What is the general view on the Cougar automatic?

J

jmccabe

Well-known user
Oct 18, 2011
151
0
Ledbury
There's one near me; a C2 on an X plate. I had a brief look at it a few weeks ago but it was getting dark, and it was automatic so I sort of dismissed it because of the claimed performance being, let's face it, pretty poor compared to the manual.

But.. is it really that bad? Has anyone had both manual and automatic and found it really is as bad as it appears?

Thanks
 
Slower acceleration.
Fuel hungry in comparison.
Lower top end speed.
BORING :)

Iirc the only member to have owned bot manual and auto is Phil Robbo, but his manual was a zetec. Somebody will correct me if i'm wrong i'm sure.
 
i've driven one for a while (phil's) and it drove ok, as said they do use a little more petrol,depends on what your intended use for it is, i drive/driven a lot of auto's (on various makes and models)and had very few problems (other than the merc's). some thing to bear in mind, No clutch repairs, not having to physically change gears generally being lazy, however can't bump start if battery goes flat, if internal repairs are required they can be expensive, if you want to race people from lights etc whilst there quite good in kickdown, you would probably be better with manual, as said its what you intend using it for
 
Mine is an auto, I am far too lazy for that gear change stuff.. and i love it, it's not much slower than a manual IMO.. it's not bad on fuel, 37.8mph on the way back from the Christmas do..
I love it.. it's great in traffic, which lets face it, most of the driving these days is..
I am well happy with it..(y)

Edit, ohh and not slower top end from what mine did on a private road.. :eek::)
 
Most of the "issue" is that the CD4E is an archaic automatic gearbox. Whilst modern 6 speeds in pretty much any mid sized premium brand saloon will out perform their manual counterparts to the extent that they don't even bother to offer a manual because so few people actually want them, the CD4E is an old 4 speed. Reliability wise it's OK but it absorbs a lot of power, has poor (by modern standards) lock-up characteristics, slow (by modern standards) gearchange and a fairly basic control system.

Straight off the line it has too many mechanical losses to compete with the manual - driving wheel horsepower was once tested at 130bhp on a past member's car. That's 40bhp converted into heat in the transmission fluid. There's one less ratio to use, and on top of that, the control system isn't really all that good at reacting to pedal inputs and getting the gear you really want quickly.

If you sit in stop start traffic often though, an Automatic is a much nicer car to be in - so much so that I specifically chose an automatic when I bought my last 2 cars.
 
add_issan said:
Mine is an auto, I am far too lazy for that gear change stuff.. and i love it, it's not much slower than a manual IMO.. it's not bad on fuel, 37.8mph on the way back from the Christmas do..
I love it.. it's great in traffic, which lets face it, most of the driving these days is..
I am well happy with it..(y)

Edit, ohh and not slower top end from what mine did on a private road.. :eek::)
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Ohh and i have owned a manual, it was my first cougar before i joined here, it was a black one before my blurple auto... then when i went to get another i got a auto again..
 
sorry to correct you al but i owned both manual and auto v6,auto is great if you have a lazy left foot and dont mind slighty less oopmhh but in general its fine
 
Thanks all for your replies. Interesting stuff. It sounds like it might be worth a try. Basically I want a manual one, but I'm getting a bit desparate for a car (I don't like commuting by motorbike at this time of year any more!) so I probably need to get a stop-gap thing. The choice would be something like an auto Cougar or something completely different but cheap - just to get over the winter and give me more of a chance of finding a decent manual Cougar.

Part of the issue really is that:

1) I'm currently using a Suzuki GSX-R750K6 (0-60 in err, very quickly...)

2) The car I had that's now not running was a Laguna II 2.0T (Petrol) Estate which has similar power/performance to the manual 2.5l Cougar.

One advantage though is that the wife's car is a 1.2l Hyundai i10 so as far as cars are concerned over the last 2 months or so I've been driving something that does 0-60 eventually :)
 
There's nothing wrong with the auto per se, and if the bike is your fun vehicle then the Cougar being slow doesn't really matter. Autos do have the advantage of coming with Cruise Control which the manuals didn't. Depends where you live etc - some claim there's never an opportunity to use Cruise Control thus it's a waste of time. I use mine every day and wouldn't be without it.
 
jamie_duff said:
There's nothing wrong with the auto per se, and if the bike is your fun vehicle then the Cougar being slow doesn't really matter. Autos do have the advantage of coming with Cruise Control which the manuals didn't. Depends where you live etc - some claim there's never an opportunity to use Cruise Control thus it's a waste of time. I use mine every day and wouldn't be without it.
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Me too Jamie, great mod to a manual and will greatly increase the life expectancy of your license. Helps with gas mileage as well. Always use it on dual carriageways
 
Gill's car (manual) has it too and again wouldn't be without it. I must admit though, sometimes even pressing the accelerator is too much like hard work and just pressing the Resume button from 20mph (doesn't work from a standstill :() is the best way to get back up to 70 when I'm driving my own car :LOL:
 
jamie_duff said:
Gill's car (manual) has it too and again wouldn't be without it. I must admit though, sometimes even pressing the accelerator is too much like hard work and just pressing the Resume button from 20mph (doesn't work from a standstill :() is the best way to get back up to 70 when I'm driving my own car :LOL:
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Res button is brilliant, just press and relax (y)
 
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