E-Shift (virtual gear shift) "Surprisingly Convincing" Review

[whitex]

Equally, as an engineer I know that well engineered cars often fail to attract many sales...

I think a good example would be people cutting off exhausts from their cars so they "sound better" or explicitly make their cylinders backfire because "it sounds cool,".

I was drive behind a car earlier today, I noticed at a stop light that their exhaust was completely missing. At first I though it was just disconnected, as the stump from the front mounted engine was glowing in my Taycan's FLIR. I was thinking to find a way to let the drive know they lost their exhaust, but then realized it must have been on purpose, when they floored it at the light, causing a lot of noise, and then when they were switching gears the engine was backfiring - no way the driver didn't know. I passed him shortly thereafter and left him behind as I wasn't particularly enjoining the noise it was making (it wasn't accelerating very fast either, barely outaccelerated a minivan off the red light).

I still say people should be considerate to others. Want the noise? Why not, but keep it contained inside your cabin, or better yet, put on headphones and feel free to blast your eardrums out with whatever noise you want your car to make. Of course I realize that most people who enjoy the car noises, primarily enjoy inflicting those noises on others, not themselves.

Sponsored

 

[whitex]

I usually don't drive with my ears, and 130km is hardly high enough speed to require such focus

Nearly all speed limits in the US are under 130km/h, so here when doing those speeds you have to pay attention to both slow, inattentive drivers on their phones, and to cops trying to make their monthly quota (especially towards the end of the month). Where I drive, usually anything over ~113km/h requires being ready to hit the brakes when a laser warning goes off, and/or using radar detection and community sources police speed trap markings on maps to avoid having to contribute to local police fundraising. In my state they've also started deploying mobile roadside speed-cameras too - they call it police force multiplier. When they passed it through legislature, they let people have the first ticket for $0, but then realized that most issued tickets were first infraction, which just cost money to issue, to they have amended the legislation to start charging starting on first infraction. I wish they'd apply the same vigilance enforcing using mobile devices while driving (I know there are cameras which can do this too) but I'm guessing it would piss off too many people, or someone would make some argument of it being socially unjust.

 

[Sar]

I think a good example would be people cutting off exhausts from their cars so they "sound better" or explicitly make their cylinders backfire because "it sounds cool,".

I was drive behind a car earlier today, I noticed at a stop light that their exhaust was completely missing. At first I though it was just disconnected, as the stump from the front mounted engine was glowing in my Taycan's FLIR. I was thinking to find a way to let the drive know they lost their exhaust, but then realized it must have been on purpose, when they floored it at the light, causing a lot of noise, and then when they were switching gears the engine was backfiring - no way the driver didn't know. I passed him shortly thereafter and left him behind as I wasn't particularly enjoining the noise it was making (it wasn't accelerating very fast either, barely outaccelerated a minivan off the red light).

I still say people should be considerate to others. Want the noise? Why not, but keep it contained inside your cabin, or better yet, put on headphones and feel free to blast your eardrums out with whatever noise you want your car to make. Of course I realize that most people who enjoy the car noises, primarily enjoy inflicting those noises on others, not themselves.

Your story is exactly why I was never a "car guy" for the first three decades of my life until electric cars and particularly the Taycan were released. There are some obnoxious racers that drive around my back roads every single day at 9pm and 12pm nearly religiously. The engine noises can be heard for miles and all neighbors are so frustrated. I never understood the strange peacocking people feel when they scream their engines. I love the silence and power of the Taycan.

 

[whitex]

Your story is exactly why I was never a "car guy" for the first three decades of my life until electric cars and particularly the Taycan were released. There are some obnoxious racers that drive around my back roads every single day at 9pm and 12pm nearly religiously. The engine noises can be heard for miles and all neighbors are so frustrated. I never understood the strange peacocking people feel when they scream their engines. I love the silence and power of the Taycan.

Some people derive their self worth from what what they think others think of them, so this peacocking it just their one way to raise their own self esteem. That said, it does seem to work on a certain subset of population who get impressed by such behavior, so this is not entirely without merit (if you derive your self worth from impressing others).

I've always been into cars, just for me though, never for other people. The cars and options I get are typically all performance and functional, rather than to show off to others. I like understated elegance combined with functionality I like, and my Taycan CT fits very well into this category.

 

[d00d]

I don't really understand your question.
CVTs are so much objectively better than the multi ratio gearbox needed for a piston engined car they were banned in Formula 1, but more expensive.
It is the fact that a piston engined car has such a narrow power band it needs multiple ratios. For me that is a shortcoming of all piston engined cars not suffered by EVs, hence a bug, but I am forever reading and seeing videos of journalists drooling over manual gearboxes as if they were a feature, to use software nomenclature.

I agree with you, my question was regarding conventional wisdom that a CVT isn't durable with a high torque engine, or is this because of packaging requirements that may not exist in F1?

 

[Fun TC Driving]

Also like the standard 2027’s elimination of the Trackpad, the incorporation of easier to use center lower console personalized widgets, and the better PCM software that W1NGE pointed out.

 

[Dee]

Equally, as an engineer I know that well engineered cars often fail to attract many sales...

A Toyota Prius is just not a cool car, that's all.
You own one but you also own a Ferrari, that's a combination I really don't understand so we all have things that don't seem to fit in a logical pattern.
Still, due to your "promotion" of your Prius here I look differently at it now.
Still not my choice but I look differently at it.

Also, I have to disagree: many well engineered cars sell great, BMW is an excellent example, just like Porsche and Mercedes.

 

[MissionE]

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/porsc...2026-review-manual-ev-surprisingly-convincing

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/...can-gets-gearshifts-and-renewed-driver-appeal

What’s surprising is that it’s only a $1000 option. Seems like it would be much more than that; and the fact that they put it on all models, not just the sportier ones.

But not interested; plus the extra button just looks busy on the steering wheel [do you really need to push a giant button to turn it on?]

 

[W1NGE]

What’s surprising is that it’s only a $1000 option. Seems like it would be much more than that; and the fact that they put it on all models, not just the sportier ones.

But not interested; plus the extra button just looks busy on the steering wheel [do you really need to push a giant button to turn it on?]

It costs a lot more depending which model you start from.

If base then you need Bose or Burmester, GT wheel, e-shift option itself and Sports Chrono - so a significant cost.

Personally I would probably skip as I don't like this type of thing and hated the Electric Sport Sound. If I was speccing a GTS upwards then I might tick the box for the smaller incremental price (it should be standard at this trim level IMHO).

 

[gnr3312]

I’d rather have it and not use it, then not have it and want to use it. Yeah I know it’s $1000 but seriously it’s less than 1% of the total cost.

Sponsored