[SteveR]

What a well thought out transmission.

After one week with my Dark Silver Minni Cooper S 6sp auto., I have not lost the excitement that occurs each time that I use the car.
Since I had to order an auto. (for my wife), the Mini seemed to be a great choice because of it's 6 speeds.

The auto. transmission is a fantastic design!

My impressions to date; (remember I have not exceeded 4500rpm yet..)

Use regular drive...thats fine, because it shifts on its own depending upon how much foot you put into it. Most shifts at part pedal are between 2000 and 3000. Nice smooth shifts. It sometimes hunts a little with 5th and 6th...but it is looking for good gas mileage, so no harm there. If you want to take over...just touch a paddle...the gear selected shows up on the gauge panel...the trans. then returns to full auto. after about 30secs.

You push the lever to the right; now you are in "sport". The trans. holds every gear longer,
and downshifts earlier when coasting to a stop. At half pedal...the trans. shifts at about 3500 to 4000. The trans. keeps the revs. high, as if you were on a "road course", but it is still in full auto. control.

While you are in SD (sport), touch the stick or paddle; now you are in manual control.
It stays under manual control, until you select drive once again. You are in control.
First gear really "gets you going".
Drive it with paddles or the stick just like you would a manual trans. It is great fun going down through the gears, while coasting to a stop.

I can't wait to see how the trans. reacts to all out acceleration from a stop, and shift points near redline.

If all you want is a manual...then please get it! I love all my manual transmission cars.

However; if you need to consider an automatic for some reason....you will not be disapointed with this car. The trans. is just alot of fun to use.

Steve

[sbontrager]

You missed one tiny thing, in "maunual" mode it will downshift for you just by applying the break. This can lead to unexpected downshifts from time to time.

Once you know what's going on it's easy to predict and quite nice. Fire-and-forget.

[Kenmini]

YEAH ! another MCSA lover !


one thing I would like to Add is that the rev limit for our MCSA is 6800 rpm .. at least for my MCSA .. I did some hard accleration one time .. the engine rev so quickly that by the time I look at my tach meter to get ready to shift.. the engine already rev to 6800 rpm and shifted up by it self ... I was amazed !