Well, I wanted to make a thread again since I havent in a while, (please dont be a repost!!).
http://www.leftlanenews.com/2007/02/05/bmw-plans-8-speed-automatic/
What do you think? I think 8 speed is a little extreme, but BMW simply HAVE to outdo Lexus who have also released an 8 speed and Mercedes who have also released a 7 speed. :p :p

BMW will do a 8 speed auto and so will the rest of the car industry,,but mercedes will "up the ante" and do a 9 speed auto !!! :D just w8

Lexus did it already

Lexus did it already

i know thats what im saying, BMW will be next, then other manufacturers will follow,,but mercedes will always want to be one step ahead .. 9 speeder ,, coming soon !:D

jesus, how are they fitting all these gears into a single tranny? and my god, with 8 gears they should be able to make these cars launch like hell off the line and exceed very high speeds

Apparently the new 8 speed transmission in the LS is smaller and lighter than the old 6 speed.

With these 7 and 8 speed transmissions, they wouldn't necessarily need an overdrive right?

Ya, unless if they program it so that overdrive uses all the gears, and on normal driving they only use certain number of gears, cause that seems like a lot of shifting to do for the auto tranny, so i would assume that they would enable only a certain amount of gears on normal drive.

Ya, unless if they program it so that overdrive uses all the gears, and on normal driving they only use certain number of gears, cause that seems like a lot of shifting to do for the auto tranny, so i would assume that they would enable only a certain amount of gears on normal drive.

People are still getting the concept of "overdrive" skewed. Overdrive is not a "mode" per se...it's a gear with a numerical ratio below 1:1. The overdrive button on your automatic (if you turn it off) simply locks out top gear, which would typically be the overdrive gear (that also means manual transmissions can and do have overdrive gears as well).

For example, 6th gear on the Lexus 8-speed auto is at 1:1; 7th and 8th are both overdrive gears (0.824:1 and 0.685:1 respectively). You probably won't find those overdrive buttons on automatic-equipped cars with 5 or more gears anymore. They've all been replaced with "sport-shift" style transmissions.

Overdrive gears are necessary for fuel economy...if anything, more ratios allows a better mix of acceleration and fuel economy by allowing more of the appropriate gear ratios for each.

and overdrive gears set for specific speeds. (1000rpm@100kmh, 1000rpm@60kmh, etc)

ehh, 8 speed, hope thats not available in the manual gearbox, because you would shift crazy...and your foot will hurt...

well i dont know about those overdrive things, but i think it would be a good idea, probably more about comfort and handling, some sort of that..well lets see how they do

8-speed auto?! What is the world coming to?!

ehh, 8 speed, hope thats not available in the manual gearbox, because you would shift crazy...and your foot will hurt...

well i dont know about those overdrive things, but i think it would be a good idea, probably more about comfort and handling, some sort of that..well lets see how they do

lol it'd be fun though, and all other cars would be like 'wtf does he have unlimited gears!?' lol.

don't F1 cars have 7-speed transmissions?

lol yea it would be fun

guy goes test drive the car with 10 gears...

guy: what gear am i in?
sales: check the headsupdisplay
guy: oh okay so im in 9th gear
sales: yea, very good eh?
guy: darn i wonder where the shift knob is...
sales: i think its at somewhere between you and me..
guy: darn, you have an automatic gearbox for this?
sales: errrmm...nope..
guy then smashes the car and leaves...

:p:D

Wow, this is pretty cool. Other manufacturers following suite, eh? It didn't really surprise me that Lexus were the first ones there, and then BMW, probably VW next, then Audi and then Mercedes-Benz.

I like the idea of this, sounds good.

Waste of time. Everyone who's reviewed Lexus' box says it has 1 more ratio than it knows what to do with, and that makes it slow and fussy to change.

Any more than 7 gears is rediculous. If you want that many ratios just use a CVT. It has every ratio you would ever need for the car it's used in. Of course, I've never been in a car with 8 speeds, but come on, only a big box truck needs that many gears to get going.

Waste of time. Everyone who's reviewed Lexus' box says it has 1 more ratio than it knows what to do with, and that makes it slow and fussy to change.

funny how is has the smoothest transmission in the segment

funny how is has the smoothest transmission in the segment

Err...I don't think so. I quote 'What Car' magazine:

'FOR
The LS460 is supremely quiet, comfortable and packed with comfort and safety kit

AGAINST
Eight-speed auto gearbox is poor, and interior is a touch short of flair '

They then add:

'Out-and-out pace is decent, but the standard eight-speed automatic gearbox seems to have one more ratio than it knows what to do with. When you want acceleration, it takes a few moments to decide on the best ratio, which can be frustrating.'

