b class

[television]

1490 - da Vinci sketches a stepless continuously variable transmission
1886 - first toroidal CVT patent filed
1935 - Adiel Dodge receives U.S. patent for toroidal CVT
1939 - fully automatic transmission based on planetary gear system introduced
1958 - Daf (of The Netherlands) produces a CVT in a car
1989 - Subaru Justy GL is the first U.S.-sold production automobile to offer a CVT
2002 - Saturn Vue with a CVT debuts; first Saturn to offer CVT technology

Now Mercedes Lexus, Ford and many others use them.

Thanks for the link on the CVT boxes,,they have come on a long way since the DAF versions

 

[hawk20]

Thanks for the link on the CVT boxes,,they have come on a long way since the DAF versions

Yes. Great website and the pictures really give a good idea of the technology. I love the ingenuity of the CVT boxes that have no belts.

The CVT box on the B class gives completely seamless 'changes'. And at 80 the engine is only doing 2,000 revs. So it's very good for economy. The performance of the 200cdi auto is virtually identical to the manual and the fuel economy is much closer to the manual than an ordinary auto box would be.

And if you want to change gears yourself then you can use the tiptronic in the usual way and it selects 7 virtual gears. (As there are no gears it chooses 7 sensible gearing ratios).

 

[television]

If I had needed to change cars when I was working,,then the B class did make a lot of sense,,I did like the first version, and had a demo run in that