Don't let a non car person borrow your DCT equipped car!

[Topweasel]

"Many? " Which cars are it in? It's also not just the number of gears but how smoothly and quickly it shifts, and how it behaves in manual mode. And how much our how little slush is in there. I must confess to never having tried that tranny so I don't know these things, I'm asking. But I don't recall seeing it on many under-$30k cars. Except possibly the full-size Chrysler/Dodge platform, but even many of those are over the $30k mark.

Penetration for this type of transmition is in the US is very small. Hell, Ford has been using a DCT transmission in the Mondeo and other cars in the EU for years. But they still went with a standard 6-speed Automatic transmission in the US version with the completely new Fusion. I think putting it into the Focus was a decent way to break it into the market for them and in a couple year you will see it grow.

For people wondering why the Focus. Remember that the Focus/Dart/Cruze are going to be the biggest items for the manufacturers to push gas mileage up ofr CAFE standards. Ford doesn't have much CVT experience. So for them its either go the Chrysler route like they did with the Dart and do manual only or use a DCT like they do in the EU. Manual only would kill the sales of one of their top sellers. So DCT wins.

In the EU manuals have always been a stronger seller. So any automatic approach would have to minimize the efficiency loss. DCT does that.

 

[hans007]

Eh? ZF 8 and 9-speed transmissions are standard equipment on many sub $30,000 cars in addition to Rolls Royce, Audi and others. And that is an awesome automatic.

I think the only cars that have this that are under 30k are dodge charger and ram v6 models. And its very new so most people still probably have never used them. If you said under 40k then you get quattro a4s and the 3 series. But it did start out on cars like the a8 / phantom I believe

 

[Jay0584]

As has been said, not everyone cares about lap times or the 'best' transmission types. I've had a couple friends over the years go out and learn to drive a manual and then purchase a manual vehicle. Every one of them said it felt more fun to drive a manual. Yeah, fun while driving means different things to everyone but having driven manuals for 10 years myself, I knew what they meant. They are terrible at driving a manual so far but they aren't stalling anymore! Hell, I just went from a cable-clutch 5sp VW to a hydraulic 6sp Audi and it's still giving me fits!

Everyone keep calm and continue driving, mmmkay?

Okay, so I'm replying about a question I have on a very old post that you commented on. I came here to ask because it's the most recent post I have found where you left a comment.

The question is about a towing service damaging my all time 4 wheel drive Jeep Commander, by towing it out of a parking garage. I work at St. Mary's Hospital, and as you probably guessed my Jeep broke down on the upper level (4th floor) of hospitals parking garage. As I was told by one towing service they couldn't do it for the reasons you pointed out in the old post, I assumed I just needed to fix it where it was at. After getting the correct lifters to replace the ones I already removed, I find out it's been towed. The 2 questions I have are. How did the towing service get my car out of park with out the key? (Or did they at all?) And if they damaged my vehicle by improperly towing it, can I file a claim that has a chance of success? I won't know until Monday morning if it's damaged or not, but seeing as they had no way to even get it out of park I'm assuming they have!