Brendan Hughes

Colleague's just had his first baby and wants to move up a bit in size from his current Rover 25. He rented a Smart car and really enjoyed the semi-auto box, found it a pleasant novelty (he lives in the middle of a city, so nice for all the stop-start).

He's barely interested in performance or handling.

Zapping a few days ago, he saw a feature on a family car that had a similar type box, plus roof-mounted DVDs, but he can't remember the brand.

Anyone got ideas on this? I thought it was only the performance manufacturers who do paddle-shifters. He can handle a full auto if necessary, but good to see if this is around first.

Thanks

TopBanana

The Alfa Selespeed system works well. It is made by Magnetti Marelli (sp?) and is the same system of the Ferraris apparently.

I'm selling mine at the moment, but it's a right-hooker.
http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/threa...hreadID=276989

Brendan Hughes

ooh, thanks, I'd forgotten about Alfa.

Doubt he'll be buying yours but good luck selling it!

Anyone got any other ideas?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Thought I'd add my 2p's worth...

The transmission in the Smart is a AMT (or SMT) type transmission (automated manual transmission, or sequential manual transmission)

This is not to be confused with conventional automatic gearboxes with manual control i.e Steptronic or Tiptronic. And also Continuously Variable Transmisson (CVT), which technically has no gears (think of a rubber belt drive All of these types of boxes can have either paddles or floor mounted "foward and back" shift.

Personally, I'm yet to drive a car with a CVT gearbox that I'm perfectly happy with, I find normally they are either too slow from a standing start and/or too slow to respond. The best so far I've driven is the Nissan Primera, which once moving (0-20mph is almost dangerously slow.....but once the revs are up it's fine) is great fun to drive for such a large, heavy and underpowered car!


Rover Use CVT boxes as well...Can I suggest you stay well clear if you want to protect your wallet. My dad had a CVT Rover 216 and it was nothing but trouble and cost £thousands to fix and it still wasn't right

Edited: as I mixed up my CVT's with my AMT's

[Edited by ALi-B - 12/5/2003 1:19:58 PM]

Brendan Hughes

Thanks Ali.

Update - he's not after paddles, but a sequential gear **** (fwd for up, back for down).

He's found the Focus C-Max, which is like the VW Touran - they look good. Not quite sure if it has a sequential box though.

....

Simon S3

I`ve driven an Audi A4 with the multi-tronic CVT gearbox and it was fun (for a while) it`s basically got six pre-programmed ratios which you can select with the gear lever (left and right though, not forward and back) or you can just put it into drive and let it get on with it, which is exactly what I did after an hour or so of firing up and down the box. Good fun though.

Reffro

Just to contradict Ali-B, the Smart gearbox is most certainly not a CVT, it is a manual gearbox with an electronic clutch.

I've been sat at work puzzling over a family car with a Semi-auto gearbox and roof mounted DVD. I eventually found out what it was, the Vauxhall Meriva. You can have the Easytronic gearbox, which is a proper semi-auto gearbox, 5 speed manual with auto-clutch, sequential shift or fully automatic mode, and optional DVD system.

I'm just glad I figured it out eventually, afterall its my job to know all this stuff.......



[Edited by Reffro - 12/4/2003 2:51:37 PM]

Alberick

afaik, the Honda Jazz comes with a 7-speed CVT auto gearbox with steering wheel gear switches.
Not sure about the roof mounted DVD, but I don't think there are too many cars around that come with such gadgets, at least not in Europe...? Then again, a Jazz is maybe too small for his needs

Brendan Hughes

If he wants bigger than a Rover 25, I'd say Jazz is out. But maybe Honda fit the same system in a Civic or Accord?

Thanks for the Meriva pointer, it's added to the list. Fair comment by him that Vauxhalls have dull dashboards though.