I want to buy an automatic car, unfortunately some of the cars I'm interested in, aren't just straight automatic, they're semi automatic and automatic. Do semi autos tend to suffer more problems than a plain automatic?
2021-01-15T04:49:57Z
I'm here in the UK. They're automatics but they also have the semi-automatic feature
2021-01-15T14:54:25Z
I'm talking about automatic cars where they have (+) (-) You can shift without the clutch, which would make it semi-automatic I guess. Just a feature you don't need if you are gonna have it in straight automatic all the time
Mr. Smartypants2021-01-15T05:11:38Z
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There are different kinds of semi-automatic transmissions. Most have a fully-automatic mode, so you can just set that and ignore the gearshift. But they also have a lever, or 'flappy paddles' behind the steering wheel, so you can choose which gear you want.
Some of these transmissions have a lot of problems, especially the dual-clutch models. But you have a whole different range of cars available there, so I don't know them all.
The thing to do is to choose a model you like and then look it up on the Internet. Google "[car name and model] problems" or "[car] transmission problems"
What you are referring to is what Jeremy Clarkson and others call “flappy paddle “ gearboxes. They have no clutch as far as the driver is concerned but you can change gear up and down using levers attached to the steering wheel. Some even blip the throttle to make you sound like a pro. They generally have a fully automatic mode for when you want to take it easy. They are more complicated that conventional autos but then again they are getting far more complex with 7 or 9 speeds, a far cry from the old 3 speeds if the 60s and 70s.
The last "semi-automatic" I saw was an old VW Beetle that had a standard transmission with a shift lever that had electrical contacts in it to activate a vacuum operated clutch. Are you referring to regular automatics and automatics with paddle shifters or the (+) and (-) positions for the shift lever that allow you to manually shift the automatic transmission gears? The one thing that I'd recommend doing is finding out which cars have the automatic CVT transmissions that have a high failure rate. The only imported brand and model that I know of without a CVT transmission is the Toyota RAV4.