3..(2)..1

[GL-1970]

As I was driving in the snow & ice today, a thought occurred about the throttle response from slow driving:

Is there a good reason why the tranny remains in 3 until you get to crawling speed. If it dropped to 2 there would be a great improvement in panic avoidance at lights & in traffic.

I'm just throwing this out there. Why not add a 3..2..1

 

[RiP 8/23/07]

its just the way the tranny is programmed to work it drops to 3 then when you are almost stopped it goes to 1 if you want more control over the tranny in the snow I'd use the autostick

 

[StickShiftCamry]

As I was driving in the snow & ice today, a thought occurred about the throttle response from slow driving:

Is there a good reason why the tranny remains in 3 until you get to crawling speed. If it dropped to 2 there would be a great improvement in panic avoidance at lights & in traffic.

I'm just throwing this out there. Why not add a 3..2..1

Good observation, i notice that.

 

[StickShiftCamry]

Pretty annoying, combined w/ this car's delay. But when it kicks down to 1st, theres nice exhileration but very sudden.

 

[offset_98]

saves wear and tear on transmission and engine parts. Think about the kind of stress on the components of each whenever a higher RPM downshift is engaged. My Explorer used to go 3 to 1 and my G6 goes 3 to 1 both at very very low speeds so I have to conclude some reasoning like what I mentioned is probably behind it. If all else fails, throw it into manual mode and do it yourself. I do that all the time on my G6 because A) I don't care about it because B) its a company car.

 

[GL-1970]

Sure, I can see that the shifting is done automatically and that it's supposed to go 3 to 1. If we had the choice, wouldn't it be better to downshift though? I can do it by hand, so couldn't the tranny also?

Why if it will downshift 6,5,4,3,1 - there surely is no technical reason to miss 2.

On a related topic, why sometimes when I shift the lever from auto to manual does it instantly enter a lower gear without actually pushing up or down. I guess the shift program is riding near a shift point. If I could choose, I'd want it to stay in the gear it's in. Unless I'm looking at the display I don't always get the correct response and end up in an unexpected gear after pushing the lever up or down.

 

[SuperStretch18]

I'm always in manual mode, so I can't speak too much on the automatic shifting. I can tell you that the torque break is strongest between gears 3, 2 & 1. If you downshift from third to second at about 2k rpms, it slows the vehicle significantly. If you downshift from second to first at anything over 1.5k rpms, the transmission clunks pretty bad. As offset said, it's probably done to save wear and tear on the transmission...

Can't speak for the second issue though...

 

[GL-1970]

On SuperStretch18's advice I've gone to manual mode all the time. I keep it about 1 gear below where it would be in automatic. This seems to give me decent response and it's very quick to jump one gear to get passing acceleration.

The automatic just keeps the revs too low to be of any use.

Can't really decide about throttle response, but it's pretty good when the revs are high - if I pulse the pedal at high revs it seems almost instant. At low revs it is quite bad.

 

[CX7_Scott]

Pardon my uninformed question:

But aren't these newer vehicles PROGRAMMED to work a certain way to achieve "best" results...? All of the trans-shifting, power distribution, TCS, ABS, fuel injection, blah, blah, blah... don't they all work TOGETHER to make sure things are running optimally...?

I keep seeing threads that talk about "when" **** kicks in or out, WHEN the car shifts, WHEN the turbo spools, etc... And sure; *YOU* may feel that it is shifting at "wrong" times based on how "YOU'D" shift it manually... but I would like to think that the way it's programmed allows for any number of benefits; better fuel economy, not having the engine brake your speed, heck-maybe even all those complex sensors that detect speed, pitch, g-force, yaw (and whatever else) help decide when it's appropriate to up or down-shift your vehicle.

Maybe I'm wrong - but I read these boards and sometimes I feel like I'm the ONLY one that just gets-in my car, starts it, drives it where I need to go, enjoys it and I have NO CARES in the world about when it shifts or how anything mechanical is responding. When I step on the gas, it goes... and goes FAST. When I need to stop, it stops well. Everything in-between seems to work fine too. I' not OBLIVIOUS to performance... I am just not seeing any problems with how the "stock" vehicle is behaving. You get 20-30 people together and have EACH ONE of them take a manual-transmission vehicle out on a test track or same path of roads, I guarantee that ALL of them will shift, accelerate, brake & steer differently around the SAME roads and in the SAME car.

So - How can an electronically programmed vehicle be expected to act the same as how "everyone" would drive. It's ALWAYS going to act differently than if YOU had manual control over it... right?

I am not complaining about this... I am truly curious about why these things are "issues" to some people... (?)

Peace.

 

[GL-1970]

Pardon my uninformed question:

But aren't these newer vehicles PROGRAMMED to work a certain way to achieve "best" results...?

Wow, it's great to hear someone NOT complaining !

I guess it's the nature of Forums to be a place to air complaints and miscellaneous concerns, plus the Engineer in me is incapable of "just letting it be". I do agree that the car has been specifically designed to optimize certain parameters - however these may not be to everyone's liking. A shift program that is protecting the transmission may not shift as fast or as aggressively. A engine control program may reduce throttle response to lower fuel economy... etc. Some cars have different 'Programs', like 'Sport' mode to help the driver choose.


That being said, I think 'Throttle Response' is a big issue these days with Drive-by-Wire cars like the CX-7, Mercedes, BMW, etc. There are many forums across all car manufacturers. It's very frustrating to have a delay of any kind, especially when it's likely designed that way. The various TSB's to update the software are a reflection that Mazda recognizes shortfalls and is interested in satisfying customer complaints.

I too, like to drive in Auto when I just want to cruise around - but I just can't get comfortable with the delay to keep in Auto for traffic driving.

 

[satz]

I think the fact that it doesn't drop to 2, is a significant cause of the dangerous 'lag/delay' I find when taking off from near-but-not-quite-standstill.

Eg when crawling to merge into a junction. You suddenly need the power and the thing takes that crucial second or so to drop from 3rd to 1st. if it was in 2nd at the appropriate speed then this wouldn't happen.

Even worse with AC on as that noticeably saps the power

The latest Powertrain update (in AUstralia) didn't help that one bit. Had that done just 2 days ago

 

[GL-1970]

I think the fact that it doesn't drop to 2, is a significant cause of the dangerous 'lag/delay' I find when taking off from near-but-not-quite-standstill.

Eg when crawling to merge into a junction. You suddenly need the power and the thing takes that crucial second or so to drop from 3rd to 1st. if it was in 2nd at the appropriate speed then this wouldn't happen.

Agreed.. that's my point exactly on the 3..(2)..1 thread