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How does shiftronic compare with 5mt?


thebigevilfoot

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Hi there I am new to these forums and I always see these statistic showing that 5mt is about 1 second quicker in the 0-60 compared to automatic, but I was wondering how well the shiftronic does against the 5mt, I have not yet purchased a Legacy GT, but have decided on one and excpect to purchase one sometime in august, if I had the choice I would get 5mt, but since I am buying used one for a good price may just not come my way, so I must leave all options open. Thanks

 

-Tom

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i've personally never driven a shiftronic car...been kind of wondering about it myself..

but...shifttronic should be faster on the gear change i would imagine. it's kind of like manual transmission but faster and no need to clutch - the perfect thing for those that can't drive manual tranny but want to.

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i agree with Darkness of Death - I have shiftronic. Anyway the future is in clutchless gearboxes.

No, it's not at all! The future is in dual-clutch sequential gearboxes. The 5EAT or 4AT(which is even worse) in these cars is nothing special. It's still a slushbox with a torque converter. It does nothing much to help your performance be it in auto or manual mode. Dual-clutch gearboxes, however, actually provide you with a performance and fuel economy increase over their manual counterpart.

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To be honest I'm not going to be racing or anything, and nice 6-7 second range will be phenomenal for me, 1/2 a second, 1 second won't make a difference, I was just wondering if perhaps 5mt was the better bang for the buck. I personally have wanted stick, but my whole family is getting on me how sitting in traffic will make me want to kill myself if I have stick, I feel like it's not a big deal, but I guess whichever comes to me for the better price, better mileage and better history will be the one no matter if it's auto or stick.
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If lowest possible 0-60 time is the primary concern for you, get a mt.

 

If you want a car that's still fun and fast that you can still shift manually when the urge arises, the 5eat is great.

 

I didn't know a stock 5eat could get to 60 in under 5.. The 5mt/6mt can.

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I always wanted a stick too :) but putting 40k miles a year... not gonna happen, There is no control when using 5eat shiftronic and it's slow to react for my car anyway. Also shift from 2nd to 3rd, wow whiplash everytime. I want evo x mr just for their auto twin clutch.
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I own a 5EAT with the shiftronic option, and I've driven my friends MT, both 05 LGTs. Sad to say, the MT is definately faster. No question. To me, it's really a matter of being able to manipulate the cars power with the MT. Even with the shiftronic it still feels "sluggish" compared to the MT. My car is still fast, don't get me wrong, but the MT is the way to go if you are looking for speed, power and fun. Mine is a daily driver with a 50 mile daily commute in stop and go traffic, that's why I was willing to go with the 5EAT... not to mention that the Garnett Red is sick on the LGTs.
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I own a 5EAT with the shiftronic option, and I've driven my friends MT, both 05 LGTs. Sad to say, the MT is definately faster. No question. To me, it's really a matter of being able to manipulate the cars power with the MT. Even with the shiftronic it still feels "sluggish" compared to the MT. My car is still fast, don't get me wrong, but the MT is the way to go if you are looking for speed, power and fun. Mine is a daily driver with a 50 mile daily commute in stop and go traffic, that's why I was willing to go with the 5EAT... not to mention that the Garnett Red is sick on the LGTs.

Yeah, that red is an amazing color, it's a shame they're quite uncommon, for my price range I see Atlantic and Regal Blue's, one silver, and one white. Although I do like white. Yeah, pretty much, around here (NJ) there aren't any roads that you drive on for a long time without seeing a single car, so automatic is realistic for my location, but 5MT just makes driving so much more fun! Lol.

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I have the 4 speed AT in an '05. Manually shifting helps a bit with acceleration compared to letting the ECU manage the shift points. In the '05 (maybe '06), there's no rev matching which is disappointing as downshifting is mostly the brake pedal till the engine revs drop enough or you lug the engine big time which can't be good for the transmission.
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The problem with the 5EAT and inherent "sluggish" feeling is all in the high-stall (3400rpm) torque converter. From a dead stop it will swallow up torque and give you the feeling of a big turbo lag. Shiftronic is OK but can get you in trouble. Say you're next to a Honda Civic and you want to smoke the fool, you can't shift down quickly more than 1 gear. It will take a full second if not two to downshift from 5th to 3rd. In that case you are better off just leaving it in auto and romping it. HOWEVER, if you are rolling at a slower speed, say 5th gear at 40mph, if you blip the - it WILL downshift immediately in 3rd.

Based on my unscientific, day to day observation, under WOT it should not take more than half a second to 3 quarters of a second to shift. Then again, I also have a modded valve body which cuts down on gear disengagement/engagement time drastically, so I may be overestimating the stock shifting speed.

 

If our 5EATs had a better performing torque converter (such as for example the one on the IS-F which by default is always in torque-lock mode, aka overdrive mode), the 5EAT would be a lot quicker. I will say this though, having driven manual Legacies, 5EAT is not THAT far behind as some people make it out to be. It's all into learning HOW to drive the automatic to get the most out of it. The best way to get the auto to run slow as shit is to floor it from a dead stop, and that's what most MT guys will do, because they think "hey, it's an auto, so all I gotta do is mash the pedal".

Also, keep in mind that the automatic shifts at WOT and at full boost, so nothing but smiles there :D

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The best way to get the auto to run slow as shit is to floor it from a dead stop, and that's what most MT guys will do, because they think "hey, it's an auto, so all I gotta do is mash the pedal".

Also, keep in mind that the automatic shifts at WOT and at full boost, so nothing but smiles there :D

 

 

I have definitely learned not to mash the pedal. After about 2 months of ownership I am getting to the point of knowing which "mode" to be in, full-auto or shiftronic, for the situation I'm in. This is definitely a fun car.

 

fishbone,

 

Any other pointers for driving this transmission? Was there a particular mod that gave you significant better performance?

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Going Stage 2 gave me significant better performance :D

If you want to stay stock-ish power-wise, a tranny cooler and a lightweight crank pulley should give you some noticeable results. You could also go for a RalliteK tranny mount to help firm up the shifts. I've learned that the best way to get out of the hole in a hurry is to go about 20% throttle and hold it there and as soon as you feel boost come in, mash the pedal down. Flooring the car from a dead stop is the best way to make it take longer to build boost.

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I think the 5 AT is great, my only complaint is the Momo steering wheel that has +/- buttons on it rather than a set of paddles :( kind of awkward to use.

 

The auto of course doesn't shift EXACTLY when you want it to, you have to get used to it a little bit and anticipate it, but nothing's perfect I guess. Also, it will downshift for you when you're breaking, but it will not automatically upshift, which I think is a good thing.

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