rev up your engines, what is a dual clutch transmission, dual clutch
transmissions are kind of an interesting design that was starting in Europe to
make transmissions that shifted really fast
now the first tried a dual clutch transmission was a frenchman and he had
designed it for a half-track, but yeah 1939 well let's just say the
Germans took over and that was the end of the French building any kind of
military vehicles, strangely enough the first real use was by Germans themselves
audi and Porsche messed around with them, hey their all owned by the same company now
Volkswagen, and in 1986 they want to race with the Porsche that was the first one
that had a dual clutch semi-automatic paddle shifter transmission, so it ended
up being Volkswagen who really pioneered the commercial use of them one of the
most well known one was the dual clutch transmission was the Volkswagen New
Beetle, their automatics were a dual clutch transmission now this European
design of a dual clutch transmission was really thought of because they knew that
high-end sports cars, the guy didn't want standard transmissions anymore but they
want a good shifting, so he decided to have a system where either the computer
automatically operates the clutches inside the dual clutch transmission, or
you use those little paddle shifters to shift gears when you want, now these
transmission can be operate in a fully automatic mode, where you just have it in
gear and the computer decides when to shift from one gear to the next, or you
can override it manually with the paddle shifters, the thing is a computer can
shift faster and more accurately than any human being can, a professional Grand
Prix race driver can't shift as efficiently as a computer can I mean
that's just the way it is, they like leaving the paddle shifters in so people
in their rich luxury cars can drive around pretend that you know they're
really a great driver when in reality the computer would do a better job than
they do anyway, take the fancy BMW dual clutch transmission in they're high-end
they can consistently upshift in 60 milliseconds, so they're really fast but
at the same time any modern dual clutch transmission being computer-controlled
can be set up to work in a variety of ways, so let's say you put it on the
economy mode, well that thing is going to get better gas mileage as a dual clutch
automatic transmission then you ever will in a standard transmission, because
the computer sets up so you get the best gas mileage and some of these
systems have four or five different settings, so you could drive it any way
you want and the computer does all the work and it's going to do it a lot more
efficiently than a human being can either for gas mileage or for efficiency
of speed to get the best track times, so with one of these things you can either
switch it to a sport experience, some of you have a track one so they're really
revved up or you can go to the paddle shifter and start shifting it yourself
if your in mind to do that, they do have some interesting upsides these dual
clutch transmissions but on the other hand, man alive they got two really big
disadvantages, the first is they're a lot heavier than the normal transmissions
you got that weight and the size they got to fit in and they're making car smaller
and smaller, that's a problem but the real big one is, they are super expensive
to build, most things it's a $2,000 or more extra because it costs a lot more
to build them, and they are uber uber uber more expensive to repair when they
break and man they break down quite a bit, if you remember me talking earlier
about the Volkswagen Beetle the new beetle that came with a dual clutch
automatic transmission, I've had customers with those that was one of the
worst ever put in a car, they go bad and then when they had to get it rebuilt or
repaired or replaced, guys that really know how to rebuild them I had a
customer have to pay seven grand to have his replaced on a Volkswagen Beetle and
the car was older and the car wasn't worth even $4,000, yes it's a race car
design yes it shifts really good, but it costs so much more when you think what
really are the advantages for an everyday driving car, uh it's not
something I'd put my money down for, in 2018 dual clutch
transmissions were in 8.5% of the car shipped globally, but only 5%
in the United States so it isn't that many in the United States, and some of
its cost, people don't want to pay more some of
it is people aren't used to the way that they run especially in the lower end
cars, they just don't like the feel they do tend to be Slusher at lower speeds,
and driving around in town these things were designed for the racetrack in the
first place, they weren't really designed for everyday driving, now Fiat Chrysler
Honda and Ford all learned the hard way about these dual clutch transmissions
they offer them in everyday cars and a lot of buyers thought oh there's
something wrong with my car doesn't work right and Ford even has a class action
pending against them for these dual clutch transmissions they put in some of
their lower end cars, it's kind of a dumb idea when you think about it, these are
designed for high-end racecars why on earth would be putting them into
lower end cars like Volkswagen New Beetle, and the lower end Fords I mean it
just doesn't make sense to me, and as a professional mechanic myself, and my
customers have had them and had problems I would never buy one, I wouldn't advise
somebody to buy one like that, why do you want to do a clutch transmission that's
got all this extra complexity in it, just so oh you can say you've got a fancy car
that can go real fast and it really doesn't make any sense to put it in
smaller cars like the Volkswagen Beetles well they don't make the beetles anymore
anyways, so that ended up it's a failure let's face it anybody who knows cars and
those Chrysler's had more problems with automatic transmissions over the last
50 years than anyone else why on earth would you want to buy a Fiat
Chrysler product that has a dual clutch transmission, it's sort of like a total
recipe for disaster now maybe years and years ago like in
1986 when Porsche was messing around with the first ones that they were
putting in cars people were actually driving around in, back then the
automatic transmissions were a little slushy shift and they did lose a lot of
power, but these days even with a conventional automatic transmission you
can get decent power, and you can also get just about the same gas mileage that
you get in a standard transmission so far as I'm concerned there's really
no need for a dual clutch transmission for most people, okay so you're gonna buy
a Ferrari or a Porsche yeah well you're throwing money away then anyway so you
want to have this ultimate performance you know go right ahead, just realize
what it's gonna cost and also realize that while the paddle shifters are
actually kind of a joke, because oh you're shifting with the panel shifters
if you really want to go fast let the computer do it because the computer is
going to do a better job than you do that's been proven in the test tracks
already, but if you like shifting the car yourself heck get a standard
transmission there's so much simpler and the things just don't break down, like
these dual clutch transmissions do and if you want better gas mileage you just
shift into higher gear faster, and if you want more power you just keep it in the
lower gears longer to rev the engine up more you, know you don't need a fancy
dual clutch transmission that costs more that weighs more, and man when it breaks
down it's gonna cost a fortune to repair so now you know a little bit more about
dual clutch transmissions, and why you probably would not want to own a car
that has one, so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair
videos, remember to ring that Bell!