Auto Gearbox

[Philip Fisher]

Whenever I have a courtesy car it is always the joystick crystal gear selector from my T8 which I miss.

[MOzS90]

Originally Posted by gaby

You don't drive a T8 then?

No I don’t.

[Deman77]

Originally Posted by bobby2000

But surely if you bought an SUV it's not necessary for it to drive like a hot hatch or sports car.Just enjoy the comfort, mine does a good enough job, 0_60 in around 6.5 secs, not exactly slow!

The pace is there, it’s lack of refinement that I have an issue with. I do expect refinement from a premium SUV and I would be happy to sacrifice both pace and economy for it. I use minicabs regularly and none of the fords or vw seem, I never experienced this with my early nighties BMW’s before I moved to cvt - they just shift between the gears and all you see is tachometer jumping, no delay, no hesitation. I know what turbo lag feels like, this is not it. T5 xc60 has it. People in T8 have it.
It may be an overactive ESC but it happens even with ESCoff which is reduced traction control - let’s some slippage happen.
I think it’s the gearbox hellbent on economy.

[KNVXC90]

I see no hesitation in my XC90, and the gear changes happen very smooth. I do have Polestar though, which could be helping. Very happy with it. I do agree that the gear stick could be a bit more smoother when you are changing between Park, Drive, Reverse etc.

[Bernard F]

Originally Posted by Deman77

The pace is there, it’s lack of refinement that I have an issue with. I do expect refinement from a premium SUV and I would be happy to sacrifice both pace and economy for it. I use minicabs regularly and none of the fords or vw seem, I never experienced this with my early nighties BMW’s before I moved to cvt - they just shift between the gears and all you see is tachometer jumping, no delay, no hesitation. I know what turbo lag feels like, this is not it. T5 xc60 has it. People in T8 have it.
It may be an overactive ESC but it happens even with ESCoff which is reduced traction control - let’s some slippage happen.
I think it’s the gearbox hellbent on economy.

I am completely unaware of any gearbox hesitation in my XC60 T5 and if there is it must be in milliseconds and unnoticeable in normal driving conditions. It’s certainly as refined as I would want or need and I am mostly unaware off any gear changing unless I happen to glance at the tachometer. I would hate to see Volvo sacrifice both pace and economy for an undefined and unnecessary change to the gearbox.

[Jimrod]

I'd say the box kinda suits the "Volvo" image really, in my S90 (D4) it's very smooth with nearly imperceptible changes under relaxed driving and pulling away from stop/start is much quicker to react than my previous VW group DSG.

But - the caveat is that it does take a while to react when planting your foot, probably half a second to a second (paddle-shift not much quicker to cycle through gears) but that feels like an eternity at times. It just can't keep up as quickly as a DSG if you've gotten used to one of those but is similar to previous "standard" auto's I've driven in that regard.

I think it's ok for the car. Do be careful if you're in "Dynamic" and stop then reverse quite quickly, I've had really big shunts through the transmission doing that and I wasn't trying to be fast!

[Deman77]

Originally Posted by Bernard F

I am completely unaware of any gearbox hesitation in my XC60 T5 and if there is it must be in milliseconds and unnoticeable in normal driving conditions. It’s certainly as refined as I would want or need and I am mostly unaware off any gear changing unless I happen to glance at the tachometer. I would hate to see Volvo sacrifice both pace and economy for an undefined and unnecessary change to the gearbox.

Slowing down into a t junction or roundabout, when you step on the accelerator there is very perceptible delay before it shifts down. I tried to get it to shift down pre corner, mid corner and past and it happens every time. There are ways to minimise it but it’s always there. I had it in 3 different xc90 D5 courtesy cars, xc60 t5, people reported it on T8. Perhaps it’s just a very wide spread bug that doesn’t affect everyone if you don’t have it but given that I felt it in every spa car I would say you are more likely to get it than not.

[Bernard F]

Originally Posted by Deman77

Slowing down into a t junction or roundabout, when you step on the accelerator there is very perceptible delay before it shifts down. I tried to get it to shift down pre corner, mid corner and past and it happens every time. There are ways to minimise it but it’s always there. I had it in 3 different xc90 D5 courtesy cars, xc60 t5, people reported it on T8. Perhaps it’s just a very wide spread bug that doesn’t affect everyone if you don’t have it but given that I felt it in every spa car I would say you are more likely to get it than not.

I will concentrate on both the above occasions next time they occur but so far I have not been aware of any delay and I am sure I would have been.

[bobby2000]

Originally Posted by Deman77

Slowing down into a t junction or roundabout, when you step on the accelerator there is very perceptible delay before it shifts down. I tried to get it to shift down pre corner, mid corner and past and it happens every time. There are ways to minimise it but it’s always there. I had it in 3 different xc90 D5 courtesy cars, xc60 t5, people reported it on T8. Perhaps it’s just a very wide spread bug that doesn’t affect everyone if you don’t have it but given that I felt it in every spa car I would say you are more likely to get it than not.

I guess if you stamp on the throttle pedal in the situation you mention I might get a moments hesitation, but I don't generally feel the need to drive like that, so as far as I'm concerned the gearbox is generally smooth and refined. I will admit that my automatic gearbox box experience in different vehicles is fairly limited .

[Haldex]

Deman, take a look at this discussion on Swedespeed:

http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthr...e+transmission

Essentially- the trans being adaptive- it learns from your driving style. And it takes time to "unlearn" ie. if you drive it at a comfy pace for some time & then give it a"stab" in the corner- obviously, it's not gonna react the way you hope. The benefit of an adaptive transmission is better fuel economy, gentle shifts- but drawback is- it may not always react to your mood swings

Apparently shifting into Offroad mode and driving past 40km/h (where offroad mode will disengage..) resets the adaptive "memory". I never tried it so I cannot confirm this method.

I have a D5 also and I find the geartronic to be a perfect match to this engine. No hesitation whatsoever- instant, smooth shifts. But then again- mine is always in Dynamic And I more or less drive it at a constant pace all the time.