These percentages give manufacturers leverage for creating different vehicle and driving styles with the same powertrain, effectively cutting costs. ![]() Automotive parts supplier Bosch boosted the performance of a Volkswagen EV by four percent with its CVT. A possible solution might be a continuously variable transmission (CVT), adapting the torque-speed ratio to optimize power efficiency. The result is a quickly emptying battery charge. However, depending on the vehicle's application (heavy loads, upward slopes, constant maximum speeds, etc.), speed and torque may be over- or underdelivering. Naturally, electric motors have a comparably linear torque-speed relation, generally resulting in performances superior to internal combustion engines. And the emergence of electric vehicles (EVs) – mostly running with a single gear – begs the question: if EVs become the common type of next-generation vehicle, will car transmissions become obsolete as well?Īutomatic transmission: A lever for EV performance Besides, it makes sense vehicles in Japan are automatic since most newly issued car driver licenses have an AT restriction today. ![]() Hence, it is not surprising that those cars usually feature an AT, saving the trouble of fiddling with the gear shifter. With compact dimensions (max LWH: 3.4m, 1.48m, 2m) and an engine capacity of up to 0.66 liters, the Japanese mini car or kei car was built for the highest convenience at the lowest price. Why many drivers say sayonara to stick shifts But it’s the last that anyone cares about.According to a survey conducted in 2021 about the usage of light motor vehicles among private households and businesses in Japan, most mini passenger cars owned were cars with automatic transmissions (AT), while four percent were manual transmission (MT) vehicles. Technically, the F430 wasn’t the last Ferrari available with a manual gearbox that was the California. It’s one of the reasons an air-cooled Porsche 993 is worth so much more than the water-cooled 996 that replaced it. However, transcending all that is the fact that a manual Ferrari 360 or F430, much like a naturally aspirated 458, represents something that’s forever gone. But it doesn’t involve you in the act of driving in the same way as a manual does, and it’s hard not to compare it unfavorably with a modern DCT, which is faster-shifting and far more refined. Some owners swear by the F1 ‘box, whose short clutch life was much improved for the F430, and you certainly won’t feel short-changed for drama when it bangs home those redline upchanges. Like the 458, they’re even more likely to be used sparingly than they were when they were new, and so owners want to bring them out and treat themselves with an experience very different to the one they get from their daily cars.Īnd it’s worth pointing out that the manual transmission driving experience has aged a whole lot more gracefully than the F1’s has. Then there’s also the fact that these cars are now 15 or 20 years old in some cases. Stick-shift cars accounted for less than 10 per cent of F430 sales, independent Ferrari sources claim. The F1 outsold the manual car by around 2:1 globally in the 360 era, and was even more dominant during the F430 years. Most people went for the paddleshift setup when ordering their cars. So why the big markup when the manual cars cost less when new, and Ferrari itself claimed the F1 transmission was both technically superior, and made the car faster around a track?įirst, the manual cars are rare. Dealers are asking £90,000 ($125,000) for 2005 F430 coupes with the F1 transmission and 20k miles, but perhaps £120,000 ($167,000) for a manual equivalent. ![]() It’s interesting to note that manual cars in the UK, while still worth more than F1 cars, don’t carry anything like the same premium. So far we’ve been talking about the situation in the U.S. Hagerty quotes $75,000 as a realistic value for a 2000 coupe, and advises to add 33 per cent for the manual transmission, which was more commonly found in 360s than it was in F430s. Looking at the older 395 hp 360 Modena, which used essentially the same chassis, but came equipped with a totally different V8 engine and did without the F430’s active differential, the difference in values is still pronounced, but isn’t quite so stark.
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