Quote:
Originally Posted by raisemyrent
isn't a DSG different than a DCT? old M3 used to have a DSG everyone hated kinda thing?
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Edit: This should be SMG instead of DSG. The SMG was what was used in the previous generation M3 and wasn't very well liked.
Yeah, they're different. The SMG used a single clutch, and was really just sort of an automated manual transmission, except you couldn't skip gears. When it does a gear change, it's much the same process as a manual:
Clutch in
Select Gear
Clutch out
With the DCT, there's two shafts (one takes care of odd numbered gears and the other takes care of even) and two clutches. The gear selection takes place while the other shaft is engauged, so when it's time to shift, it simply switches shafts. That makes it extremely fast.
I'd have to test drive one before I'd jump on it, but I'd certainly consider it. The real issue with them, as mentioned above, is making them smooth around town, where it's constantly engauging and disengauging the clutch. A good manual driver can modulate the gas and clutch to keep from jerking the car around in traffic, and that's something that's pretty hard to program.