Not all transmissions live up to their specifications. The handling is crucial for a good transmission. Car manufactures often describe(and advertise) their trasmission based on their car's(not the drivers of their cars) perspective. This leads to drawbacks to some extent. Manual(Stick shift): The simplist gearbox, ride quality and fuel economy depends on driver's skill. Sequential: Can shift without using the clutch pedal but unable to skip gears. Automatic(Planetary):Compare to stick shift,an automatic gearbox has better acceleration but worse throttle response. Dual-Clutch: Shift faster than Manual or Automatic only if the preselection is correct. The fuel economy is manual(experienced driver)>DCT>manual(noob driver) Continuously Variable: Better fuel economy, worse reliability. I prefer manual transmission because its control "algorithm" is simple: You control it. Sequential gearbox is too noisy. Unfortunately nowadays less and less cars are manuals. Automatics works best when not driving precisely, since they reduce the driver workload, and most of the AT gearboxes are very reliable, you can launch it all day long if you allow the automaic transmission fluid(ATF) to cool down before next launch. The disadvantage is due to the torque converter, there's time between increased engine torque to increased whell torque. And nearly all of them don't lockup the torque converter at moderate to high throttle, making hypermiling via very low RPM and high load impossible. The transmission I hate the most is the Direct-Shift Gearbox, which is a kind of DCT. The shiftlogic sucks and I would name it Dumb-Sloth Gearbox. I once drove a Passat at a car rental and its transmission has its own thought. When I drove it out of the undergrond parking lot, which involved a uphill. The gearbox slip the clutch at 2nd gear instead of downshifting to 1st. No wonder it overheats in traffic jams. And it has idle-creep that pulls away in drive at zero throttle and zero brake, the shiftlogic is using the clutch as a torque converter. If you drive a manual in a stop-and-go traffic, you would always fully depress the clutch pedal whenever your throttle is zero, which minimize clutch slip. I never had a ride in an CVT vehicle so I can't tell the feeling of driving it. The problem is most of them using finite ratio in manual modes. It would be better if the driver could use a knob or a lever to set the target RPM in manual mode, just like the propeller control in aircrafts.
1. Dual clutch 2. Automatic 3. Manual 4. CVT 5. One that works properly and is 6 speed and up. (5 speed for manual)
16 speed manual zf, 4 speed zf ecomat 4hp, 6 speed sequential manual from the zonda r, any manual after that
