Transmission notes so far:
I'm still in engine break in period so no towing, AND no cruise control.
I live in Washington state and drive to northern Idaho to pick up the truck, so all told I drove the truck for 3.5h last night. Almost all highway.
I reset the MPG before leaving the dealerships. By the time I returned home, I made 18.6MPG. If you've been to N Idaho, you know it's very mountainous which didn't help MPG. I used cruise control for exactly 5minute on the way home and could tell it was doing a better job at fuel efficiency than I could. So I'm excited to see what flat interstate and Cruise Control will do MPG.
We stopped for coffee and dinner, so I got a short chance to drive at town speeds with stop lights. The tranny's shift points were very noteworthy. I'm used to driving manual tranny sports cars (vette/s60r), so I know what a standard (short gear ratio) RPM drops sounds like (rpm change when changing gears) . The torqueflight8 has a very short RPM drop. Depending on your experience, you might not notice but it was very evident to me, since I shift by sound.
Also, it was obviously trying to keep the engine power output to the minimum power required for fuel efficiency. I typically hate auto tranny's because of when they change gears. They are either all or nothing, and never shift when I expect them to which often makes me feel out of control (or mad/scared). The torqueflight8 felt very good to me, it felt like the same choices I would make with a stick shift. Quick decisive shifts, always smooth power transfer. I was very impressed, which is saying something.
Rotary knob:
This was a concern at first to me. I didn't know if I would like this. I thought I would prefer the center shifter. However, now that I've used it I am a fan. Someone in the user experience group spent a lot of time thinking through this one little knob. It has a very "well built" feel to it. Very specific detents. You can't spin it past drive nor past park. Also can you shift out of park without the brake depressed. It frees up a lot of console space, and it does look cool. You won't be disappointed.
At lot about the truck impressed me last night. I can't wait to have an excuse to drive today.
ALSO. All you with pending orders: You might want to touch base with your dealerships, I found out from mine that they are having trouble meeting the demand for 8speeds and are starting to auto substitute the 6speed to fulfill orders. If you've ordered an torque8; I'd go make sure you are still getting one.
Justin
sorry I'm new to the ram world. I just ordered my truck on the 21st of march. Dealer believed it would be an 8 week wait :-(
