Any experience of 1.0litre automatics

[Padders72]

I sometimes think of it as just having half an engine with only 3 cylinders. There's the "sport" model which has a full sized 6 cyclinder 2.0 Turbo.

A 6 cylinder Focus? Are you sure?

Scott.

Seems it's only one more for double the cc and a bit

https://www.evo.co.uk/ford/focus/st/eng ... ical-specs

You may be thinking of BMW/MIni. They use a modular engine design (B Series) which has 3, 4 and 6 cylinder variants using multiples of the same basic 500cc cylinder unit all with turbocharging. The B58 3l six can be thought of as two 1.5l B38s combined. Only the 3 and 4 cylinder version fit sideways incidentally. They also share the same block for petrol and diesel versions. Clever really.

[Mike88]

The problem with low powered automatics is that they don't have the grunt to deal with an automatic gearbox. Once I borrowed a VW Polo automatic and the car was horrendous; totally underpowered and unable to cope with gear changes in normal driving even though it was 95bhp. Gears on low powered autos, in my experience, get confused and often the engines rev too highly or too lowly when on hills. My wife has owned two - both Vauxhall Corsa's. Great cars but with limitations. Contrary to normal belief I found they were better on longish journeys than around town. We often used the car to leave at airports and they were fine on a 150 mile drive to Gatwick but not in hilly Devon. On the other hand I'm used to driving high powered automatic cars so anything under around 200bhp seems underpowered to me.

[DrFfybes]

The problem with low powered automatics is that they don't have the grunt to deal with an automatic gearbox. Once I borrowed a VW Polo automatic and the car was horrendous; totally underpowered and unable to cope with gear changes in normal driving even though it was 95bhp.

This may have been true many years ago, with 3 speed (overdrive) torque converter slushmatic boxes that sapped a large amount of power. However the new "auto" boxes are very different beasts - auto tends to include DSG (a semi automatic pre selector twin clutch manual), CVT (which is fine if you are a passenger, and deaf) , basically anything without a gearstick tends to come under the 'auto' category.

The old 3 speeds are now replaced with 6, 7, or 8 speeds, so much easier for the system to find an approriate gear, and the turbo and hybrids can fill the low end holes experienced in older engines for smoother progress.

Try a modern one and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Unless it is CVT

[swill453]

This may have been true many years ago, with 3 speed (overdrive) torque converter slushmatic boxes that sapped a large amount of power. However the new "auto" boxes are very different beasts - auto tends to include DSG (a semi automatic pre selector twin clutch manual), CVT (which is fine if you are a passenger, and deaf) , basically anything without a gearstick tends to come under the 'auto' category.

My Polo with a 7 speed DSG is more than adequate. It does have a 150bhp 1.4 turbo though

Scott.

[Mike88]

Original deleted by the writer

[Mike88]

Try a modern one and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Unless it is CVT

Like the VW Polo mentioned in my post which was a dealer loan whilst car was being serviced? The fact that yours is 150bhp as opposed to the 95bhp I tried rather proves my point. Perhaps the point should be that if you want a small automatic go for the higher powered engine.

[staffordian]

I briefly drove a Hyundai i10 automatic a while ago, having it as a courtesy vehicle. It was not a car I could recommend.

It has an "automated manual transmission" which, I believe, uses a more or less conventional gearbox and clutch, but just two pedals, with the clutch and gear changes controlled by the car.

I found it very slow to pick up drive and there were noticable pauses as it changed up when accelerating.

I'm not sure how many other manufacturers use this system, but on a limited sample of one, it's something I'd be very wary of.

[swill453]

I briefly drove a Hyundai i10 automatic a while ago, having it as a courtesy vehicle. It was not a car I could recommend.

It has an "automated manual transmission" which, I believe, uses a more or less conventional gearbox and clutch, but just two pedals, with the clutch and gear changes controlled by the car.

I found it very slow to pick up drive and there were noticable pauses as it changed up when accelerating.

I'm not sure how many other manufacturers use this system, but on a limited sample of one, it's something I'd be very wary of.

The VW DSG "direct-shift gearbox" is basically two manual gearboxes and two clutches in a single housing, working together electronically. In my experience it has none of the above drawbacks. In automatic mode the gearchanges are seamless and very quick.

I agree a low powered version might not be as pleasant.

Scott.

[DrFfybes]

I briefly drove a Hyundai i10 automatic a while ago, having it as a courtesy vehicle. It was not a car I could recommend.

It has an "automated manual transmission" which, I believe, uses a more or less conventional gearbox and clutch, but just two pedals, with the clutch and gear changes controlled by the car.

I found it very slow to pick up drive and there were noticable pauses as it changed up when accelerating.

I'm not sure how many other manufacturers use this system, but on a limited sample of one, it's something I'd be very wary of.

A Single clutch robotised manual, very old fashioned these days, I think only used by manufacturers who didn't have their own better system, possibly due to other manufacturers having patents on the alternatives (I'm guessing here). This system was in use from 1999 with Alfa/FIAT as the Selespeed, Maserati Cambiocorsa, Ferrari F1 shift, Aston Martin Sportshift, Audi R-tronic, Porsche Sportmatic from early 90s, etc. Lamborghini were still using it last year in their flagship Aventador!

I've driven several cars with it, and in all of them IMO it was worse than having a standard manual, one reason why manual supercars from 2000 onwards tend to fetch quite a premium over the 'auto' ones. The newer dual clutch DSG/PDK/S-Tronic are a massive leap forwards.

Paul

[9873210]

At least some automatics have multiple modes. Selecting "sport" or "eco" makes a noticeable difference. You may also find the same effect when comparing two cars which nominally use the same drivetrain, but differently tuned software. Worth checking during any test drive.

[staffordian]

At least some automatics have multiple modes. Selecting "sport" or "eco" makes a noticeable difference. You may also find the same effect when comparing two cars which nominally use the same drivetrain, but differently tuned software. Worth checking during any test drive.

That point gave me another thought.

I know some cars 'learn' ones driving style. Not sure how far this goes, but I wonder if, for example, a demo vehicle which has been regularly thrashed by the salesman who takes it home at night might drive differently after being carefully driven by an owner.

If so, maybe test drives need to be undertaken with this in mind?

[bungeejumper]

I know some cars 'learn' ones driving style. Not sure how far this goes, but I wonder if, for example, a demo vehicle which has been regularly thrashed by the salesman who takes it home at night might drive differently after being carefully driven by an owner.

I encountered that one last year with a borrowed Range Rover. Having been driven in town for many months, it was not feeling very well inclined to handle the 400 miles of fast winding roads that I wanted to give it. It was getting the gearchange speeds all wrong, holding on to the lower gears for too long, and decidedly lumpy around busy roundabouts, etc.

Fortunately, though, it's a small matter to wipe the gearbox's memory so that you're back to the factory settings, and then you can start the education process anew. I didn't do it, because it was a borrowed car after all , but it's all in the manual, and it takes about two minutes, using nothing more sophisticated than the ignition key. (Or should I say, the ignition buttons.)

BJ