Auto or Manual

The thing is, a 1.4 is going to be slow no matter what gearbox you have in it. Would you rather row through the manual gears 1000's of times a day as you try to force every last km/h of acceleration out of the tiny engine, or sit back and cruise gently along and relax while the car works out how to meet your accelerator inputs.

I believe auto's make even more sense in slow cars - because it takes away a lot of the hard labour involved with changing gears. If you have a V8 manual, then the gear you are in is largely irrelevant as the engine has enough torque anytime.

My wife had a slow 1.3 auto. But it was far more relaxing to drive than my 1.4 manual.
 
Gaz{M} said:
The thing is, a 1.4 is going to be slow no matter what gearbox you have in it. Would you rather row through the manual gears 1000's of times a day as you try to force every last km/h of acceleration out of the tiny engine, or sit back and cruise gently along and relax while the car works out how to meet your accelerator inputs.

I believe auto's make even more sense in slow cars - because it takes away a lot of the hard labour involved with changing gears. If you have a V8 manual, then the gear you are in is largely irrelevant as the engine has enough torque anytime.

My wife had a slow 1.3 auto. But it was far more relaxing to drive than my 1.4 manual.
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the i20 1.4 auto is anything but slow. very nice driving experience.
 
Of course the smaller the engine the more work the auto saves you, so really you should say small engine, auto, big engine, manual. If laziness is your reason for wanting to avoid changing gears.

unskinnybob said:
What car? One auto? IMHO you owe it to yourself to try a new auto. 4-speed auto's I would agree are dated and not the greatest pleasure to drive. Modern auto's with 5-speed boxes or more are fantastic.
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Driven several. I want gears and I want full control of when changes occur. I do not want the car trying to decide when to change for me. End of story.
 
Auto boxes is not that great. I sit in traffic every day with a manual and sometimes wish for an auto, but every time I drive my second car with the auto, I’m let down. (That’s a Kia Sedona, 2.9 diesel)
Test drove the Ford Focus with the power shift auto box the other day and was sort of impressed, nice that it downshifts for you in sport mode, but just feels like it’s always changing up to soon in normal mode and keeps it too long in sport mode again. I normally don’t drive slow, but the auto just seems wrong in when it decides to change the gears.
I believe that the Ford power shift is on par with the VW, haven’t driven that, but if I look at the Ford, Im still not impressed with auto boxes.
 
patrick said:
I'm too much of a control freak for an auto... Manual all the way...
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All the autos I have had have been semi auto. Push the stick to the left and you are in "manual". Stick up or down to change or change via buttons on the steering.

I played around with it for a bit in the early days and ended up just sticking to auto.
Now put that auto into sports mode and you are singing a different tune. My current A6 used to scare me a bit in sports mode for the first few months :) It turns from a luxury sedan into a freaking beast. Flipping brilliant the way it transforms.
 
I want an auto next - a dual clutch actually - but the thing with Volvo is their larger engine have the old auto and the smaller engines have their dual clutch. Kinda fscked up :/
 
Naks said:
their DSG is the best, so if you want a dual clutch mated to a strong engine, it's a no-brainer :)
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Nah I agree with you ... I'd love a DSG gearbox.

In all honesty I would consider an Audi if Volvo don't mate their dual clutch to a quicker engine, but I prefer a Volvo in general over a VW.
 
Naks said:
Volvos are just so boring. And pap engines...
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I've yet to find a GTI that runs away from me ... and that's decent enough in my books. Majority being behind me. Drivability is ahead of the VW too - with 400nm torque means I can put my foot down in pretty much any gear and it pulls

I get comments constantly on the car (ask phaktza - who dislikes Volvo and hates admitting it that when we took a drive for a few hours, I got loads of stares and comments) ... and then there's the features inside like the sound system that I'd more than likely lose on a VW - unless I spent R400,000.00+ on one :/

In my eyes, the major weakness is the gearbox .... either slush or manual

EDIT : phaktza won't admit it, but ask him how his remapped 2.0T A3 DSG was again my pap manual Volvo :P
 
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Dolby said:
I've yet to find a GTI that runs away from me ... I get comments constantly on the car (ask phaktza - who dislikes Volvo and hates admitting it that when we took a drive for a few hours, I got loads of stares and comments) ... and then there's the features inside like the sound system that I'd more than likely lose on a VW - unless I spent R400,000.00+ on one :/
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Which one do you have? The only Volvo I have driven was an S40 with the 2.0 engine - even my Defender could out-accelerate that :)
 
Naks said:
Which one do you have? The only Volvo I have driven was an S40 with the 2.0 engine - even my Defender could out-accelerate that :)
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T5

Standard is 169kw/320nm and yes, I've cheated a little with a remap and intercooler which you may feel unfair. However it doesn't add that much more power over standard ... and I'd say that in a stock for stock, it'd be only marginally behind a GTI5/6 on pull off but catch up later.

My software pretty much compensates for the extra 250KG over a GTI
 
Naks said:
We should have a battle of the Swedes then. My Saab pushes out 188kW and 350Nm. I'm seriously considering a Stage 0 Vtuner remap which will take it to 238kW/550Nm :whistle:
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Nice car btw!

Yea I should be about 180ish kw / 400nm ... so very similar actually :P

I'd be worried about those figures on the standard engine tbh

So why are you punting the Germans? As much as I like them, there's little tempting me to sway from *my* Volvo ...
 
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