[JohnnyG]

I have driven Mercedes autos but not Audi S tronic. I am a bit wary as today I read that Audi S tronics are referred to as Semi automatics! What does this mean? Can Audi autos not be just put in Drive and just accelerate and go??..sorry if its a basic question

 

[Daddy k]

S tronic is a full auto I believe.

Semi auto is normally a standard gearbox and clutch, made automatic by essentially bolting on actuators to control the clutch movement and gearbox change. They have a standard clutch also.

My partners had 2 semi autos, 1 true auto plus the q3 due to be delivered in September Edited by: Daddy k

 

[Latent]

Eer still confused! So theres an A tronic full auto and an s tronic semi avaiable in audi??

 

[Q3mp]

S tronic is an automatic that can be used as a manuel upto a point

 

[Gromit]

Hi Johnny,

Both my Q3 and mrs. G's A3 are S-tronic and I can assure you that they are fully automatic - just put 'em in Drive and they go. Like most auto boxes they also have a Sports or Manual mode for (you've guessed it) manual gear-changing but there's no need to use it. The only differences between S-tronic and a conventional (fluid-driven) automatic 'box are behind the scenes - instead of a fluid torque converter it has twin dry-plate clutches and a pre-selector mechanism - but these differences have a big effect on performance and fuel economy in that they're as frugal as a manual 'box and marginally quicker due to a very fast gearchange and no power loss through the transmission.

Frankly I love driving them and I've come from Jaguars and SAABs, all conventional automatics.

 

[Samoanjoe]

I echo Gromit here. My S-Tronic is so smooth, that apart from listening carefully you can barely notice the gear changes at all. You won't be disappointed.

 

[drjamesr]

Fully automatic (apart from manually moving the gear lever into D from P!). A superb box in congested traffic and generally. It's not infallible but it rarely makes a mistake on gear choice and it maintains excellent fuel economy. The sport option I find useful for joining motorways on short slip roads to get max acceleration, but otherwise I don't use it much, and I never use the manual paddle shift - presumably why the box might be described as semi auto. In both cases there really is little point. As my son says, when it's this good, why do cars still have manual gears and clutches?

 

[JohnnyG]

Thanks all. Thats confirmed things for me