Jan 03, 2003 01:51 PM
83186 Views
(Updated Jan 05, 2003 01:31 AM)
The Automatic transmission vis a vis the Manual transmissions has its own pros and cons. Lets see what they are.
Firstly, as we all know that the AT(Auto Transmission) is much more convenient and enjoyable than the MT(Manual Transmission). Well, lets talk convenience here. We know that the car is run on 4 basic things besides the judgment of the driver. They are the steer wheel, the pedals, the gear shaft and the other control including lights, wipers, horn etc. If we subtract one of those jobs, we reduce our efforts in driving by 25%. All you have to do is relax both your hands evenly on the steer wheel rather than constantly engaging yourself in switching gears as per the changing speeds. Also one of your leg is as good as not required as there is no clutch pedal. When we talk about the driving pleasure, well with the efforts reduced the car definitely seems to be a much better machine than otherwise.
Some Basics - Just like that of a manual transmission, the automatic transmission's primary job is to allow the engine to operate in its narrow range of speeds while providing a wide range of output speeds.
Without a transmission, cars would be limited to one gear ratio, and that ratio would have to be selected to allow the car to travel at the desired top speed. If you wanted a top speed of 80 mph, then the gear ratio would be similar to third gear in most manual transmission cars.
You've probably never tried driving a manual transmission car using only third gear. If you did, you'd quickly find out that you had almost no acceleration when starting out, and at high speeds, the engine would be screaming along near the red-line. A car like this would wear out very quickly and would be nearly undriveable.
So the transmission uses gears to make more effective use of the engine's torque, and to keep the engine operating at an appropriate speed.
The key difference between a manual and an automatic transmission is that the manual transmission locks and unlocks different sets of gears to the output shaft to achieve the various gear ratios, while in an automatic transmission, the same set of gears produces all of the different gear ratios. The planetary gearset is the device that makes this possible in an automatic transmission.
We clearly can make out, that the AT vehicle is very convinient and a smooth drive compared to the MT, but there are a few drawbacks in the AT. Firstly, the At gives a much lesser mileage than the MT, besides if you ask some of the good drivers, they really prefer the MT to the At. WHAT? WHY would anyone prefer a MT over an AT? Well, the fact is that the AT is designed to change gears at a specific range of speeds, for example, the gear might shift from the first to the second lets say when the car hits 20 KMPH and then from second to third when it is doing a 50 KMPH and so on. That leaves a driver with little option to choose his drive mode. Some drivers prefer to rev the engine on every gear, which would mean, he probably would like to hit the second gear only when the car hits a 30 KMPH and the third when its about 65 KMPH whereas the others who would like to conserve fuel, might switch to a higher gear a little early.
The difference - AT being very easy to use and smooth, MT gives you more options and is easy on the budget month after month. Having driven both, seems like, the AT is really good when you out on a vacation or generally if wanna enjoy a drive, but the MT is good when you going to work, braving the traffic.
For more information, please check the following links:
https://howstuffworks.com/transmission.htm/printable
https://howstuffworks.com/automatic-transmission.htm
