A thing of hate

"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
10/04/2015 at 17:30 • Filed to: Automated manual transmission

A thing like this:

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The automated manual transmission is hated by many, especially by those who haven’t driven one. Take the previous Smart For Two which gets an unreasonable amount of whinging about its AMT. I though quite like them.

So far I’ve used them in a Smart, several Citroen C3s and a Peugeot 107 and have been driven in buses with Volvo’s iShift. They’ve all been fine. Not perfect by any manner of means but OK.

In the past week I’ve added the Fiat Dualogic to my driving tally and have been driven in buses with the Scania Opticruise. Yes, they were both fine too.

So why the hate?

More love for the AMT please, people.

DISCUSSION (12)

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Cé hé sin
10/04/2015 at 17:34

I still hate them. I haven’t found a way to leave a light smoothly in manual mode.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Cé hé sin
10/04/2015 at 17:39

I’ve only driven two. One was absolutely atrocious, the other was quite nice.

Will Habel > Cé hé sin
10/04/2015 at 18:11

How on earth could anybody think the smart’s automanual is acceptable. I was in seattle recently, and my friend and I rented one through a car sharing service. I had assumed it was equipped with a normal automatic. I seriously thought the transmission was failing when we drove it. It shifts beyond slowly under heavy acceleration, which is probably what you would be doing in a smart anyway, and the “manual” shift mode is no better. It feels like a 4 hour delay between gear changes. That, and the damn computer is never sure which gear it should be in.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Cé hé sin
10/04/2015 at 18:16

The AMT in the Smart deserves all the hatred it can get. That was a heinously terrible piece of shit.

If one has never driven an actual manual, then it might have been tolerable. But when my wife and went to test drive the Smart we both knew to drive a proper manual and that made it infuriating waiting on the stupid computer to do it for us.

If there are better systems out there, then I suppose it could work, but I think we are okay without these in cars entirely. Unless one is as good as the VW DSG/Porsche PDK systems, I will not ever want to drive a car so equipped.

I also refuse to drive anything but a true manual anyway.

GTI Sprinks > Cé hé sin
10/04/2015 at 19:02

honestly, i love my amt in my jetta (same as the one in gti, gli, golf r, etc). It can buck, but i think that’s mostly when it’s an gear change like a rolling stop or something.

Cé hé sin > GTI Sprinks
10/05/2015 at 04:54

That’s a twin clutch box though, it’s not the same thing.

GTI Sprinks > Cé hé sin
10/05/2015 at 08:16

the more ya know.

Cé hé sin > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
10/06/2015 at 09:23

I’ve driven four different types and been driven in two more. The whole lot of them managed moving off just fine.

Cé hé sin > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
10/06/2015 at 09:23

Which were they?

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Cé hé sin
10/06/2015 at 09:28

Audi R8 (excellent) Ferrari 360 (jerky and terrible)

Cé hé sin > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
10/06/2015 at 12:44

And you managed this how?

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Cé hé sin
10/06/2015 at 13:00

My parents being awesome and buying me track experience days for my birthday and Christmas sometimes. Got to drive R8, 360, Ariel Atom, Mk4 Golf R32 and DB9 so far. Had a drift experience day too but unfortunately it was pretty underwhelming (poorly organised and crappy instructors).