What's this doofy transmission?

[Killbat]

I see it on several new car commercials. The cars have automatic transmission, but the driver can opt to manually shift somehow? So the driver chooses to shift 'the hard way', but there's still a torque converter in the way? WTF? Isn't this just spitting on efficiency?

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Yes and no. You are correct that most such "manumatic" transmissions have a torque converter (the lone exception being the Ferrari F1 system, which has much more in common with a manual transmission than other systems), as they are, at the end of the day, automatic transmissions. That said, they can offer pretty decent facsimiles of manual shifting when the driver so desires, then go back to being fully automatic when he is feeling lazy. I am still more of a manual-transmission guy myself, but I can see the virtues of these setups, especially the ones (e.g., Lexus) that offer steering-wheel shifting buttons.

 

[Killbat]

I don't get it. It's like an aimbot for your car. You just pull the trigger.

 

[Mark R]

Some people feel that changing gear manually gives them more control, and that's what they like - this market caters to this the subset of this group that don't want to use a manual clutch.

Just another excpetion too: Audi's multitronic automatic has a manual mode, but it doesn't use a torque converter rather an oil cooled multi-plate clutch. The transmission will out accelerate and give better fuel consumption than the standard 6-speed manual.