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I have never encountered one of these. Do they have the same pedal layout as an ordinary automatic? I have had one or two narrow escaopes with these, not having mastered left foot braking.
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There is no clutch pedal if that is what you mean.
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Brother now has a Panda auto.
I've not seen it yet, but can confirm, through him, it has two pedals.
The autobox may have various functions, but brother just sticks his in 'D' and leaves it there.
Last edited by: Iffy on Sat 29 Jan 11 at 12:06
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Hallo Iffy.
What does your brother think of the Panda auto? Is he happy with it? Driveability day to day, jerkiness of the transmission, fuel economy, that sort of thing. Asking as Mrs B is interested in one. Local Fiat dealer don't have an automatic to test and didn't appear overenthusiastic about trying to dig one out of the Fiat network.
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i have no idea what box fiat fit in these but the citymatic fitted to the old siciento broke to the point even fiat converted quite a few to manual transmission
if it is the electric type gearbox as fitted to puntos then they are good but can again be troublesome in long term ownership
Last edited by: Bellboy on Sat 29 Jan 11 at 12:26
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...What does your brother think of the Panda auto?...
Pleased so far, although he only uses it as a station car.
He had a Panda diesel before the auto which served him well.
I think the auto is slightly slower than the diesel, but that's only really noticeable at motorway speeds.
Very handy tool for buzzing around town and A and B roads.
My mother - now getting on a bit - has driven it a few times and would be happy to do so again.
Neither of them has mentioned the transmission being jerky, which they might have done, so I suspect it's reasonably smooth.
Not sure about fuel consumption, and there's no point asking.
Brother is not the sort of guy to check, which I can understand because he does too few miles in the car for it to make much difference.
I'll probably speak to him on the phone over the weekend and find out if there's anything to add, but I think the above pretty much covers it.
I'm quite happy to ask any specific questions if you have any.
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Thanks for that Iffy. My wife is not interested in performance, only ease of driving. I'm just interested in the general experience really.
I just checked on the Fiat Germany website and, weirdly, the Panda automatic is shown in the brochure but is no longer listed as an option in the price list. Given that Fiat has resorted to savage price cuts to try and stop its market share sliding into irrelevance here it might well be that they've just rationalised the automatic out of their product range which means we'd have to get a used one.
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DON'T left foot brake. Not natural.
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Automated Manual in the Mitsi Colt and that's just fine.
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FIAT have just made all the Pandas Euro 5 complient and some options were dropped. I wonder if the autobox was one of them? I don't remember reading that it has been dropped though.
Not any complaints about the automatic on the Panda forum the main issue was a girl bought one with a failed brake sensor but it was a very cheap fix.
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Ive heard a couple of stories of people buying Panda autos and finding them horrid to drive, but they were people coming from a proper auto, whereas ive also heard rave reviews from other people.
What the long term urability of the gearbox is would be my only question if I were keeping one long term as older Fiat semi-autos tend to appear on Ebay spares/repairs which is never a good sign, but it may be a different box now.
Last edited by: stunorthants29 on Sat 29 Jan 11 at 13:10
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The old Panda automatic had a CVT type gearbox. I've yet to drive one of those that works satisfactorily when new, they all have that elastic band effect.
The new Panda uses an automated 5 speed manual. Whilst these are never going to achieve the shift quality of a DSG or torque converter box, some of them are at least ok. BB mentions long term problems with this box in the Punto. The Panda is presently on sale in Germany for 6,900 Euros new with aircon and PAS, but obviously without automatic - seems a great buy.
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Buy a Panda whose gearbox depends on electrical longevity?
The saga with Alfa ones was dreadful I believe.
Leap of faith that it will work in five years time.
The Yaris MMT - automated gearbox - is I believe not very nice to drive and goes wrong when old and no-one can fix it - as it's a dealer job and no dealer mechanic wants to work on 8 year old electronics. And that's Toyota...
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Should be the same gearbox in the 500 auto, so maybe test drive one of those...i never came across a Panda auto on the job, indeed not too many 500's with them.
My suggestion is to perform all manoeuvres, traffic crawls and peculiar hill/driveway starts that you are likely to ever encounter in normal driving.
