Yep - Toyota's advertising is damn effective, and that's why it's getting so much of a reaction. GM dealers sure threw themselves into a frenzy over it, which was a bit stronger of a reaction than, say, Ford's Toby Keith ads warranted.

Toyota's running a campaign of facts. GM decided to go with heritage. As much as I liked seeing that shot of Earnhardt Sr. in one of the ads, warm fuzzy feelings probably aren't the best things to rely on in today's marketplace.

 

I know the 2007 BMW 328i coupe uses the "GM6". That's the low-end 3-series coupe (230 hp, 200 ft.lbs.). The 335i (300/300 twin-turbo) uses a ZF 6-speed auto. Interesting that they only use the GM box in lower-horsepower application. New issue of Bimmer magazine has a feature article directly comparing the 335i ZF with the 328 GM6 tranny. They say the GM6 is a significant improvement over the old 5-speed, but not in the same league as the ZF tranny (100ms shifts, rev matching downshifts, etc.). That said, they say the ZF is still not as good as Audi's DSG, which seems to be the industry standard for performance transmissions.

 

Ford and GM only cooperated on the 6 speed FWD transmission. Their RWD transmissions are their own design.

 

You can bet that the ZF auto is more expensive than the GM auto. Does the RWD 6 speed in the 2008 GM cars have the rev matching downshifts?

 

And that "cooperation" was based on the GM Powertrain design for the tranverse six speed auto. As I understand it, Ford jumped on board after much of the base work was done. I think Ford will be using their own controller/software and calibrations, but the design of the physical gearbox was GM.

Same thing with the new "dual mode" hybrid system that is being "co-developed" with DCX and BMW. That whole setup is based on the GM/Allison hybrid system for transit bus applications. It isn't the same hardware (the Allison unit is HUGE), but it is the same basic concept, scaled down to passenger vehicle sizes (and with improvements and new invention throughout, I'm sure).

 

I rode one of the buses with that Allison hybrid transmission in Seattle. It almost sounds as if there are two gears; first gear, which rises normally for a hydraulic transmission, and then a second gear, which sounds like a CVT. Is that in fact true, or was the engine just too quiet to really hear what was happening.

Btw, have you been at Allison long enough to remember the V730/V731?