The Skoda Thread

[Pale Rider]

Modern autos - essentially clutchless manuals - are usually at least as economical as manuals.

They can be moreso, the auto box never tires of changing so it's always in the 'right' gear.

 

[rogerzilla]

The trade-off is occasional jerky changes at lower speeds (especially if it pre-selects the wrong gear, because it can't see the road ahead) and horrendous repair costs if anything goes wrong. Conventional slushboxes are slower to change and less efficient, but they are always smooth (to the point of being slurred) and incredibly reliable, even when driven by USians

 

[Drago]

Give me a slush every time. The main load bearing component tnis fluid, so keep on top of periodic changes and you're laughing. No clutch (or even worse, dual cutch) no DMF, no effort, bliss.

The downside is, of course, the it takes a car with a fair bit of torque over a wide spread to make them work properly.

I own all my cars - no renting on PCP or other such rubbish for me - so steer clear of MMT type boxes for the reasons the wise Rogerzilla states. As a consequence of all the above I'm stuck with a hateful manual box (the box is fine, I just hate manuals) on the 2008 dog van. I meant whatever next, valve radios in the dashboard, hand crank starting handles?

 

[Gunk]

Give me a slush every time

Me too, I haven’t had a manual car as a daily driver since 1996

 

[vickster]

A friend‘s lease is up on her black Octavia hatch…she’s going to replace with the same car…but in hyper/mamba green Should stop any SMIDSYs!

View: https://youtu.be/5QyBAHsaSlA


She‘s a 51 year old red head

Makes Fiona, my green VRS estate look conservative!

 

[Jameshow]

The trade-off is occasional jerky changes at lower speeds (especially if it pre-selects the wrong gear, because it can't see the road ahead) and horrendous repair costs if anything goes wrong. Conventional slushboxes are slower to change and less efficient, but they are always smooth (to the point of being slurred) and incredibly reliable, even when driven by USians

VW dsg rarely makes a poor shift ime. Just as smooth as a auto tbh. Although my autos have been higher mileage. Dsg is now approx 100k.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

We decided against going to look at the blue Kodiaq, but it doesn't mean that the 'automatic battle' has been lost by the wife

Give me a slush every time. The main load bearing component tnis fluid, so keep on top of periodic changes and you're laughing. No clutch (or even worse, dual cutch) no DMF, no effort, bliss.

The downside is, of course, the it takes a car with a fair bit of torque over a wide spread to make them work properly.

It seems so inefficient; 'stirring' a fluid round to provide motion, rather than a mechanical link

 

[rogerzilla]

We decided against going to look at the blue Kodiaq, but it doesn't mean that the 'automatic battle' has been lost by the wife

It seems so inefficient; 'stirring' a fluid round to provide motion, rather than a mechanical link

It only uses the torque converter for pulling away and between gears. Otherwise it's basically a big Sturmey-Archer. There is a lockup mechanism (large multi-plate wet clutch) which is engaged as soon as the car senses the speeds of the rotor and housing are reasonably closely matched.

One big loss of efficiency (and cause of fluid overheating) was straining uselessly against the brakes at traffic lights, but auto stop-start has pretty much eliminated that.

 

[Drago]

It seems so inefficient; 'stirring' a fluid round to provide motion, rather than a mechanical link

But then having to wave one's arms about repeatedly in order to speed up or slow down is also inefficient. It comes down to whether one would prefer the car to handle the inefficiency or the driver.

My preference is that I dislike driving and want to be as comfortbwke as i can and expend as little energy and thought as possible, so prefer that the car should handle it for me. I don't buy a dog and expect to have to bark myself.

Others may actually enjoy driving and prefer working at it, in which case all power to them. It's a broad church, drivers just pick what works for them (or more likely what they can afford.)

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

@Drago
Given the ultimate choice, I'd keep a manual, but.............. 'SWMBO' will undoubtedly have the say-so...........

Happy Wife = Happy Life?

 

[Drago]

I'm lucky, Mrs D prefers autos too.

 

[Gunk]

I'm lucky, Mrs D prefers autos too.

Mrs Gunk does as well so we’re a two auto family

 

[rogerzilla]

I prefer manual but SO only has an auto licence. So I compromise by having an auto Mazda 3 and a manual MX-5.

 

[Jameshow]

We decided against going to look at the blue Kodiaq, but it doesn't mean that the 'automatic battle' has been lost by the wife

It seems so inefficient; 'stirring' a fluid round to provide motion, rather than a mechanical link

A dsg works differently in that it uses double automated clutches so there isn't that loss of efficiency. You'll only find a true auto box on the big Audis in the vag stable.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

A dsg works differently in that it uses double automated clutches so there isn't that loss of efficiency. You'll only find a true auto box on the big Audis in the vag stable.

Thanks James
When the time comes, I guess I'll have to test-drive, but go along with 'the boss'