Last month, Volkswagen's Chinese unit recalled 640,309 vehicles to check they were using mineral oil rather than synthetic oil to avoid gearbox-related electronic flaws.
While power steering, semi-automatic gearboxes and other electronic aids have made the physical aspect of driving a Formula One car easier, there are still no faster or technically advanced racing cars than these.
The new gearboxes are perhaps best described as automated-manuals, though sometimes they are called semi-automatics or clutchless-manuals, which is a bit misleading.Most are based on manual gearboxes, but use electronic actuators to shift gears and to operate a built-in clutch.
Not only do the vast majority of vehicles on the road in America have automatic transmissions rather than manual gearboxes, they also have electronic throttle controls.
Although dismissed by Republicans as "paper mache" jobs, they include many manufacturing jobs since, for example, a single wind turbine contains up to 400 tons of steel, along with 8,000 parts from copper wire, gearboxes and ball bearings to electronic controls.
Other traits also irritate: between the electronic engine control and the six-speed automatic gearbox, the car was painfully slow to respond; flooring the accelerator caused it to pause and ponder, then gradually gather speed -- not the stuff of enthusiasts' dreams.
As a result of this, from the start of 2008 the FIA will introduce standard electronic control units for both the engines and the gearboxes, a move which the car manufacturers have long been against".We have concluded that standardising the ECU is the only way in which we can have complete credibility in the eyes of the public when it comes to banning traction control," said Mosley.
A six-speed manual, with electronic rev-matching to enable smoother downshifts, is the sole gearbox offering for the Nismo.
Its transmission is an electronic version of an old-style cone-and-belt continuously variable gearbox, which, when paired with the hybrid system, is unbearably slow.
