BMW & Audi to Offer New 8-speed Transmissions

maybe you should try a car that has some power behind it with a cvt. Pretty sure its the engine that is the problem.

i agree entirely. drove an A5 2.7TDI with a multitronic CVT gearbox. they're awful. made me consider shelling out an extra ??3k for the 3.0TDI so i get a tiptronic, or consider getting another car entirely. CVT is NOT the way forward (but i think 8 gears is a tad ridiculous as well)

It's the other way around the Germans are the innovators the Japanese just hone it......

Absolutely agree. I saw a number of posts bashing Lexus' 8-speed gear but hardly can see a single one discussing the idea of 8-speed gear in the German's cars in the same tenor. The same applies to e.g. hybrid technology - almost everyone is bashing the Toyota/Lexus' technology, but suprisingly all I can hear from all German companies (including Porsche) is that they will launch hybrid cars sooner or later (once they master the technology ;-).

to BDSawicki. hybrid is NOT the way forward. i mean let's forget for a second the amount of damage that the nickel mining for the batteries does to the environment and focus entirely on the fuel economy of the things. smaller diesel cars almost always have better fuel mileage and lower emissions than something as silly as a Prius, and in the UK/Europe at least, buying a diesel Honda Civic (which is made in Swindon) or a Mini Cooper D (also UK made) would be A LOT better for the environment than shipping one of those naf Priuses over from Japan. and that's only if you think that the problem with the environment is as bad as the media is making out, which i don't personally. i think it's another hype (tho i do concede that thinking about the environment is important)

sub39h, dont be mistaken. Hybrid tech is the way to go. As electric motors get smaller and more efficient, they will be packaged in "optimum" locations (ie: transmissions, differentials, drive shafts). When coupled with further advances in Li-ion batteries and high power capacitors, current useless systems like the one in Lexus' 600h become obsolete. Packaged with a modern high power diesel powertrain, hybrid systems will be the efficiency leader.

i am not convinced by that argument because you're still ignoring the fact that the production and disposal of hybrid tech is incredibly damaging to the environment and the costs associated with shipping the cars all around the world (those big cargo ships aren't brilliant on CO2 emissions you know!) and hydrogen technology isn't the way forward either because to produce hydrogen you need electricity and most electricity in the world still comes from burning fossil fuels! the world leaders tell us to buy these alternate fuel cars to save the planet, when in truth it's either making it worse or making precious little difference but costing us more. i'd take a Golf Bluemotion over a Pruis any day. it's cheaper, better looking, better built, more comfortable and has a better badge. and in it's lifetime will expend less CO2 and less fossil fuels

Now if the germans could only copy the japanese in reliability maybe their cars wouldn't have so many electrical failures.

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hydrogen is over hyped. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to make hydrogen. To store it efficiently super cold temperatures must be used, and to burn it efficiently super hot temperatures must be used. If burned at room temp you will only get about 60% of your energy back. Hydrogen is not the answer, it's just a chapter in the ongoing history of the war on fuel.

by burned I mean electrolyzed or whatever the term they use is.

PROS: Improved acceleration, reduced CO2, reduced engine wear, status, "smarter" trans programming. CONS: Improved acceleration, status, complexity, initial reliability (or lack-there-of).