re improvements in automatic transmissions hagenjd wfu edu jeff hagen writes the biggest hurdle for automatics imho is not shifting speed per se but rather the transmission s reaction speed when you try to force it to shift manually i rented an oldsmobile achieva is that a yuppie name or what and a nissan stanza they both had automatics i m a manual transmission bigot but i have to admit that the transmissions on these cars were better shifters than i am and yes they responded very quickly to kickdown requests the nissan had a tachometer so i was able to figure out which gear i was in the olds may have also but i don t remember i believe it shifted all the way down to second at about mph when my foot told it no i really want to accelerate quickly i would still prefer a manual but i won t delude myself into thinking that i can out accelerate a modern automatic and i m very smooth at shifting but certainly not as good as an automatic tommy reingold at t bell labs holmdel nj tommy boole att com or att boole tommy
