Does your Volvo automatically match the revs on upshifts?

[Dastardly Diesel]

Originally Posted by MikeGMT

This is something I have done for years in all my manual cars, although it wasn't done automatically by the car. It's called a 'sustained rev or rev matched' gear change. As you have discovered it provides a beautifully smooth change and is a lot kinder on the transmission. Takes a lot of practice at first but once perfected you can change gear without your passengers doing the 'nodding dog'. Just a question of 'ease or squeeze' depending on wether you are going up or down the gears, and you are right you don't take your foot of the accelerator.

A lot of new cars now feature this to some degree.

Good man. Everyone should learn sustained and boost gearchanges. Within a few days of learning the technique its second nature. Smoother drive, less stress on the drivetrain, less chance of losing traction.

[green van man]

Thing is after 50 years of driving and an long term interest in motor sport so much is muscle memory that you often outsmart the electronic aids.. I regularly use clutch less gear changes for instance, it's all about matching revs and flexing the engine to get the lever moving smoothly. I also regularly miss out gears, 4th to 6th, 5th to 3rd, sure the electronics is not going to compensate for that, but muscle memory does.

It's an unthinking automatic action that has to be thought about just to talk of.

Paul.

[MikeGMT]

One thing I could never master, clutchless gear changes, sometimes I could do 3-4 or 4-3, probably the easiest ones to do. More often than not though I would get it wrong and the accompanying grating noise and £ signs flashing before my eyes made me bottle out and stick to using the clutch.
I always looped the gears though, 6-3, 5-2, 2-4 etc. My daughter drove me not so long ago, approaching a roundabout and did 4 gear changes before coming to a stop at the giveway line. Bless. I made a remark along the lines of 'do you like changing gears Em' but I think it was lost on her. As long as she gets from A-B in safety.

[canis]

I don't understand why this is even a thing. I've been changing gear manually for years, and like GVM says above, it's second-nature to match the revs according to need. Smoother changes, less clutch wear, less componant strain throughout, and minimal loss of power during the change.

Then last year I bought an automatic. I've driven them before, but only very small distances. Now I've owned one, I love it! I can focus more on the road, more on the actual driving, keep both hands on the wheel, less personal stress in the town driving I tend to do. It's lovely, but it was a T4 and I doubt an underpowered automatic would be at all pleasant or comfortable.

To my mind, a clutchless manual gearbox is the worst of both worlds. All the disadvantages of both, and none of the benefits at all. For a start, can you tow it?

[Dastardly Diesel]

I'm afraid canis it's a thing because people really are getting atrocious at driving these days. When I learned I had to be taught to double de clutch because half the cars back then needed it. I was then taught boost and sustained gear changes, because to drive fast without upsetting the cars attitude with each change requires it, but it's a dying art.

Similarly, drivers now seem to be point-and-squirt merchants with no conception of how to take a corner properly. To my mind the sooner all cars are autonomous then a nicer place the roads will be.

And yes, most cars with MMT boxes can be safely towed.

[christheancient]

Originally Posted by MikeGMT

This is something I have done for years in all my manual cars, although it wasn't done automatically by the car. It's called a 'sustained rev or rev matched' gear change. As you have discovered it provides a beautifully smooth change and is a lot kinder on the transmission. Takes a lot of practice at first but once perfected you can change gear without your passengers doing the 'nodding dog'. Just a question of 'ease or squeeze' depending on wether you are going up or down the gears, and you are right you don't take your foot of the accelerator.

This was the way I was taught to drive very many years ago.

Most gear boxes back then, if you were lucky did have synchromesh (but never on 1st gear). But the synchromesh 'cones' on the other gears could wear out quickly (especially 4th-5th on a 5-speed box from constant use). When I later got cars of my own, they were usually well worn in the synchromesh department - so if I wanted to impress a passenger with my skills, I very soon learnt the art of double-declutching to keep the journey smooth.

Later in life, I became a driving instructor and always taught my pupils to change gear smoothly by 'see-sawing' their feet to engender 'jerk-free' gear changes. I always told them to imagine that there was a can of drink on the dash that they don't want to fall over and get their clothes wet.

Later still, I became a fleet driver trainer and one of the most common 'jobs' was to assess a client's driving and then give a commentary drive followed by them having a final drive, with gentle 'coaching' to show that they could demonstrate/practice some of the things I had demo'd. Smooth gear changes inevitably featured high on the list in things the driver practiced and developed to make their gear changes 'snatch free'. And admitted that they didn't realise that gear changes could be so smooth! (Most also realised that their observation skills needed more work!)