Review automatic towing cars?

reeac

marlot wrote: »

You can get into a loop. you ease off the throttle so the car ges into 5. then the convertor locks up. then the road rises a little ad you increase the throttle so it goes into 4. then back to 5 etc. whereas leaving it in 4 can let t lockup and stay locked up.

I can see that that's possible in theory but I've never experienced the effect. I've owned three auto. cars over the years - a 5 litre American Ford with 3 gears, a 3 litre British Ford with 4 gears and a 3.2 litre Jaguar with 5 gears. All had facilities for holding in lower gears for engine braking but only the last one, a ZF 5HP 24 box has torque converter lockup and that is only on 5th. gear. I think that there might be some confusion in this discussion between holding in a lower gear and t/c lockup.

knightstyle

Well as i already said the "normal" saloon cars are no good for my DW, she just cannot get out with her back problems, that is why we sold our Auris.
The 2.0 auto Cmax has a braked towing limit of 1500kgs so should be OK.
You keep saying about holding the gear box down a notch, how do you do this? The Juke has P R N D and is a proper auto, as far as I can see the Cmax has P R N D S wonder what the S means?
Nothing about holding in 4th gear.

facade

"Modern" autos have a little press button somewhere, usually on the selector, that when you press it "OD OFF" lights up somewhere.
This means it won't try to use top gear, and usually will lock up in the one below top as the above posts, used to stop "hunting" in and out of 4th in hilly terrain or when towing.

Some people reckon you can get 0.00001 more MPG if you use "OD OFF" in town but it makes no difference to mine.

A "proper" auto should really have PRND21 on the selector

bigjl

If I was going to tow I would seriously consider a Subaru Forester/Legacy/Outback on my way to buy a Discovery.

Gloomendoom

knightstyle wrote: »

Well as i already said the "normal" saloon cars are no good for my DW, she just cannot get out with her back problems, that is why we sold our Auris.
The 2.0 auto Cmax has a braked towing limit of 1500kgs so should be OK.
You keep saying about holding the gear box down a notch, how do you do this? The Juke has P R N D and is a proper auto, as far as I can see the Cmax has P R N D S wonder what the S means?
Nothing about holding in 4th gear.

If you are particularly interested in the Cmax, I'd recommend finding a Cmax owners forum and asking for advice on there.

Iceweasel

facade wrote: »

A "proper" auto should really have PRND21 on the selector

I don't think there are many 'proper' autos being made these days, then.

My last three autos all had 'Steptronic' available, as well as a 'S' or Sport setting which allowed me to select any gear and keep/hold it - within the rev limits for that gear of course.

My current car has the 'paddle-shifters' which let me chose gears manually if I so choose.

Contrary to what folks like Mr J Clarkson bang on about they aren't 'flappy' at all - surprising that.

facade

Ah, the BMW steptronic,

Steptronic makes shifting gears in a BMW with an automatic transmission as dynamic and sporting as it is with a manual transmission.

Never driven one, but it looks like a nudge up, nudge down system, does it stay in that gear forever, so you have to mess with the gears like a manual, and then push it back into D when the novelty wears off?

Can't really see the point tbh, if you want to mess with a gearlever, save a few thousand and buy a manual, I just stick 'em in D and forget all about gears

marlot

reeac wrote: »

... a ZF 5HP 24 box has torque converter lockup and that is only on 5th. gear...

Really? My Aisin 5 speed automatically locks up on 4th and 5th. You even see the revs drop when it happens. 4th works very well for towing, and it'll stay locked up most of the journey.

Iceweasel

facade wrote: »

Ah, the BMW steptronic,

Never driven one, but it looks like a nudge up, nudge down system, does it stay in that gear forever, so you have to mess with the gears like a manual, and then push it back into D when the novelty wears off?

No it doesn't stay in that gear forever - if you're in D mode then it will revert back to fully auto, unless you make more selections.

If you are in S (Sport mode then what you have is in effect a clutchless gearbox and it does what you tell it to do.

And it not just BMW who offer such a system - the same or a similar type of selectable autobox is to be found on over 40 other marques - but most of them have their own name for it:

Acura: Sequential SportShift
Alfa Romeo: Selespeed, Sportronic, Q-System, Q-Tronic
Alpina: Switchtronic
Aston Martin: Touchtronic
Audi: Tiptronic, S-Tronic
BMW: Steptronic
Citroen: EGS, SensoDrive
Chevrolet: TAPshift
Chrysler / Dodge / Jeep / Ram: AutoStick
Ford (Australia): Sequential Sports Shift
Ford (USA): SelectShift
Holden: Active Select
Honda: iShift, S-matic, MultiMatic, SportShift
Hyundai: Shiftronic, HIVEC H-Matic
Infiniti: Manual Shift Mode
Jaguar: Bosch Mechatronic
Kia: Sportmatic
Lancia: Comfortronic
Land Rover: CommandShift
Lexus: E-Shift
Lincoln: SelectShift
Mazda: ActiveMatic, SportMatic (North America)
Mercedes-Benz: TouchShift, G Tronic
MG-Rover: Steptronic
Mitsubishi: TC-SST,[2] INVECS, INVECS II, INVECS III, Sportronic, tiptronic, Allshift
Nissan: Xtronic (also used in "Xtronic CVT")
Opel / Vauxhall: ActiveSelect, tiptronic
Peugeot: 2Tronic, tiptronic
Pontiac: TACshift (Touch Activated Control), TAPshift (Touch Activated Power), Driver Shift Control (DSC)
Porsche: Tiptronic, Tiptronic S
Proton: PROTRONIC
Saab: Sentronic
Saturn: TAPshift
SEAT: tiptronic
Škoda Auto: DSG
Subaru: Sportshift (system developed and name used under license from Prodrive Ltd.)
Toyota: ECT, Multimode manual transmission
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles: tiptronic
Volkswagen Passenger Cars: tiptronic inclusive of Direct-Shift Gearbox (DSG)
Volvo: Geartronic
Volvo Trucks and buses: I-Shift

So there are plenty to choose from.

Manual gearboxes are no longer available from several manufacturers - mostly those with a so-called sporty image like Ferrari - Porsche still offer a manual, but there are minimal sales of it.

If you have a powerful engine - such as most of us would recommend for a towcar then an auto is the answer.

For when you are not towing an auto-box car is faster and more economical than the manual equivalent model.

knightstyle

So how do I tell the gearbox what to do on the CCmax with Powershift gearbox? It has an S mode but no where can I see how to do anything except move the gear lever between P R N D S