Originally Posted By: d00df00d
"The feel of a stepped transmission" is three things:
1. Shift shock
2. Interruption in power delivery
3. The engine falling in and out of the optimal RPM range for whatever you're trying to do
In other words, all bad things.
I do agree that they made the package less efficient. If efficiency is your only metric, then sure, they're all "bad".
Life isn't always so black-and-white. I like to hear the engine rev up "through the gears". I like to feel the engine as it climbs through its power curve. I like to listen to the change in tone as it steadily increases in speed. I like to be able to load the engine down in a gear and not have it flare up in speed if I know that the load is temporary (like climbing a short hill or momentarily increasing my speed).
Variable ratios are boring to me. They further isolate the driver from the actions, from the feel, of the powertrain. I don't want that isolation. I want to feel it work. I want to hear it work. I actually LIKE that about stepped transmissions. I don't have manual transmissions in our vehicles for a few reasons, but it doesn't mean that I want to miss that feeling, that sensation, of a good engine/transmission combo going about its business.
I fully know that variable ratios are more efficient. I fully know that variable ratios enable better performance. That doesn't matter to me. If getting that last 1/10th of an MPG or that last 1 MPH in the 1320 means having to put up with a limp-feeling powertrain all the time, then I don't want it.
I don't have a problem with the mechanicals of a CVT. I like simple. I like easy. As a CVT owner, I would want to have a "D" mode where it would do its thing just like any other CVT. If I'm shuttling co-workers to lunch, or if my wife is driving the car, or if I'm just in the mood for quiet and smooth, "D" works. But I also want an "M" mode with paddle shifters so that I can work it up and down "through the gears" if I want to hear and feel the powertrain work. CVTs don't hold the engine for engine braking down hills or for switching back and forth on twisty roads. Sometimes that's what I want to do. Some may not want that, and that's cool; "D" is for them. Including an "M" mode costs very little and adds a huge degree of flexibility while still using the same equipment.