hondafan

Not to beat a dead horse but if Acura did not offer a MT I'd opt for an Honda Odyssey Touring before I'd even consider an AT TL.

SouthernBoy

Amen. There would be no TL in my garage for my personal use had they not offered a manual transmission. Plenty of other great choices out there were this the case. The new Ford Mustang comes to mind right away, not to mention the CTS-V Cadillac.

SouthernBoy

In my area, manual TLs are rather common. I suspect it's because (to use a term of a former worker friend) there are a lot of "yuppie scum" in this area who buy cars for badges. Incidently, this former worker friend has a 5-car heated garage with lifts for him to prep his M3 that he races and Ferrari that his wife races.

SouthernBoy

Hey there, Brett. Actually, the automatic has a far lower final drive than does the manual (4.428 vs our 3.285). But when you multiply the first gear ratios of both cars with there respective final drives, you get 12.9199 for the manual and 11.341275 for the automatic - advantage = manual. The real difference in all of this is the direct connection between the driveshaft and the drive wheels with a manual once full clutch engagement is realized. You don't get this with an automatic since you are using pumps and forcing fluids, so there is a parasitic power loss. This fact also exhibits itself in the feeling one gets in the small of the back when light applications of throttle are added.

Brettg

Maybe I am mixing up my terms, I thought the auto trans TL got its good gas mileage (same as the manual trans) by having the motor spin less at the same speed in top gear.

I thought I read someplace that the auto trans TL had the motor spinning a few hundred rpm lower at 70 mph then the manual does.

They have to do something to make up for the auto trans loss, yet the auto and manual get the exact same mpg...

The auto trans also locks up the torque converter, not sure about the TL but many cars (like the passat) locked it in each gear except when the trans was shifting.

Brett

SouthernBoy

You're right about an automatic TL's engine turning fewer RPMs than the manual when in the highest gear. For example, at 60 MPH, the manual's engine turns 2000 RPM in 6th gear while the automatic turns a little more than 1700 RPM at the same speed. But the manual tends to deliver better fuel economy than does the automatic at these speeds. I suspect it's because when a bit of a hill is encountered, the automatic will downshift whereas the manual.. is a manual.

Anyway, there is more parasitic loss with the automatic versus the manual.