Audi to offer 8-speed transmission on most of it models

Wasn't this just overkill when Lexus started using it? I guess it's ok now that a German brand has caught up.

Well, in most reviews the Lexus 8-speed transmission gets slammed because it keeps hunting for the right gear, never seeming to make up its mind. Maybe Lexus was the first to bring it out, but maybe Audi can engineer a better version of it. Oh, and who cares who brings out what first.

I know. When Lexus first started, everyone bitch and complaint and now the German start copying, it suddently become the next Big thing automotive industry?

Just like when Toyota and Lexus first started to mass producing Hybrid cars. Now everyone on the bandwagon, BMW, Audi, MB, Porsche and many more.

If you want to be technical the Germans where building cars about 100 years before Lexus or Toyota was an ideal on paper.

If you want to put it that way, China were the first to make explode powder? And what your point? To stay ahead of the Game is Not only being the first to making it, it call improving it each year to stay ahead.

China invented explode power before the west and then that stuck there for a very long time. Just recently they're going an Industralization which the west has done for about 50+ years now. But nevertheless China supposely catch or surpass the west really soon.

My point is that everyone bitch and complaint about Toyota or Lexus when they brought it out. But here we a German brand, suddently it's next big thing in automotive? come on........ Give credit where credit is due. And yes I give credit to German for making the first or first mass production cars.

According to ZF and Car and Driver this 8-Speed does a few things the Toyota 8-Speed does not.

The eight-speed transmission is not new to the automotive world. Toyo­ta has had one in its Lexus LS and IS F sedans for a few years. But now, transmission giant ZF is bringing eight speeds to the masses with promises of improved fuel economy.

Four planetary gearsets combine for eight gears in all. These gearsets are engaged and disengaged by five shifting elements. Toyota’s eight-speed gearbox also has four planetary gearsets, but it uses seven shifting elements to create eight ratios—the ZF is a simpler design.

ZF uses the term “kit” because 8HP is not a single transmission but rather one transmission case with various internal, customer-selectable options. It is designed for longitudinal, or “north-south,” applications. It can be set up for rear- or all-wheel drive and facilitates hybridization by providing the option of swapping the conventional torque converter for a 47-hp electric motor, increasing fuel economy by a claimed 25 percent when compared with ZF’s old six-speed (6HP). To save weight, the electric motor can also double as the starter. Expect to see a hybrid using the 8HP by the end of 2011.

F says the 8HP is six percent more ­efficient than the outgoing sixer and nearly as efficient as a dual-clutch automated manual, which ZF also produces. However, the eight-speed is roughly 20 percent cheaper and retains the smooth, torque-converter starts to which U.S. buyers have become accustomed.

Furthermore, the 8HP has a system to maintain hydraulic pressure even when the engine isn’t running and is therefore the first automatic that’s compatible with stop-start operation—good for 11 percent better fuel efficiency, says ZF. In the CAFE-conscious U.S. market, every percentage point is going to count.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q4/zf_s_8-speed_automatic_transmission-tech_dept

<<< got an is-f and cant stand 8 speeds on this car.... it really is always hunting gears !!!
if someone can get it right i guess it wouldnt be too bad... i get 12mpg ( city/ hiway ) and i drive pretty hard...
i used to get 13mpg on my e46 m3.. so i am impressed with the 12 i get on a 5.0 v8...