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Modern auto can be satisfying.... Posted by Mike Lynch [Email] ![]() ![]() In Reply to: Is it better to buy a used 9-3 with a manual or auto ?, Krissy, Mon, 12 Apr 2004 08:42:43 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
You'll never convince lots of people who prefer sticks that an automatic has any merit. The operation of stick shift cars has been a constant since syncromesh transmissions with 5 speeds became common in the 50's and 60's, but automatics have taken a couple of huge leaps since then.
Old slushboxes were only two or three speeds, and a perfectly good European car (albeit slightly underpowered) was ruined by the addition of an automatic gearbox. That paradigm has changed because automatics were sustantially improved in the 80's and 90's when they became 4-speed autos with lock up torque converters and eventually with programmable sport modes. Also vehicle power almost doubled in that period as manufactures figured out how to make power within the smog regulations.
So a late model Saab with it's high torque turbo motor and 4-speed programmable automatic ain't such a bad thing.
About 3 years ago in 9-5's and last year in 9-3's Saab started using 5-speed automatics with Sentronic shifting, which have the ability to have the shifts, up and down, to be driver controlled through shift paddles or seperate sequential shift gates. These improvements make an automatic almost tolerable even for the most die hard stick shift driver and even preferred in a racing environment like the Saab Aero Academy, the two day racing school that came with every Viggen and now 9-5 Aero.
Some manufactures even have 6 and 7-speed automatics in production.
posted by 63.197.222...
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