As a matter of interest I have now done 1200+miles in my Ishift Jazz and have got used to the gearbox which you must remeber is an automated manual and drives as such.The converter type of g/box was nicer but knocked the mpg down quite a lump where as the ishift doesn't. Cant have it always I guess. I understand from the fitter that worked on my previous car that the DSG boxes are horrendously expensive to repair as they are like have twin ishifts working in tandem.The Ford Fiesta auto has two small motors that a Ford fitter told me were'nt very strong, helping it smooth out. My previous car was a 2 ltr wheel spinning auto which avg less than 30 mpg, the Jazz ave is in excess of 50 mpg, so I have halved my fuel consumption. Yippee!!,( I live out of town). If you want 0-60 mph in 6 sec's look elsewhere but if you want a quiet comfortable economical car this is it.
My wife and I find 1st -2nd is not too smooth with a cold engine but once warm smooths out, otherwise everything is fine. I think the manual is a tad quicker out of the blocks but my wife is an auto fan.
Test one for a few hours if you can as it takes a while to get used to the ishift, plus it is intelligent,(i shift) in as much as it reads how you drive and adapts its shifting to match.
If you fancy trying a really bad auto try the Toyota Auris MMT, after that anything will feel good.
|
|
Hello there racso ... can you answer me one thing please - does the iShift hold on hills like a "normal" autobox? or does it roll back like the C3 I roadtested some years back whilst the balance of my mind was disturbed.
|
Hello there racso ... can you answer me one thing please
What happens is this. You have come to a stop on a hill with your footbrake, it then has a brake hold system which holds for a very short time, 1 second, for you to get over to the accelerator pedal. It works but I'm a bit of a belt and braces person so if it's a steep slope I hold the handbrake just like a manual. The drivers manual tells you that in certain circumstances the "hill hold" may not be sufficient due to a heavy load. I haven't had any problems so far. I dont think the "hill hold" works in reverse gear , at least I dont trust it to.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 12/05/2009 at 20:03
|
I have thought of a couple more things,The handbook tells you not to hold on hills with light acceleration as it will cause excessive clutch wear.
Also one thing that some of the reviews dont mention is about the ride, low profile tyres versus normal tyres. Usually when you go for a test drive they give you a top of the range model. This nearly put my wife and myself off the car, because the ride was too hard. However one test drive we did was with the ES model that has normal tyres not the low profile ones that the top model has. The difference was enough to make us decide to get one. The L/P tyres definately make for a hard ride. Also they put up fuel consumption by a miniscule amount and are more expensive to buy.
We find our ES to be quite a smooth ride compared to out old saloon which had low profile tyres as it was a sports saloon.
Edited by racso on 12/05/2009 at 17:51
|
Cheer's racso - When I tried the Citroen C3 with the automated manual box, I quite liked it actually, I had the critter for a few hours and so put it through its paces!
I found ya could 'fool' the box by accelerating/breaking, then accelerating again which is a tad unfair I suppose.
My wife, who is a right brainer (L/H) didn't feel confident driving it though, especially with all the hills around here (Cornwall)
I've read and heard many reports of said gearbox and although I prefer the operation of a torque converter, I like the idea of a better MPG.
I've also owned a couple of Honda CVT's in the 80's - they were ok but I don't really like CVT's, perhaps the latest versions are better though.
Give me a V8 Rover P6 any day (+ an oil well) :)
|
I will be bringing it down to Cornwall in August, so it will be interesting to see how it handles those hills. We have nothing to compare with those around here, in Hertfordshire.
I think it will be ok, except I will expect 1st to 2nd to be less smooth. The ishift is computer led, it's supposed to read how you drive and does some weird things, like changes from 1st to 3rd or 2nd to 4th and changes down going down hill, also sometimes changes up going up hill. As long as we carry on getting good MPG we are happy to let it get on with it.
If I lived down there I would want a decent test drive, all day if possible.
|
What sort of caravan will you be pulling racso (only kidding!), they'll be plenty of em down west this year - especially in July & August due to the exchange rate of the Euro.
