• commandar@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    The transmission in those things is an amazing level of suck, too. It’s this bizarre automatic manual thing that’s just awful to drive.

    • CaptainPedantic@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Porsche measures their automatic gear changes in milliseconds. Smart measures them in geologic time scales.

      I truly don’t understand why they didn’t put a CVT in those 2nd generation cars (the ones sold in North America). It’s the perfect application! Small car, not a lot of power, efficiency minded.

      • StaticFalconar@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        If the smart car was made today it probably would have a cvt. But an extremely budget car back then, cvts weren’t as common.

    • EvilLootbox@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      They’re not so bad if you drive one often enough. I had one for five-six years and drove it only in tiptronic, shifting while lifting off the gas. In automatic mode yeah it’s dog.

      This was the gas version that needed premium fuel. I drove it daily on the 401 for awhile. Was the first car I had that absolutely required winter tires, was undrivable in snow/ice without.

      I thought it was a decent enough car, got it barely used very cheap due to it’s wild depreciation which was a good thing, until it started needing serious work that made no sense to do. At the end it was worth as much as a new set of tires for it, as in nothing.