My 5 Series has Tip-Tronic, pull up, push down. I agree with you and the article. It is the natural way to go about it. Think about a manual gearbox. To get all gears you pull to go up. Pull first to second, pull third to forth. From second to third is a diagonal movement. As for forth to fifth, well we just chuck it up in the corner . Also as you brake, you're pushed forward in the seat, so it's instinctive to push forward to downshift and the reverse when you accelerate. We have a VW Caddy at work that has push forward to change up. When you floor it and are pushed back in your seat and at the same time you have to push forward, it just does feel right.

Matt 

paddle shift all the way now. These tiptronic though it has to be pull for up push for down. Its how its worked in the racing cars for years.

I be lovin' my (conventional) 5-speed Blazer.....wouldn't be caught dead in a 4WD vehicle with an auto tranny.

ShaneG wrote on Nov 29^th, 2009 at 6:39am:

Sounds like double de-clutching they used on the old crash gearboxes.

I imagine the Mustang has a hydraulically operated clutch so this won't apply. I once had a Vauxhall Viva with a cable operated clutch. If the engine earth (ground) lead broke or became corroded it earthed via the easiest route, directly through the clutch cable. This melted the nylon outer & it became difficult to operate, eventually seizing solid. The cure was to fit a new earth lead & replace the clutch cable.*

*PS. I just found out that the Mustang has a cable-operated clutch so this might be worth looking at.

ShaneG wrote on Nov 29^th, 2009 at 7:05am:

I reckon it's definitely worth looking at. I wouldn't think that American gearboxes are designed any differently from those fitted to UK manufactured cars. Vauxhall is owned by GM & synchromesh gears did away with double de-clutching long before I started driving. All this gear grinding can only result in a damaged gearbox. 

If your Plymouth Laser has a cable-operated clutch have a look at it. You might be blaming the gearbox when the problem is with that clutch cable.

Hagar wrote on Nov 29^th, 2009 at 7:20am:


I think up until earlier this decade, just about everything automotive made in the US was total garbage, and designed that way, so that you would want to, or have to replace it within a year or two.

If stuff lasted a while, there would be no need to make new stuff, and there would be no jobs for people to buy stuff. 
Once GM & Ford started buying up the European car makers, and Chrylser was bought by Daimler (best thing to happen to a US maker, EVER!) Our quality started to improve sharply.

Europeans aren't as spend crazy as Americans, you're not as bothered by the 'latest & greatest' trends that this country sometimes seems hopelessly lost in, so you make things that will last, because you don't want to have the expenses of constant repair, the fuel prices are bad enough there already to have to worry about another expense with your autos.
Here, there is a Mechanic on almost every street corner,(seriously) because we need them. 

I miss the old days, pre-1987, when there wasn't a car or truck made in the US, that I couldn't work on and repair with nothing more than a basic tool set, and a Chilton's manual.  Now, you need a few college degrees, and some expensive hi-tech equipment to even pop the hood on some of these cars. 



That Mustang clutch could also just be feeling the effects of the previous owner who knew they were letting it go, and wanted to finally have some fun with it.  I've had that happen too.   

I think it's more the quality of the work force behind the product.

GM & Ford of Australia is another good example. Their  cars & trucks have always been a notch above what we get here, and they've even brought a few here with some degree of success. 

The Japanese make everything better, because of their outstanding work ethics.  Honor & pride can go a long way in a production environment. In all of the factories I've worked in, it's more about getting to the end of the day, and the paycheck at the end of the week. There's always the rework department to catch and fix all the mistakes.

I used to work at a place called Mosier, in Richmond, Indiana, where transmission gears were made for Ford.  I was a temp worker hired to to do QC inspection on gears to clear a backup of bad stock they had.
I stuck to their given tolerances, and protocols with every one of the gears I looked at, and declared up to 90% of what I looked at to be bad.
This naturally upset my superiors, and they had me go back through the entire stock, with a new set of tolerances, and guidelines for what was good or bad, which allowed everyone of them to pass.
Two months later, the entire shipment of gears came back from Ford being declared defective, and out of spec.  Guess who's butt got chewed for it and then fired?

I've never worked as a QC person since. 

Cars of those earlier generations were built with a bit more, pride I suppose. In the  late 1970's- late 1990's, the US auto industry just kind of took a dump on quality, while the rest of the world excelled at it.

Cadillac is a good case in that point. At one time they were the 'gold standard' of the world.  Then they nose dived in the 70's with the gas crunch, and spiraled down in the 80's with front wheel drive, heavy parts bin sharing, and harsh regulations.  In that time, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Infiniti have stepped up and dominated the segment that Cadillac invented.

  I'm pretty off topic now aren't I?