Air Con v Climate Control

[John Ratsey]

I changed to automatic 6 years ago and wouldn't (couldn't?) go back to manual. I don't remember any time needed to adjust. My left foot lives on the foot rest and driving is a matter of selecting D and using the right foot to indicate if I want to go faster or slower. There are the paddles on the steering wheel (tug the left one to change down, right one to change up) if you feel that a different engine speed is appropriate but for the rest of the time it's best to let the car do what it thinks best as that's the most economical way to proceed.

[Downsizer]

I changed last year aged 73 - no problems.  Driving is more relaxed, not least because the engine revs with CVT are generally lower despite what heavy-footed reviewers say.  I strongly recommend you to go for it if you're happy with the orange!

[Jocko]

I might arrange a test drive with a CVT. Just for the experience.

[culzean]

Just put your left foot on the foot rest and keep it there. I have driven automatics for years and can't understand why anyone wants to change gear themselves. Much easier to drive and auto, especially in town. You will soon get used to it and wonder why you didn't do it 50 years ago!

I was basically forced to drive automatics for many years when living overseas and manual boxes were a special order (long wait), virtually non-existent on second hand market,  sure and they were 'convenient',  especially around town - but came back to UK and had no problem reverting back to manual boxes and still have no problem with them,  My wife had a CVT in this country for years and she too now drives a manual Jazz Si,  and does not miss the Auto.  One of the pleasures of riding my motorbikes is to change gear (motorbike boxes are nothing like car boxes, they just snick smoothly from gear to gear,  sometimes don't even need clutch), and bikes are available with auto boxes these days,  even the powerful ones like Honda VFR1200,  but never really wanted one.   

Auto boxes are becoming plentiful these days and its all part of the push towards 'driverless vehicles' - but having read Tesla forums and seen recently that the guy from Apple who went to Tesla to develop autonomous vehicles has now resigned,  and the chip maker who  up until now supplied Tesla has refused to supply chips anymore due to their worry about getting sued for crashes I wonder if they know something we don't know (we may suspect they have big problems but they are never gonna say publicly are they).

If I had problems with limbs or joints that were painful or did not work I may well have an Auto again,  but as I don't and do not spend much time in traffic I won't be getting one anytime soon.

[Jocko]

I drove an auto from 1991 until last year (a Carlton, a Cavalier and my Volvo S40), and loved them. I would never have considered a CVT auto, probably an unreasonable assumption, but to me a CVT is a DAF 55/66, and older motorists know what they were like!
When I drove for Stagecoach it was all automatics (my PCV licence was only for automatics) but I have also driven vans regularly, so I never had a problem swapping.
The only problem I ever had swapping was after a three week trip to California in 1986. After driving an auto (a new experience for me) for the duration, a work colleague brought his 7.2 Litre, 1971 pre-federal spec Corvette Stingray in, on my last day. I was allowed to drive it, and at the first set of lights it struggled to stop. It was not until it stalled (and it is not easy to stall a big block V8), that I realised I had forgotten about the clutch. And I'd been driving manuals for 20 years by then!

[mikebore]

I would never have considered a CVT auto, probably an unreasonable assumption, but to me a CVT is a DAF 55/66, and older motorists know what they were like!

Yes, a very unreasonable assumption!

[culzean]

I would never have considered a CVT auto, probably an unreasonable assumption, but to me a CVT is a DAF 55/66, and older motorists know what they were like!

Yes, a very unreasonable assumption!

My wife had a Fiat with CVT,  and I have to say that the CVT was the best and most reliable part of the car.  The 'clutch' was interesting,  it was magnetic powder between two plate with an electro-magnetic  coil - when the coil was de-energised the powder just acted like a fluid and the plates slipped, as the clutch took up the drive the voltage to the coil was 'ramped up' and the powder solidified as the magnetic bits stuck together,  have to say the clutch was verrry smooth and trouble free - no jumping or jerking as seems to be the case with Jazz if you don't take good care of fluid changes etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_particle_clutch

[andruec]

no jumping or jerking as seems to be the case with Jazz if you don't take good care of fluid changes etc.

FYI only the Mk1 CVT Jazz has a clutch. Mk2 and Mk3 have torque converters (locking of course) so reliability/maintenance shouldn't be an issue.

I don't know what the iShift Jazz had but maintenance on that is easy and cheap.

[culzean]

no jumping or jerking as seems to be the case with Jazz if you don't take good care of fluid changes etc.

FYI only the Mk1 CVT Jazz has a clutch. Mk2 and Mk3 have torque converters (locking of course) so reliability/maintenance shouldn't be an issue.

I don't know what the iShift Jazz had but maintenance on that is easy and cheap.

The ishift was an automated manual gearbox and so had a standard clutch (also automated).

[Jocko]

I believe it was the Ford 100E that had the option of a manual gearbox with an electric clutch. When you placed your hand on the gear lever, the clutch disengaged. I have no idea how you started off!
My father was involved in changing one, on a mates car, to a conventional clutch

[VicW]

but to me a CVT is a DAF 55/66, and older motorists know what they were like!

Modern CVT's bear little resemblance to the DAF version which used expanding pulleys and drive belts as do the modern versions but the control systems are improved enormously and it no longer uses rubber belts but steel ones.
There were four versions of the DAF namely the 33, 44, 55 and 66, the latter largely being a Volvo who bought DAF in the mid seventies.
The 33 and 44 had a single drive belt but the 55 and 66 had two, there was no differential however so they had excellent traction in the winter.The 55 and 66 had a Renault 1300 engine and a centrifugal clutch and relied on manifold vacuum and springs  to operate the expanding pulley system.
I owned a 55 for a couple of years when we lived in Scotland and covered a lot of miles in it going around scotland and up and down to England.

Vic.

[Jocko]

I had to work on the transmission of a colleagues 55 once, and it was a pain in the butt. Nothing wrong with the principal (all our machine tools used that transmission system)

[Paulwhitt20]

Modern CVTs are the way to go for wafting along. Especially if coupled to a hybrid like Toyota/Lexus. CVTs were band in F1 because they were too good.