A former colleague of mine drove an Audi (can't remember which- large sedan) which also had a CVT that was programmed to emulate discrete shift points during acceleration. Used to drive me nuts when I was in his car.

I have utterly no idea why an automaker would go through the trouble of designing and building such a complex device, only to dumb it down in software to behave like the thing it was supposed to be an improvement upon.

 

The Chrysler 200 I had as a rental when I was up in Oregon last month was hands down the WORST "new" car I've ever driven. My wife thought I was being a dick with the throttle due to all the random shifting and stupidity so I made her drive it. About 5 minutes into her shift behind the wheel she apologized. A 9 speed automatic behind an inline 4 is not a good combination.

 

All the ones I've driven do that to at least some degree. The manufacturers design them that way because customers reject them when they're used in an ideal fashion, and you can get most of the fuel economy benefits with a minimum number of customer complaints by letting the engine change RPMs as you accelerate.

--Ian

 

Prius doesn't fake shift points. When you get on the gas it just goes

VVVVVVVOOOOOOOoooooooOOOOOooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and accelerates.

 

 

I haven't driven or been in a Chrysler product that seemed well built aside from some recent Ram trucks. Apparently the reliability of Dodge trucks made Fiat so ashamed they dropped the name. That's an accomplishment.

j/k, it may have been Daimler.

The Charger police cars are suffering from premature lower front suspension bushing failure from what I understand. Replacement bushings are expensive because they come with the whole arm. But then some 3 series Bimmers are the same way.

 

so the chrystler 200 is a pile?
shame, cause IMHO it looks pretty cool. And here I thought "have they finally done something right?"

 

Letting the engine rev up on acceleration is good practice- that's a torque demand system. The early 201x Audi A-something didn't just vary the engine speed a tad, it actually emulated hard-shift point under heavy acceleration. If you plotted engine RPM over time while accelerating steady-state at WOT, it'd look like it was attached to a conventional gearbox.




Yes, but you kind of expect that when you buy an expensive German car. I'm only half-joking; it's part of the reason that their service departments have complimentary frittata bars and massage parlors- they know you're going to be spending time there, and want to make the experience seem like some kind of bonus to ownership.

 

I mean, maybe because it was a rental?

Everything in the car felt wrong. The seating position was bad and it didn't have anywhere near enough adjustment range to make it any better. There was a lot of things that reeked of "fake luxury" or "hey, look at this cool option that is standard" but its there to make up for some other failing. For example, the rear visibility is so horrendously bad you are forced to rely on the standard equipment backup camera and in dash display or you are never getting out of a parking space. It struck me as a car that is built for old people that is loaded with fake technology to impress them. "Look honey, all 4 of the windows have auto power down! My first car didn't even have windows, it was a horse!" The stereo was needlessly complex, the electric e-brake was a hassle and the "dial a gear" **** instead of a regular shifter drove me up the wall. There was a USB port in the center console that I think is there to tie your iThing into the stereo, but I don't think it even put out 500mA. It certainly was not enough to keep up with my Nexus 5 while running Google Maps for navigation.



You see that hole down by the drivers knee? That's actually a shared cubby that is open into the passenger side and has a small pass-through into the center console. For, ****, I guess a USB cable or something to connect it to the aforementioned under-powered charge port? Its in such an awkward location that you really can't use it for anything and its fairly obviously the reason that had to go to the electric ebrake and eschew the standard automatic shifter stalk. It has eleven billion ***** and things to allow you to redirect and change its features of the climate control, but sharp eyes will notice in the above image that the ***** in the center console AND the buttons on the infotainment display BOTH control the hvac. You would assume this must be a pretty highly regulated and defined system what with all these controls and options, right? Nope, its just as dumb as the feedbackless control system in the Miata, except it now has 18,000 electrical or vacuum operated actuators that can go bad. I spent most of the time driving around with the windows down.

If I were single and looking for a hookup I would probably peruse women who drove these cars because its quite obvious their decision making process is questionable and I'd have a decent shot at being their next mistake.

 

I had precisely the same reaction to the Ford Fusion I had earlier this week in Chicago. Hated the dial-a-shift, the electric parking brake, the feel of the seat, and the ergonomics in general. HATED the fact that all climate controls were accessed via a touchscreen- you can't just reach down and twirl the fan speed or temp **** by feel, you have to take your eyes off the road and focus on hitting a tiny little button while bumping around on a rough road. Touchscreens in cars was a bad idea when Buick did it in 1988 on the Reatta (lasted for precisely one production year), and it's still a bad idea today.





Had to rely upon the backup cam a lot, though I'll admit that it was quite useful when parallel-parking; I have a hard time judging where the back end of large cars is in general.

OTOH, the USB port was able to supply enough power to push my Galaxy S6 well into positive charge while navigating with Google Maps. I've used it in a lot of cars that didn't.

Couldn't quite figure out why the car wanted to connect to WiFi. Seriously, why does a car need to connect to WiFi? Actual photo:

 

Yeah the 200 is a heaping pile. I had an accent rental a week or two after I had the 200 and it was way better to drive. My only real complaint amount the charger rental I had was that it had on demand awd. Try to do burnouts with traction control on and it would cut your throttle. Turn the traction control off and it would immediately put it in 4wd.

 

all that stuff is almost spot on with how I would describe the last focus I drove. I think it was a 13-14?

 

I think I'm about to see significant improvement in my dating life.

 

Joe P goes to m.net to ask his noob questions.

 

sonIamdisappoint

 

First post I've made on m.net in years. I was far too embarrassed to ask here. I have literally never paid anyone to do any work of any kind on any car I've ever owned, aside from mounting tires onto wheels.

One of the downsides of living in a luxurious high-rise condo with valet service is that they don't take kindly to people ripping their engines apart in the garage where the people with chihuahuas in their purses can see.


If we've got any peeps here near Chicago who can lend me a garage for a day, I'll gladly pay you back in in good beer.

 

Find David and the kswap crew and get a new engine while you are at it.

Jeeps are awesome. We've had the top and doors of f Hailey's for a month now. And I've been dailying it and my truck. Driving no top or doors is a wonderful thing.

 

it's ok we forgive you
what are bronies good for anyway?

if you were still in the bay area I'd take you under my wing ****.
Just so I can tell people "I've met THE Joe Perez". we'd need to take gay pictures together for proof of course

 

There are a few mt.net people in Chicago. I know I met up with one a few years ago when I was up there. I will try to figure out who it is and get you their info.

Also @Splitime is in Chicago and might be able to help you out.

 

​Joe, if you can drive to the west burbs... Game on! You are more than welcome at mi casa.