Prius is CVT, so not a regular gearbox. Usually you have a petrol engine and gearbox. You then have electric motors (i think the Prius had 2 motors each one drove 1x wheel) that supplement the engine or at low speed do all the power.
It's more like 90% in the US. I'm lucky, I've never had to replace a clutch.. although with my old car being the learner car for the kids, that's probably going to change. I know over here insurance for manual is much lower than automatic because repairs tend to be a lot lower and average lifespan of a manual car is a little higher for same model cars... I don't know if that's going to be true for newer manuals that have things like auto clutch and hill start assist, etc. Beginning to get more things that could go wrong. I'd go back to manual door locks if I could too. No member of my family has ever owned a car where the power locks didn't start messing up after about five or six years.
The best way to think of it is to imagine a cone as the gear box, you can engage gear anywhere along the cone - continuous variable transmission.
I had an Alfa 145 Cloverleaf (i loved that car). I had it booked in for a service, there clutch had been feeling a little rattly for a a bit. I was about 80m from the garage when the clutch disintegrated and i could hear bits dropping on the road. I literally rolled into the garage car park under no power. As i dropped the key off i said "i think it needs a new clutch".
I'm probably 15 mins away from nearest car repair place so I need plenty of advanced warning before something breaks catastrophically... I do have AAA subscription so get free tow truck if I do break down in middle of nowhere at least.
as @herrardsitchyear says CVT are continually shifting gears via a rubber band (see Daf cars from the 70's also used in smaller Volvos at one stage . Toyota autos (at least here ) are all CVT boxes and you can occasionally hear a little hum from the box but they are much better set up to stop the old habit of making driving one a bit jerky . The best known 2 clutch system is the DSG used by the VAG group but see similar from various manufacturers .
Had a 2.8i Capri back in the early '80s. Clutch went on that, but luckily I could keep it in second gear, though the drive from Dovecot to the garage in Bootle was fun, especially going over the canal bridle in Aintree doing a hill start. As I recall, there was a problem with the transmission and big end because the engine was too powerful for the same transmission they used in the 1.6, for which it was designed? I'm no mechanic though, so I don't really know, but one of my mate's brothers had a 3.0 Capri automatic (twin carb?) and said it was the best car he ever had in his life. And it was faster than 2.8i, he claimed.
My first car was a Reliant Scimitar, it had the same 3 litre Essex engine as the 3 litre Capri, in its day a nippy car 0-60 was about 8.5 seconds. Now my diesel Merc does it in 7 seconds, shows how far cars have come
that reminds me of when i was driving to london and the governor ( i have absolutely no idea what this is ) in the auto failed so just to do 50 meant maximum revs but when you slowed down at an unknown point it would suddenly shift down and accelerate originally quoted £600 notes to fix but a full blown Renault garage did it for just over £100 which was still a pretty big amount in 1981 particularly when you are on the Rock n Roll
considering Reliants reputation now its weird to remember how "cool" the scimitar was . Weird choice of a first car though Mine was a 1.2 litre auto Renault 12 please log in to view this image but mine had a black vinyl roof
They're becoming a lot more common again now, at least in the US. A lot of autos here are really CVTs here
Twin choke Weber was the standard, but the previous owner of mine had fitted Holly carbs which sounded great
My ex-brother-in-law, who was an engineer and fixed all his own cars, had the 3.0L Ghia as well in the early 80s. He had to sell it when he went to work in Saudia for a decade, but he still raves about it. He thought the 2.8i was a gimmick when I got it. Lovely rumble to that engine. But when I was a kid (he was married to my eldest sister) he had a 12 cylinder E-Type. **** me, that was like a Hurricane on wheels. Every kid in the neighbourhood came and crowded around that car when he rocked up.
can we alter least at middle aged and talk evos and inprezas at least come into the fuel injection age ffs
So breaking news snail update. Remember how I said my ten year old work aquarium (that hasn't had anything new added to it in years) suddenly had one snail and I said it must be new, because you never have one snail, they reproduce quick, so couldn't have just been hiding all this time. This morning there were four new tiny baby snails on the glass. Proving my theory that the snail wasn't just hiding all along or there would be more than one. Still a mystery how it ended up there. My theory is it still it came in through the municipal water supply as an egg (protected by the chlorine by it's egg casing). I've found ostracods in tap water here before... I know New York City tap water is officially not considered kosher because of the number of ostracods in it up there.
