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I believe the last generation CTS-V was manual-only, while the new CTS-V will have the manual standard and an automatic optional.
Best Regards,
Shipo
More here.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I didn't see where it said that would be the only transmission or that it wasn't replacing the automatic. Also, this press release is in South Africa.
The US market rejected a similar transmission in the M5, although even Bimmer magazine said the automatic is the shape of things to come from BMW (in reference to them dropping the X5 manual transmission).
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
The E36 M3 with a manual transmission seems to be in the 10-12k range. The automatic is in the 8-10k range.
Damn, only $10-12K? I was expecting them to be closer to $16-20K. I've really been considering getting a second track car, like a tuned Miata/MX-5, but this would be a good alternative, I think.
Lightweight, RWD, and a 6 speed manual? I'm in love...
I have been looking at E36 M3/4 with 5 speed manual transmissions. It seems some of the modified ones from a certain dealer around Cincy are a bit higher (like 16-20), but the craigslist/autotrader private sellers seem to be under that. Of course, these are 10 year old cars with a fair bit of miles on them.
I've really been considering getting a second track car, like a tuned Miata/MX-5, but this would be a good alternative, I think.
It depends on how much of a relationship you want with your car and how fast you want to go. A Miata is not fast. It corners well but you have to get up to speed and then carry that speed with you around the track. This is kind of cool because it involves driver skill. It is also a great car to learn on because it won't take off on you and is very forgiving (this is along the same lines as why you shouldnt have a 600cc sport bike for your first M/C.) The other thing is the Miata has proven itself to be dead nuts reliable.
Lightweight, RWD, and a 6 speed manual? I'm in love...
The E36 was always a 5 speed, the E30 was also always a 5 speed, but the E46 might be a 6 speed. The Miata you have to get into the 2001 or so or newer to go from a 5 to 6 speed.
If you want something with the roundel, you might find the 325/328 even cheaper in either the E36 or E46 guise. BMW did away with scheduled maintenance on the later models to save money, so i don't know how much I would want a BMW newer than 2003/4 or so.
I used to drive a 1980 BMW 528i 5 speed a fair amount, and while that vehicle was maintenance intensive, it was a great ride in the late 80s/early 90s.
One caveat - it will spin if you lift in a hard turn. So learn quick! :surprise:
That's odd, a small front-engined roadster should not do that,
assuming the pavement is dry and not covered with sand. I'd check my tires if I were you.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
The cars are very cool.. and highly modified.. but, those prices are insane...
Those are toys for those with much more disposable income than I have...
I think you can get a pretty nice E36 M3 for around $12K..
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Newer Miatas were "tamed", i.e. tuned for more understeer.
That would be true on any car but there was no way to produce lift-off oversteer on those old TRs and Fiats I drove, to get the rear to come out you had to stand on it.
Neither had IRS so that might be a factor.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
One caveat - it will spin if you lift in a hard turn. So learn quick!
Yeah, its still way more forgiving than the S2000. Those and the original MR2s got nicknamed frisbees at the track.
Funny thing is I was playing around with a PlayStation 3 in a store, and ended up racing a Crystal White NA Miata, just like mine, in the game.
It was hilarious! It really "felt" like my car. Tendency to understeer a little, great grip in the corners, relatively slow acceleration (a little better because the one in the game was turboed and tuned).
I was just amazed at how well they simulated how the car drives. Impressive. Even the sounds from the engine.
It was hilarious! It really "felt" like my car. Tendency to understeer a little, great grip in the corners, relatively slow acceleration (a little better because the one in the game was turboed and tuned).
I was just amazed at how well they simulated how the car drives. Impressive. Even the sounds from the engine.
I am kind of "in the business" in that respect, and the vehicle dynamics models they have for $50 video games are better than the ones they had for multi-million dollar research based driving simulators only a few years ago.
Well, I should say good work, then.
Research base driving simulators can be pretty sweet:
Ford Virttex
NADS (thats really what its called)
And Daimler has one in Berlin but I can't find a good picture of it.
These guys have a full motion base and a can simulate acceleration, braking, and cornering. Most of the little guys just have a fixed base simulator with a wide front field of view. For most driver research, this is arguably all you need.
Was reading R&T this month and they had a little blurb about the '02-'06 WRX/STi - a whopping 97% of the 389 owners surveyed had bought manual-shift cars! :-) :-)
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
That makes no sense with a purely electric car, there's no gears. Perhaps they simulate a manual shifter as the do on some CVTs. :confuse:
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Well, originally it was supposed to have two gears total - one forward, one reverse. Transmissions keep breaking (still do) with peak torque at 0 rpm, however. This two-speed unit was put in in the interim, but I don't think Tesla has let any journalist use first gear. The teeth of the gears are chipping away with each drive, too, or so I've heard.
