ygillard

Hello,

I am looking at buying a CLK 500 and I had a chance to test drive one recently. I really liked the car but I did not have enough time to get a good feel for the automatic transmission (You know how test drives are, short).

I have always driven manual transmission (15+ years) and I really like the fact that I can downshfit to slow me down, decide when to upshift and downshift (i.e. sometimes with automatic tranny when you accelerate hard - just briefly - they may have a tendency to downshift brutally - I have not felt that on the CLK but as I said I did not have a long test drive).

I have been very interested in the transmission like SMG (BMW) and DSG (Audi) as they seem (at least on paper) to have all the benefits of a manual and more (they are faster than most driver and certainly me) without the clutch.

I get the feeling that automatic transmissions even with manual upshift and downshift feature are always slower than an good driver with a stick. Granted most of the car with automatic tranny that I drove for a fairly long period of time where rentals.

Could you guys give me your impression of the CLK tranny? Has anyone switched from a manual to the CLK? What was your experience like?

Thanks,

Yves.

cliffybabe

I have changed from manual to auto when I bought a CLK.

I like having auto its a good laugh and its still rapid enough for me, and I only have a 200kompressor, i'm 20 years old and I prefer auto to manual the only thing is slowing down u can't down shift but the brakes are good (which helps) I do like the tip tronic gear box as u do have more power if you wanted it, ok the car will change you up or down if its not happy but auti is good

calboy

The touchshift is useful for downshifting and once in that mode you can downshift upshift manually, but it is kinda slow, there is a 1-2 second lag which improves over time depending how you drive, but hard to get used to at first. I usually just stick with auto which is pretty good.

kaiju

Have also came from manual to auto transmittion after getting the CLK. It's no big deal from jumping one to the other, in fact its better at times like city driving, and as for freeways, there's no difference anyway because you're usually on the same gear when cruising in manual.

As for transmissions like SMG (BMW) and DSG (Audi), Merc's version will have to be the Sequentronic (automated manual transmittion). Not sure if its only available on the AMG but that will be more comparable then the standard Touchshift which is more or less just a pure Auto transmittion with the added of up/ down shifts on the left and right sides.

And lastly to your question about downshift when accelerating hard, try stepping harder beyond the pressure point, there is a kickback that downshift for maximum acceleration.

Hope that helps.