My parents have just bought a themselves a replacement for my Mum's A-class, and one of the few criteria was that the car had to be automatic. As a result, we tried all manner of different automatic boxes. The A-class was a fairly early incarnation of the modern auto, with no torque convertor, though infinitely better than the ghastly Easytronic box fitted to some Corsas and Merivas (automated manual), and, as long as you drove it normally, the changes were very good. The DSG-equipped cars that my parents tried were very impressive, with excellent gearchanges, but they didn't seem to creep. Ford also fit a similar gearbox, called a powershift, which we didn't sample, but seems to receive great reviews. We tried a couple of CVT-equipped cars, which were a curiosity, and they're certainly far better than the Honda Jazz we considered several years ago. While searching the internet, it appears that DSG cars aren't quite as reliable as one might hope, but, this could well be due, in part, to the fact they require a service every 40k miles, which is doubtless ignored. Honda Jazzes with CVTs appear not to be that durable either. I couldn't live with one of the robotised manual gearboxes, because the change quality when pressing on, even slightly, becomes very unpleasant. I also dislike the lack of a park position, instead relying entirely on the handbrake to hold the car on a hill, when parked. :shock:
In the end, they bought an entirely conventional Volvo V70 2.4 170 Geartronic auto, which has all of the qualities of a traditional auto (with fuel consumption to match, something its imminent LPG conversion will cure) and in my opinion, is far more pleasant in use than many of the newer alternatives. I much prefer a traditional torque convertor automatic, with lots of slip because it's so smooth, and effortless.
