The ultimate manual transmission would be Honda's CVT and not the traditional one.

The CVT "gear" handle would have no preset gear "Slots" and you can precicely set your ratio in a straight, linear manner across all its range.
Pretty cool idea?

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1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

Sounds like of like the prop control on adjustable pitch propeller aircraft actually. Nissan has a manual-like mode for their Primera CVT in Japan where you put it in manual mode and can move up and down through 8 set ratios of the CVT's abilities. This would be pretty similar to your idea, although of course just being 8 indents of sort, rather than a fully gradient lever.

I think the idea of a fully-gradient mode would be interesting, though it would be difficult to use properly. Unlike a manual, where the driver would shift at certain points, using a CVT manually would require one long, continuous "shift" with one hand on the shift lever constantly.

I thought about this too, before I realized that the Prius didn't have a CVT, I imagined this would be a cool way to use it manually. The problem is, as has been said that you would have a hard time adjusting the ratio constantly, it would be like steering with one hand and slide-shifting with the other -- not the best situation.

A compromise would be to let it do it's thing, then be able to 'lock' the ratio temporarily. This would allow you to get the FE effect of a manual where the ratio doesn't change when you press the accelerator.

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well, since you won't need a clutch you could use that pedal foot to shift. push forward on the toe to raise the gear, push on the heal to lower it. You can keep both hands on the wheel and still shift.

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"Crazy is what the sane call Delta Flyer"

Hi Guys:

___IIRC, on some of the Fit/Jazz of a particular configuration uses paddle shifters mounted on the steering wheel much like radio/volume/mode and cruise functions for this exact task. There are a few excellent reviews of this little animal over at Temple of VTEC and a few decent pics of that steering wheel with the mounted shift controls. I should run over there and check just to make sure but I am a bit short of time right now.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

I don't see any need for this. When you accelerate your car, the computer already does a continuous "slide" in ratios, to keep the engine in its "sweet spot" of ~2200 rpm. I'd rather just let the computer do it.

troy

Strange thing is that among many Insight drivers, the CVT is considered an automatic. Haven't used one so don't feel like making a judgement on one, but the 5-speed Insight gets significantly better fuel economy than the CVT version. In theory the CVT should have superior acceleration.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

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"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

Technically *all* cvts are automatics, because the gear ratio is controlled by the car, not the driver. i.e. It's not manual.

As for insight cvt vs. 5-speed, they're not the same car. They have different engines, and therefore different MPG results.




I like Volkswagen's approach for automatics: Their Direct Shift Gearing (DSG) transmission is basically a 6-gear manual transmission, with NO torque converter. That eliminates the losses associated with a slushbox and/or a belt-drive. It's a direct engine-->wheels connection.

troy