Nissan Versa....Manual vs Auto

[Bill B]

Was looking at the fuel economy numbers of manual vs auto. Was surprised that on fueleconomy.gov that the 5 speed Versa actually gets 4mpg less than the auto. Could be whoever was driving for the test did not know how to use a clutch. I know they have imporved the Autos, but 4 mpg seemed like a big difference.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/PowerSea ... yp=newMake

[IMBoring25]

With few exceptions, they usually don't put a really good highway gear in manuals because people would complain about bad top-gear acceleration and having to downshift to climb hills. With automatics doing the shifting themselves, it doesn't matter if they have to downshift. That's the manual side of the equation.

For the automatic side of the equation, the four-speed stepped automatic gets 1 MPG worse than the manual in town and equal on the highway. The unit you're talking about is a CVT, and not just any CVT. They've borrowed a concept from heavy trucks and basically put a two-speed axle in it to increase the available span of ratios. It's hard to get better mileage than a transmission that always puts the engine at the theoretically ideal RPM for the amount of work you're asking it to do. They should be able to lock up the TC any time the car is moving except when they shift the planetary gearset, so its parasitic losses should not be as high as a more-complex stepped automatic either. All in all a really technologically nice concept as long as you don't have to get it fixed (provided you don't enjoy shifting yourself).

[potownrob]

yeah, let's see how that auto fares in real world pedal mashing goodness, while i'd imagine the manual can achieve similar acceleration without revving too high...

[tankinbeans]

On/off switch driving... My favorite.