For an automotive enthusiast, a truly smooth and intuitive gearbox can add a lot to the experience of piloting a car. Sadly, there are far more transmissions that get it wrong rather than get it right. In a recent question of the day we asked you about the ones you hated the most. Here are the ones that really grind your gears.
We’ve noticed one clear trend from the very start. You lot really don’t enjoy automatic transmissions. We posed the idea that maybe the “worst” transmission award should go to something with a third pedal in the floorboard. Our reasoning was that maybe one that holds out hope for more engagement and then ends up being a big letdown could win, er… lose?
Boo For Dual Clutch Transmissions
The vast majority of the voting was a bit vague so we’ll follow the same generalities as we go through the top three most hated transmissions. Coming in third with the bronze we have dual-clutch transmissions. Sure, they’re awesome in some brands but quite a number of you think they’re overblown.
JohnTaurus scored six upvotes and none against with a comment that starts out “Every DCT I’ve driven was weird and awkward. It takes away the fun of a manual and the smoothness of an auto for the worst of both.” The first reply agreed.
“The DCTs I’ve driven have also been quite weird for me,” it said. Another called out Korean DCTs specifically while a fourth said that Fiat’s DCT was “bad enough to make me write off the whole brand.”
More: What’s The Best Manual Transmission You’ve Shifted?
Tacoma’s Six-Speeds Of Frustration
Next up in the silver spot is somehow the 2019 Toyota Tacoma. We presume that pretty much any Tacoma in this generation with the same six-speed automatic is included as well. Dumblikeyou2 said that “it’s six speeds of total frustration.” Somehow, that ended up with five upvotes and zero downvotes. I’ve not driven it because I’m not much of a truck guy and now I have even less interest in trying it out.
And Of Course, The Biggest Loser Is CVTs
Finally, and most of you probably already know where this is going, we have the JATCO continuously variable transmission found in a number of Nissan models. We did mention this gearbox in the original piece but we didn’t expect it to get a resounding victory quite this easily.
Jerry90, D-splash, Prosperous Peasant, and JohnTaurus all mentioned it, and combined it had some 15 upvotes without a single detractor. They’re certainly well known for breaking down and we have to agree that in general, a CVT isn’t really built for enthusiasts.
