Next-gen BMW 7-Series to get 8-speed automatic
Are transmissions a new battlefront in the war for customers amongst high end brands? Mercedes has been doing seven ratios for a little while, and Lexus has a new 8-cogger on offer, too. BMW's not content to be trailing with just 6 speeds, so the new 7-series (F01) will reportedly ship with an 8-speed automatic transmission. If high fuel prices and tightening emissions and consumption requirements manage to snuff out our recent horsepower battles, gear ratios are all we'll have left.
BMW's 8-speed fits in the same space as the old 6-speed, and is said to be smoother and more efficient than the outgoing gearbox. Perhaps more important than the greater ratio spread and increased fuel economy that the new transmission will bring is the shifter moves back to the console (cue choir of heavenly angels). Expect the new 8-speed and its modular design to wind up in many BMW vehicles after its initial launch in the upcoming 7-series.
[Source: Bimmerfile, Photo: Bimmerfile]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
CEMan 2:04PM (4/14/2008)
Why only 8? Why not 12 or 20 or 100? This is all too silly. Just go to the damned CVT and stop the stupidity.
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XeroK00L 2:17PM (4/14/2008)
Until CVT can be made to withstand the torque of a large V6 let alone a V8 and to downshift into a proper gear ratio storming into a low-speed corner in less than 1 second, CVT will remain as the choice of the econoboxes.
tankd0g 2:40PM (4/14/2008)
I wouldn't say choice...
XeroK00L 2:46PM (4/14/2008)
CVT does offer superior fuel efficiency and is inexpensive to build, which is paramount is econoboxes and is therefore the preferred choice of gearbox in the segment these days.
MikeW 2:56PM (4/14/2008)
BECAUSE the ratio spread of the ZF 8 speed automatic is greater than any CVT on the market. 7:1 vs. the Multitronic's 6.73:1
ZF's stillborn 7 speed auto (no torque converter, uses wet clutch, like the AMG hot rodded 7g-tronic) actually had a wider ratio spread, 7.28:1
and the torque handling capacity is far greater, like double what the Multitronic can handle.
http://dieselblog.net/2007/05/zf-will-build-an-8-speed-automatic-great-news-for-diesels/
CVTs don't shift, they slide ratios. and they invented something called a manumatic interface, so put it in one of the 8 fixed ratios in Audi's Multitronic. (and there is automatic sport mode)
tankd0g 2:56PM (4/14/2008)
By the manufacturers maybe.
XeroK00L 3:06PM (4/14/2008)
tankd0g:
By many budget-minded buyers looking to save a few bucks at the pumps too. The world does not consist only of car enthusiasts, you know.
havoc 3:45PM (4/14/2008)
C&D, R&T, Auto, don't remember which mag, but a nissan versa cvt was compared to a versa conventional auto (pretty sure it wasn't a manual) and the CVT came in as a faster, less efficient trans. the power needed to run the hydraulic system of the nissan cvt was greater than the loss from their standard auto, but because of the so-called infinite ratio spread, the cvt was slightly faster since it could hold at peak.
i like the idea of a cvt with presets, use the CVT for typical day-to-day, but have a set ratio spread avail for performance driving.
or you could have 5 preset lower gears, and then full cvt under light load conditions, or high speed driving.
GINC 11:28PM (4/14/2008)
When Toyota(Lexus) came up with 8spd, all the people here were calling it unnecessary, possible-reliability-issue and etc.
Now BMW comes up with their own, only few are against it. ... Hmm?????????????????????????????????????
XeroK00L 2:07PM (4/14/2008)
Let me guess... 8 speeds is NOT too many NOW.
And who would've thought the steering-column-mounted shifter a la your good ol' trucks in a "Ultimate Driving Machine" was not the brightest ever?
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Derek 7:14PM (4/14/2008)
Column shifting debuted in Cadillacs in 1938 to allow more spacious seating. (google it) Trucks adopted it later presumably for the same reason.
Personally, I don't see the purpose of putting a slushbox shifter on the floor anyways unless you just want to pretend that you have a real transmission.
mk 2:12PM (4/14/2008)
If you are going to drive an automatic with that many gears in a luxury car...
Why is there a shifter lever at all?
Buttons, like Aston Martin's manu-matic or Jaguar's XF. Why bother with a "stick" at all, on the console or the column?
It isn't as though this thing is going to drive at all like a stick-shift manual.
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tankd0g 2:40PM (4/14/2008)
For when the computer fails :)
mk 3:12PM (4/14/2008)
If your BMW 7-series "computer" fails, it gets flat-bedded back to the dealer, anyway.
Like most hydraulic automatics, the stick is merely a suggestion, anyway, it is already mostly computer controlled at some level for shift programming. Deleting the stick just connects Park, Reverse, and Neutral to buttons, through the computer, and to a mechanical or hydraulic shift actuator anyway.
Make the computer middleman earn more of his keep, basically.
For all the electronic controls on modern automatics, it might as well be a dual-clutch automated manual-style transmission, and be entirely computer controlled, and less dependent on hydraulics, and no torque converter. It would probably be simpler than an 8-speed hydra-shifter.
fm 2:15PM (4/14/2008)
Will they stop with these freaking automatics? Slush boxes should be dead now that DSGs exist. BMW get with the programme!
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ken_aisin 2:23PM (4/14/2008)
I totally agree. If possible, would all car makers please give up the obsolete slush box. Nissan managed to put DSG into the torqueful GT-R. I really don't see how BMW isn't putting DSG into the next 7..... and every BMW.
MikeW 3:17PM (4/14/2008)
If anything, the double clutches should 'die'
You have limited ratio spread with double clutch transmissions.
and it is still a manual transmission, and if the computer mispredicts a gear transition, or a gear isn't pre-selected, it isn't any faster than automatics.
Stop calling automatics 'slush boxes'
Lockup torque converter took care of one part of that pejorative, the removal of overrunning clutches took care of the other part.
Papi L-Gee 7:08PM (4/14/2008)
Since they usually show up only in higher-performance models right now, DSGs aren't widespread enough for automatic transmissions to be considered obsolete yet. Give them time.
Peter Rockwell 2:15PM (4/14/2008)
How does the weight of an 8-speed compare with a six-speed? Is this another step in the porkification of the modern automobile?
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CEMan 2:37PM (4/14/2008)
Ahh Yeah. You nailed it.
Can some one show me any info as the how this makes anything better. Just more junk to make the cars fatter and mor expensive.