Hmm, I'd love a manual. Only ever learnt and had access to "auto" cars. Now with the CVT, I'm driving in "Sport Mode" by default. so much so, I've had a few retarded moment, where I've been on "D" and gone to "shift down" and gone into "N". LOLz.
I hate the paddles. Give me the stick any day. The paddles can be useful "sometimes", but downshifting before a corner as a forethought rather than an afterthought is a good policy.
Ive had 2 auto cars in my life (out of 11 cars that i have owned), 1 was my drag car and the other was my 6speed auto turbo falcon that i sold to buy the EVO X, otherwise all my cars have been manuals
Manual here, although almost wishing I got the auto - only for economy on the highway - the manual needs a 6th gear or higher gearing. 3,000 rpm @ 100km/h is not cool.
You know that the economy is crap when a Commodore wagon uses less fuel on the longer trips!
Last edited by Bandit on Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
You don't get better fuel economy with the CJ manual. The CVT ratio in its "6th" gear is higher than the manual's 5th gear. At 100km/h the CVT is doing significantly less RPM than the manual (I don't know exactly, but in the order of 500+rpm._
I havel driven a 2.4 Outlander with the CVT and found the engine/gearbox loved getting into highest gear possible very quickly - so much so that it regularly cruises along at just over 1,000rpm. I thought that was a bit low before, but have since changed the way i change gears in my car (ie short shift) as the engine obviously doesnt mind working at lower rpm.
I cant disagree with that, except that the lower the RPM to more work the engine has to do to keep the car doing the same speed, or changing down gears at the slightest hill, which means using more fuel,
I do 6.8-7.5 avg from Sydney to Gwandalan on the freeway in my manual and I have not heard many autos say that low.