that is all 100% inference. You cannot claim to know the minds of the designers when they put the car together, and to be fair, i doubt any manufacturer polls the grannies before designing an entry level econobox vs something higher in the line. TC never lock, and it has nothing to do with what a driver might do at a stop sign, it has to do with the fundamental way a TC works. they are always less efficient than a manual because of the inability to lock components together. this is why the rpm drops at speed when u take ur foot off the pedal. motor stop spinning as fast, fluid pressure drops, and the motor is no longer "attached" to the tranny. Sorry if i hurt ur feelings by coming down on the neon auto tranny, butsluggishness off the line is an indicator of inefficiency (or of a high stall..... which are also very inefficient at lower rpm.... but thats different entirely). the point is you can design a smooth engaging, smooth shifting, strong tranny that is efficient. my dad's truck has one. you cant even feel it shift, if the music is louder than the engine u would never know without looking at the tach. the neon and other cars in its class like the cavalier do not come with highly refined trannies. In all honesty my comment about dodge needing some R&D was a farce, in that it would be stupid to overdevelope something that is going in a car designed and marketed as an econobox. I am not bashing ur choice of race car, and i think 12.6 out of a neon is awesome. but those are the facts.

 

It's the almighty dollar. Everything in any car is designed to be cheap to manufacture and appealing to the target market, so that many will be sold. Of course, if it's in a neon/cobalt/civic/focus, it's even more squeezed to be cheap. But my point is that with the same $, they could have made that trans perform better, but at a cost of comfort. Their target market cares more about comfort than performance, so they would be retarded to change valve bodies, shift points, gearing, or any other functioning partin favor of performance when they will sell more cars if it's comfy.

Look up any of the other cars in it's class, and you'll find it's a common trend. Most econoboxes are the same. Just too hard to sell a 100hp car that shifts like a race car to someone that just wants good gas mileage and wants to know if it comes in "cute" colors.

And I'm not saying you're wrong. Just that even if they built a better trans, it wouldn't sell more cars.

Oh, but look up the 3 speed neon trans from the 1st gens. The TCs do lock up in 3rd. So much that people think they have a 4 speed trans because the lockup is so abrupt.

 

c'mon guys it's a neon[&:]it wont last any more than 3years, especially the tranny

 

I agree with you. all i said is that a loss of a full second and some change translates into poor efficiency. the engagement and shift firmness will not net you a second either way. and I believe in my last post i said i didnt expext dodge to give the neon a better tranny. Just commenting on the overall efficiency of it. it is suffering from major power loss

 

My very good friend has a 300zx n/a with an intake and a cat back. I have a 00' 3.8 auto with headers, cat back, chip, and a k&n cold air intake. The light turned green and i wasnt even ready, he had a very good start, i then pinned that **** and i pulled on him in seconds by time i got up to 70 mph i was 2 car lengths ahead. He got smoked. The car looks and sounds fast but he just got trampled. It was sick! Go GM!