Originally Posted by DaveVY

Curious, how will having more gears make shifts any faster? Or how will having more gears make the shifts smoother? Or how will having more gears increase fuel economy? No disrespect intended, and intention to inflame, am genuinely curious.

With the torque curve that the S550 has and the low RPMs while cruising I don't see how having more gears will increase fuel economy. Under normal acceleration I rarely go over 2400 RPM.

I assume, that like you said, MB could make the existing transmission shift faster or smoother if they wanted, trying to understand how more gears will help that. Until they make faster gear changes the only thing that I see happening with more gears is spending less time applying torque and more time sliding from one gear to another.

If we really want a smooth acceleration with no time spent shifting than we should be asking for the next generation CVT, but I understand there are challenges with high torque applications and also a perception in the market that they are inferior and people like to feel shifts so the current CVTs are programmed to purposely have "rough" spots to simulate shifting.

I am just concerned that the number of gears at this point is becoming a meaningless marketing item - "if having gears is good, than having more is always better" I don't think is a correct assumption.

Originally Posted by TomS

There seems to be an assumption that because the 7G came out several years ago, it is not improved at all. It doesn't seem valid that a manufacturer would not constantly improve its manufacturing and design to evolve with the times. I agree that the 9G will have two more gears, but can we really say it is a 10 year old design? I'm just curious.

Originally Posted by nyca

All indications are that the 7G will continue.