Alas, it'll be at least a year until they get this whole transmission thing taken care of. But an electric car with a manual? Whodathunk...
But apparently final decisions about the transmissions are still in the works, yes. They expect to start cranking them out to customers in the next six months though, so those decisions may be already made as I write this....
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
However, I do clearly remember Tesla promising that they'd give customers temporary transmissions and swap them out for free once they develop a solution to the problems they're facing within a year after delivery.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Okay I get that it's a 5000 lb SUV but.... one that has 405hp, corners like it's on rails, goes 0-60 in 6 secs and stops on a dime. So since it drives like a sports car, what's so wrong with it having a manual? :confuse:
-Frank
In any case, is it really a true manual? I don't remember them discussing a clutch. I kind of imagined it almost like a 2-speed powerglide. And, really, a clutch would be downright odd in such a car since full torque is at 0 rpms.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
Now you bring up a good point with the clutch question. They mention easing up on the gas for the shift from 1 to 2 in order to get the smoothest gear change, so that sounds like a 3-pedal car. That, and if you look at the picture of the shifter, it is not in a straight line or zig-zag as automatics are, it is a dogleg with 1 and 2 both forward of the neutral position. But I can't be sure one way or the other.
On a separate note, I was interested to note that in the reports this month about the new Evo, they are predicting (no comparison test yet) that it will be faster with the manual than with its whiz-bang, latest-gizmo-SST-whatever automatic (by a few tenths).
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I actually think a manual may help their tranny issue if they can force a slowdown on the clutch uptake (either electronically or hydraulically). It would eat up the clutch pretty quickly, though.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
More info here.
* all STI models are manual
* C&D's readership is not exactly a representative sample of the public
In other words, they're mostly car guys like us.
I'm not saying I agree, but that's probably her rationale.
-Frank
Actually, the manual version of the Evo X will only be faster in a straight line. The SST will dump the clutch at a predetermined rpm (I believe 5250) while you can rev the manual to redline and just dump the clutch. It pulverizes the drivetrain, but it gets the job done. On the track, the SST proves to be faster, but that may be partially because the manual version is a slightly lower-end model with only 5 forward speeds.
I thought the latest round of magazines had a few comparisons on their own tracks. I know there was a Japanese test with old STI vs new STI vs Evo IX vs Evo X 5MT vs Evo X SST, but I forget the outcome. Though I think the results from that test were different from the latest magazine tests, particularly concerning the Evo X...
So are they saying that Toyota will sell nothing but hybrids, or that every Toyota will be available in a hybrid configuration?
Okay, except I think just about all the enviro-people that wanted a hybrid bought one. I don't know how there is going to be a business case for a Yaris-sized hybrid. 12,000 car that gets 40 mpg gets a 2000 mark up to get...45 mpg woot woot.
"At the Frankfurt IAA, Toyota Executive Vice President Kazuo Okamoto said all of the company’s vehicles will eventually be based on hybrid powertrains.
In the future, the cars you see from Toyota will be 100 percent hybrid. We believe that in 10 years the world will be filled with hybrids.
Okamoto declined to provide a timeline. Toyota has stated that it plans to sell 1 million hybrids a year by 2010.
Earlier, President Katsuaki Watanabe said he aims to halve the premium in price of hybrids over conventional vehicles as soon as possible."
I believe the US President for Toyota Echoed , not a pun, the same idea.
I also read something about all future Toyota hybrid cars might get the Prius name.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
1. Toyota wants every model line to offer a hybrid variant, not for every vehicle they sell to be a hybrid. Also, in some cases (trucks) they expect to substitute diesel for hybrid as the fuel-sipper powertrain option.
2. In future, they might make the hybrids carry the Prius label to mean it is a hybrid, ie Camry Prius for the hybrid Camrys, but that is just one idea. They are also still jazzed about their original idea, which was to make the Prius name signify the model with the latest, newest technology regardless of type (as in , hybrid was the latest tech of the last decade, in the future it will have new different technology in it)
3. They want to sell 1 million hybrids globally in 2010, still less than 1% of the total market I would imagine, and certainly only around 10% of all Toyotas sold, so not a huge percentage.
4. I agree that hybrids = no stick shift in Toyotaspeak, and that's too bad. I am waiting to see if Honda offers a stick on its new hybrid sport coupe scheduled to arrive in 2010. I am treating that as the belwether of future manual offerings among hybrids, as Honda has one of the strongest commitments among the Big 6 to both stick shifts and hybrid powertrains.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)