be done at ~100k miles. Truck automatics on the other hand are generally 200k mile items if cared for at all. There are some heavy truck stick transmissions out there (the NVGs in Cummins/Dodge and GM trucks for example) that are really built for towing and possibly better than automatics, but you have to get to the HD/diesel truck lines to see that. In 1/2 and 3/4 ton trucks, automatic is generally better.
General driving in a passenger car- its pretty much a tossup. Modern automatics generally win the efficiency battle because the transmission controller works so closely with the engine controller to optimize shifting, but a good stick driver can still win overall.
Now that I have your attention.
It seems to me that a pivotal point may have been reached with transmissions. It seems like automatic transmissions have not only caught up with manual transmissions but in some cases have surpassed them in regards to shift times, acceleration, and also possibly reliability. From a performance aspect alone, most of the top performance cars out there are use paddle shifters, not a true manual, instead of a traditional stick. What are your opinions? Are automatic transmissions of today on par with, or "better" than their manual counterparts?
Depends on what you want to do with it. If you want to have fun driving... you can't beat a stick. Paddle shifters are just ridiculous IMO- its an automatic with a manual mode and toys to play with. And yes, that even applies to dual-clutch manumatics in my opinion. If you want a real manual transmission, it has to have a stick and a clutch pedal.
If you want the fastest possible 1/4 mile time- automatics have won that battle since the early 1960s, no question. Automatics have won most of the strictly performance numbers battle for 40 years now, except for things like autocrossing where fine control is more important. The new dual-clutch ones are no exception- most people just can't shift that fast manually.
Heavy towing? Not as clear-cut and depends a LOT on the specific transmission design. Automatics are generally a lower-cost way to go since clutches are expensive and generally have to be done at ~100k miles. Truck automatics on the other hand are generally 200k mile items if cared for at all. There are some heavy truck stick transmissions out there (the NVGs in Cummins/Dodge and GM trucks for example) that are really built for towing and possibly better than automatics, but you have to get to the HD/diesel truck lines to see that. In 1/2 and 3/4 ton trucks, automatic is generally better.
General driving in a passenger car- its pretty much a tossup. Modern automatics generally win the efficiency battle because the transmission controller works so closely with the engine controller to optimize shifting, but a good stick driver can still win overall.
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