Currently, the world of transmission is dominated in
Europe by manual gearboxes and in the USA and Japan by automatic
gearboxes. Both types of gearboxes have specific advantages and
disadvantages.
The advantages of a manual gearbox are, for
example,
- high degree of effi ciency
- robust and sporty characteristic.
The advantages of an automatic gearbox are, for
example,
- a high level of comfort, above all in gear changes, as there is no
interruption in tractive power. This formed the framework for Volkswagen
to combine both transmission concepts into one completely new gearbox
generation: the direct shift
gearbox.