Autocar magazine also give the gearbox as an example of a negative aspect of the car.

A friend of a friend has also given the new LS a test-drive, and he complained of the same problem - it's slow and not terribly clever in choosing its ratios.

'Smoothest transmission in the segment'? I think not.

People are still getting the concept of "overdrive" skewed. Overdrive is not a "mode" per se...it's a gear with a numerical ratio below 1:1. The overdrive button on your automatic (if you turn it off) simply locks out top gear, which would typically be the overdrive gear (that also means manual transmissions can and do have overdrive gears as well).



For example, 6th gear on the Lexus 8-speed auto is at 1:1; 7th and 8th are both overdrive gears (0.824:1 and 0.685:1 respectively). You probably won't find those overdrive buttons on automatic-equipped cars with 5 or more gears anymore. They've all been replaced with "sport-shift" style transmissions.



Overdrive gears are necessary for fuel economy...if anything, more ratios allows a better mix of acceleration and fuel economy by allowing more of the appropriate gear ratios for each.

ya, i never really got how the auto tranny works, all planets and sun gears just seem like a welter with metal thrown around it. This is part of the reason y i would get manuel, so i know what im driving.

ahh the battle between Lexus and BMW to see which company can make the largest auto

Err...I don't think so. I quote 'What Car' magazine:

and I refute your only source of information with numerous articles praising the LS460's smoothness, directly attributed to the transmission

http://www.lacarguy.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=NCTD.ViewReview&id=0C55A635-C2AD-4F38-BF0B-B8F812BB29BC&
http://www.cars.com/go/crp/research.jsp?section=reviews&makeid=27&modelid=8237&year=2007&revid=50886&revlogtype=22
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/luxury/sedan/112_0610_2007_lexus_ls_460/index.html
http://www.caranddriver.com/roadtests/11601/2007-lexus-ls460.html
http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/sedans/0610_2007_lexus_ls460/index.html
http://money.cnn.com/2006/12/01/autos/lexus_review.fsb/index.htm
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carreviews/firstdrives/202350/lexus_ls460.html

of course there are still more out there

i all seems to be more of a technical race then anything else, but i think F1 technology has given f1 cars 7 speeds to:-k

ehh, 8 speed, hope thats not available in the manual gearbox, because you would shift crazy...and your foot will hurt...

well i dont know about those overdrive things, but i think it would be a good idea, probably more about comfort and handling, some sort of that..well lets see how they do

::sigh:: Overdrive: not a "thing", just a gear ratio below 1:1, been around for years, 99% of production cars have it.

The 7-speed sequential box (SMG III) on the M5/M6 can't actually be driven as a standard manual...because of the way the gears are packaged in the gearbox (to keep it compact, and for stress reasons), the shift order with a manual would be crazy. I can't remember it exactly, but it would be absolutely jumbled up, like 5-3-7-4-3-2-6-1 (as opposed to 1-2-3-4-5-6-7) or something like that. On a road car, I don't believe we'll ever see a 7+ speed H-pattern box. It'll just get too complicated, and too difficult to put into a small package. That's why we're seeing all these 7-speed sequentials and 8-speed autoboxes.

For 2007, BMW is offering a traditional 6-speed manual for purists. Unfortunately, they have decided that DSC can't be switched off completely with the standard 6-speed. I have no idea why the hell they would do that, but that's what they did. Evidently they think if you drive a manual, you can't handle the car as well... :mad:

Yeah, I've read the 8-speed on the Lexus is creamy smooth while upshifting, but I can imagine that with that many ratios to work with, there would be a lot of gear hunting in auto mode. At any one time there are probably two or three different ratios that would work...I wonder how good the shift-logic actually is.

Too much, wears the good ol' 6 speed manual with clutches gone:(

8 speeds is just too much, i say a 6 or 7 speed gearbox is good enough and now they're gonna release an 8 speed? thats just beyond the limits.....

8 speeds is just too much, i say a 6 or 7 speed gearbox is good enough and now they're gonna release an 8 speed? thats just beyond the limits.....

yes. I think 8speed transmition is a nonesense. It' ll make the car be slower in acceleration and increase the cost in case it has a failure.

8 speeds aren't necessary at all unless the car can break the speed limited and exceed the 155mph limit.