Yes, I know the shire of Hertford very well from when I drove a lorry delivering to the paper trade & printers ... A tad drier up there than down west comrade, you should be ok come August but ... you know Cornwall!!!
|
|
|
The car will handle normal hills just fine. There is only one hill I have come across (not in Cornwall) that occasionally fools the gearbox and that frankly causes most cars some problems. Because it is so steep you approach it very slowly. First gear is desirable, but the box thinks it wants second, then realises that the hill is really steep and changes down again. The result is a rather jerky process. This could be avoided by approaching a tad quicker, but the hill road is very narrow and has a blind bend.
The gearbox should be considered as a manual box, which it more closely resembles, than an auto-box. Depending on road conditions, speed, braking and throttle it will make more sensible decisions, most of the time, than most drivers faced with a true manual box can manage.
It does not have the smoothness of the CVT box or the precision of a conventional automatic and as a driver you will notice the changes - particularly in the lower ratios - but it will make smoother changes than again most manual box drivers I have driven with can manage - and does so consistently.
There has been a lot of nonsense spouted (usually by people who have only had a five minute road test) about the iShift box. It is not at all unpleasant to drive, once you get over the feeling that the car has control of the gear changes rather than you the driver. The changes themselves are no more disruptive to progress than removing foot from throttle, pressing clutch, changing gear, releasing clutch re-applying throttle - except that the car does it for you, and does it much quicker than it takes to write it down.
The car is designed to produce low emissions with low fuel consumption. You would be hard pressed to make it do less than 50 mpg in normal driving and it even manages around 48 with the air conditioning running. This means that it will tend to use the higher gears wherever possible, skipping interim gears, especially when only the driver is on board. However if you press the gas pedal hard it will kick down one or more gears for overtaking.
The gearbox will change down when descending a hill, with the throttle relaxed, to apply engine braking. This is a great feature that no true automatics I can recall have duplicated.
So much attention has been given to the iShift box by amateur pundits, that they miss the true qualities of this car. The ride quality is streets ahead of the older model, without it ever feeling sloppy or soft. There is more interior space and the seats never make you wish the journey was shorter, as did the older car. I have driven some cars with alleged sporting aspirations that have had poorer road holding.
While it is a much better car than the old Jazz in most respects, it is not a perfect car. The brakes are over-sensitive. The large raked windscreen suffers badly from reflections from the top of the dashboard. The boot space is narrower than that of the older model, and there is no spare wheel, which seems a penny pinching omission - though to be honest, in many years of driving I have never had a puncture that couldn't have been fixed by re-inflating the tyre with the type of repair gel Honda provides.
|
I've just had a test of the ishift along with my brother. I was quite impressed overall. Being used to my Golf 1.4 tsi dsg, was a good comparision.
The ishift cannot compete with the dsg for shift smoothness, but I think you would get used to it after a while, and it is a much cheaper car than the VW.
Brother didn't buy one in the end, just not enough "go", even though the engine is smooth & quiet. He also did not like the ugly dash, with all sorts of shapes & orange dial markings.
|
So ... Is the iShift idiot proof? i.e. could someone (like my wife) hehe! who has driven 'ordinary' automatics for decades, just jump in one and drive orf without any consideration to this state of the art gearbox ,or is there some new technique to learn?
P.S. She once put water in the oil filler of my beloved Dolomite Sprint!!!
|
Is any car idiot proof? You wouldn't think so from the numbers of idiots you see out there on the roads.
It would be better if you didn't allow your good lady to open the bonnet, but she could simply get into the car and drive it (provided she could figure out the logic to start it - turn on ignition, select Neutral, press the brake, turn the key). However it is worth stressing that this is not an automatic car, but a manual car with computer selected gear changing. Nevertheless, apart from the inevitable slight discontinuity (more or less obvious depending how she drives) of the gear change mechanism, she can drive it in automatic mode without having to relearn how to drive.
|
|
|
|
