today I'm gonna tell you everything you need to know about the 8-speed
front-wheel drive automatic transmission that's in this rav4 now Toyota was the
first company to mass-produce 8-speed transverse-mounted automatic
transmissions so they could fit in front-wheel drive vehicles they got to
be shorter to not the long ones BMWs ZF transmissions have been out a long time
for rear-wheel drive with eight speed but this was the first transverse
8-speed Toyota first put it in a Lexus about seven years ago for performance so
it's been around for a while with Toyota now and as usual for Toyota they're
perfecting things over time now originally some people whined about this
transmission it felt weird it's a different transformation you have to get
used to it the main problem that most people have this if you have settings
like this one that has economy regular and sports setting if you leave it on
the economy mode it does have less acceleration that's for gas mileage and
especially at low speeds any economy setting is a compromise for economy
sometimes at lower speeds they'll be hunting for gears because it's trying to
find the most efficient gear for that speed well this one doesn't particularly
do it cuz it's 2020 if you don't like leg in acceleration watch this let's
start it up back it out here we have it on the economy mode we push the economy
button on the shifter not any come out we'll take off
it's got decent acceleration just a little faster but you can feel a little
here and there this is made for economy you know like that you can go to normal
or sport I'm gonna go to sport now it's on sport and here's how it accelerates
much crisper shifts faster acceleration Chile the middle we'll put it on normal
now it's normal and we'll see how it accelerates
in between it's not as crisp as sports but it's faster than the economy so
basically here you got three transmissions in one eye of course like
the sport mode got a lot more zip
especially when you want to tag off away we go so you can drive it the way you
want to drive it you want to be eco mode put it there you want normal good
combination of acceleration a little bit better gas mileage or you want power you
put it in sport and of course yes it's really complicated inside the gutter
hood how they can fit it in the tiny space between the engine and the side of
the vehicle is beyond me now it's an Aisin transmission they always make the
transmissions there's various configurations various factories over
the world now these things have always been dependable transmissions let's take
the GM Ford attempt at making a automatic front wheel drive transmission
they made the tennspeed rear wheel drive the longitudinal one for their trucks
and the Camaros and the Mustangs for did most of that it was a Ford GM
conglomerations but when GM got done making their automatic guess what Ford
said we're not gonna use it decided it wasn't very good you compare it to this
thing no comparison you could just tell by the feel the quality of this is so
much better now people know the Aisins are so good these eight speeds look who
else buys them and puts them in their cars now BMW Mini
gilli the Chinese company Lexus Opel Volkswagen and Volvo I personally
find it amusing that now some BMWs are using these Aisin transmissions they
were always used in those ZF German transmissions but maybe had problems
with them obviously and they're starting to put Aysen and some of them actually
in the front-wheel drive once now this Toyota's out there that are
using the new aisin ten speed longitudinal yeah nice to see who starts
using those too wouldn't that be funny if Jeep BMW
Volkswagen as they started using it aisin saying that you know what they're doing
over there let's use those transmissions I have to admit in many of
these multi speed transmissions eight nine ten speed when it first came out I
tried them out I didn't like them I thought that kind of boat ish they
weren't crisp and stuff but hey for over seven years the lexus had
years ago one of the sparked editions Toyota is known for perfecting things
over time and now all these other companies are buying their transmissions
putting them in so the kind of tell you they seem to know what they're doing
with these transmissions and you might think why eight speeds that seems to be
a really efficient amount of gears to get power and gas mileage and pretty
much if you want seamless shifting because with all those gears the ratios
can be closer together so there's a less percentage of drop in the RPM when
you're going ones that are made great will go and this is smoother because
there's less percentage some things might be dropping twenty-five thirty
five percent when they shift if these are twenty percent or less there's less
of an RPM change so of course it's going to be smoother so these eight speed
transmissions a great mountain to four-cylinder engines you can get the
maximization of power smooth shifting and the best gas mileage you can
possibly get out of that setup you know I love about these things
these aren't CVT transmissions these are regular automatic transmissions well as
far as regular codes they have gears in them they're not like cvts with no gears
so while a lot of the world is going to these CVT transmissions that often come
on now like driving a boat they go and they get good gas much but they don't
feel right what your courses like Toyota themselves to put in designs in their
transmissions there are CV T's that some of them have that takeoff gear they have
an actual gear to take it off in first gear so then you get nice acceleration
and then later it switches over to the CVT normal CVT drum transmission with no
gears in it so it's actually kicking off with a gear and then going to a CVT kind
of like a hybrid automatic CVT transmission these Toyota engineers
they're not sitting on our laurels and as I said daddy's things are super
complex but if Toyota makes them like all their other stuff and they last a
really long time you don't care most people have no ideas of the inner
workings of their phones like the Samsung that's town I have great phone
I'm sure the software is insane inside but Samsung updates it all the time and
it works great so I don't care and you don't care cuz there's a big
between complexity it breaks all the time like a lot of the Fiat Chrysler
products any Italians good old fools they've got lots of technology it's just
unfortunate that when they build the Fiats they don't last that long
and to make my point back in 2013 Dodge started using Aisin transmissions and
their pickup trucks they realize hey we can't make you six right let's buy them
from Toyota and put him in these are good transformation it's no the aisin
company itself started in 1949 after world war ii let's face it japan was
destroyed by bombing in world war ii guess what they started from scratch you
start from scratch you can start with all the newest technology you're not
stuck like the english word take the english motorcycles as a comparison they
had old junky factories making motorcycles worn-out machines that's why
the biggest motorcycles in the 60s and 70s had problems all designed but they
were remade on old machinery that was worn up japanese new machinery I try the
Japanese motorcycles just kill them they blew the English out of the water
more technology newer machines making them and a Japanese work I think that
wants to make their machines right and these direct-shift 8-speed transverse
front-wheel drive automatic transmissions they're very efficient
they're very smooth with a setup like this like I say you want economy but in
an economy you'll get the best gas mileage it still goes down the road you
want to have a little bit more fun put it on normal you want to have the
ultimate fun put it on sport computer sets the shift in that way realize all
minor cars are shifted by computer systems anyway so why not have one who
can do it the best for when you want it and of course this TRD rav4 takes it
to another universe we're also has modern sand rock and dirt
snow driving downhill the all-wheel drive system hooked up in conjunction
with this 8-speed automatic transmission man does it have choices of what power
gives to each wheel yes it's complicated but you look at the history of Toyota
their complexity holds up over time no I can understand assembly earlier multi
speed transmissions where people didn't like
dumb they said they had shifting lag they didn't have the performance they
want they would hunt her gears at certain hour PS but with this setup of
econo normal and sport if you whine about that hey you're gonna whine upon
anything I don't Scout here everybody knows how
cheap I am I'd love to get one of these things you know but I'll wait ten or
twelve years cuz I'm too cheap I'll try to get a good price on a used one like I
did when I bought my Lexus with sixty thousand miles on it for three thousand
dollars because it certainly took more than three thousand dollars to build bad
thing and almost twenty years later it still runs and shifts like a dream and
of course to be honest it's a brand new vehicle who knows what it's gonna be
like in 20 years time but I plan on sticking around long enough to see if it
is still going good if it is hey I'll go find myself a good used one because when
you have really good over build technology it tends to last big mistake
if you went out and bought a 12 year old Fiat Chrysler car well if it's still
moving ah nothing wrong with buying a good 10 12 year old Toyota there and as
usual if I see problems hey I'm gonna report it to you like I always do if I
see something too starting to have problems
I'll talk about what problems it had and all they're attempting to fix them, so if
you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos remember to ring that bell