Test it's reactions to simulated if not real junctions, approach as if to stop (roundabout) then suddenly go under power before stopping as if a space has occured as in real driving...see if the box works quickly enough for you, once purchased too late then to find out it's not as good as hoped.
Snow and ice are likely to be unpleasant in one, bad enough in trucks with these boxes.
I detest the things, granted some are better than others.
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We have an underground carpark with a relatively steep slope up to the road. The car needs to get up there first thing in the morning with a cold engine and gearbox.
Manual transmission fine (assuming you can control the clutch), torque converter auto fine, DSG fine. CVT Audi made it up with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Never tried it in an automated manual.
Good tip about the 500 Auto, thanks.
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>> The Yaris MMT - automated gearbox -
>> goes wrong when old and no-one can fix it - as it's a dealer
>> job and no dealer mechanic wants to work on 8 year old electronics. And that's
>> Toyota...
>>
Sounds like Toyota need (yet) another recall ... :-)
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Why so many manufacturers are now going for this automated manual thing instead of tried and tested torque converter autos?
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Less lost power through the gearbox equals less fuel used. May well be cheaper too. Until the warranty claims that is.
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Automated manuals offer more toys, manual mode, sports, and maybe others I've not heard of.
One or two on here will tell you they'd rather things were kept simple.
But they are in a tiny minority of buyers.
Toys - like sex - sell.
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Auto boxes have had sport mode for 20 years, even my dads old Astra auto had that and plenty have had manual selection of gears too. Got any better ideas?
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>> Automated manuals offer more toys, manual mode, sports, and maybe others I've not heard of.
Most conventional auto boxes have slots for manual 1-2-3-4 selection too. So one can always select manual or sport (rev engine up by selecting lower gear) anyway.
More revenue from broken transmission (after warranty) comes into mind :o)
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...Most conventional auto boxes have slots for manual 1-2-3-4 selection too...
Not quite the same as genuine F1-style steering wheel flaps on the the Honda Civic automated manual.
Great fun.
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Loosing power isn't as much of an issue on modern torque convertors either, lockup clutch.
The BMW SMG effort is a major step backwards. One of my workmates has an e46 M3, if he doesn't ease off the throttle at each gear change it gives passengers whiplash.
The slushbox in my 7er is imperceptibly smooth, coupled with the silky smooth inline 6 engine, it's turbine smooth, relentless surge all the way up to a steady 80mph cruise.
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Automated manual gearboxes in theory offer big advantages compared to torque converter boxes or the DSG type. They are much simpler as well, as anyone who has ever looked inside the technological marvel that is a torque converter automatic (especially the pre-electronic controlled ones) will testify.
Because they based on a conventional manual transmission they are also light and don't suffer the built in power loss of a torque converter which uses slip to work. They are therefore higly suitable for offering a cheap and efficient means of automatically changing gears, especially for smaller engined cars where the weight and power loss of a torque converter seriously affects performance and fuel economy, and the additional cost becomes significant.
Anyway that's the theory. In practice the gearshift quality will never achieve the level of even a half decent torque converter automatic and, anecdotally at least, some of them seem to suffer high wear of the clutch as well as the gear change actuators. I personally don't really see any advantage to automatics in small cars but my wife hates changing gears.
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Conventional autoboxes don't have to be gas guzzlers, my 1.8 DOHC VVT Almera can return 46 MPG if I'm careful with the loud pedal.
I experienced an automated manual once - and once was enough (for me).
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The rouble with automated manual gearboxes is not really the electronics. Well designed and well connected , they should outlast the car.#
But they depend on electric motors and relays to switch on/off currents and move cogs.. Electro mechanical devices suffer wear. So after a few years, they start to go wrong. And the wear in one part often brings problems elsewhere. So fault finding can be difficult and fault sorting is not just a simple matter of changing a part... but possibly also some mechanical adjustment..
Finding an auto electrician with that mix of skills can be difficult.. and expensive...and parts supply tends to be manufacturer only...
# except if French or Italian when they determine the life of the car.
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FIAT Panda - Automated manual gearboxes - RattleandSmoke
