Would you rather have a robotized manual transmission than a DSG?
They say that the better is the enemy of the good. That’s why the dual-clutch transmission eventually replaced the automated manual transmission. Technically, they’re quite comparable, but while the automated manual transmission simply adds a few motors and hydraulic components to the mechanical transmission so that clutch operation and gear changes no longer have to be initiated by foot and hand, the dual-clutch transmission adds a second clutch and a second shaft, which allow gear changes to occur, so to speak, at full throttle, because the next gear is already engaged and power simply needs to be transferred from one gear to the next. This results in significantly less neck-straining gear changes and is now standard in many, many cars.
Robotized transmissions—whether they were called E-Gear, F1, R-Tronic, Selespeed, Sportshift, or something else—don’t seem to be as popular today. In any case, people are willing to pay a hefty premium for genuine manual transmissions, partly because of the low production volumes back then.
But what if we’re faced with the choice of buying a classic car with DSG or a comparable car with a robotized manual transmission? Does the DSG version still come out on top?
Perhaps not, because with a robotized manual transmission, the technology still feels significantly more mechanical and direct than with the DSG. The seamless gear changes and the comfortable automatic mode of the more modern technology suddenly don’t seem so desirable anymore. Most DSG systems also lull you into automatic mode, whereas automated manual transmissions are often set to manual mode by default.
So it could very well be that the “inferior” transmission variant will eventually make a comeback among classic car and modern classic car buyers… after all, we’ve already seen similar patterns with vinyl records and compact discs…
