Norm Peterson

That's an entirely valid observation and I have to give you credit. It's more noticeable to some people than others. Once the tranny has made up its mind what gear it needs to be in, there won't be a whole lot of difference between the two transmission types given that the ratios are reasonably similar.


Be careful what you ask for here. If you make it too eager to anticipate downshifts, it'll be forever hunting between gears under certain driving conditions (specific speeds in traffic and/or on grades). That gets really easy to hate (dammit, tranny - make up your mind!) even if you're only a passenger. Cars have been blasted almost mercilessly over this in the past.

Or upshifting too soon if you just "breathe" off the gas a little. I would not consider an unwanted upshift that ended up being followed by a forced downshift (as you squeeze back down on the throttle) as you drive through a highway entrance ramp to be desirable tranny behavior. There are some automatic trannies that are a bit better in this respect, but their designers/engineers still have to make some assumptions about how you as an individual naturally tend to drive. They aren't going to be right all the time for everybody (nobody is that good).

Or it may downshift two gears instead of only one like you wanted and would have done with a manual. Sometimes what you want is part throttle in a higher gear instead of a lurch and a lot of noise in a lower one.


Norm