No, that is an improperly designed transmission. I drive a manual tranny very well. The main thing that annoys ME about automatics is that every single one of them I've driven (dozens) are designed to shift up WAY too soon.
You can adjust the upshift point somewhat by nailing the accelerator to the floor. Even if you do that though, the tranny will STILL upshift too soon. Or, if you are going slow enough, you could manually shift the auto tranny down to "2" or "1" until you are ready to let it upshift again. But if you have to put so much thought and effort into making the tranny shift right, what's the point of owning an automatic, exactly? The manual tranny is easier to control, if you HAVE to control it.
My point? Many of these AT drivers you observe, who you thought were letting off the accelerator, probably were not letting off the accelerator. More likely, they applied steady pressure to it. It is the *^*(*&#( automatic tranny that downshifts for about a half-second only to upshift again, unless the driver takes extraordinary measures to prevent such foolishness.
Yeah, there are some automatic trannies designed to be shifted often. Sometimes there's buttons on the shifter or even steering wheel, and sometimes the shifter itself can be moved into different gears, kind of like a clutchless manual. Call them manumatics or something. :) What's the point? Just buy a car with a clutch, so it will do what it's supposed to do, without having to jump through hoops to make it shift correctly. -Dave
