Manumatic
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Manumatic is a portmanteau word, combining the words manual and automatic, that applies to a new class of automotive transmissions. Chrysler Corporation made some luxury cars with a manumatic transmission where the transmission is an automatic with some elements of a manual (e.g. a gear can be manually selected instead of having the computer control all shifts). This type of transmission was introduced in the beginning of the 21st century. There is no other use for this word known so far. Different car manufacturers have been using a variety of labels for their manumatic transmissions, such as Tiptronic, Touchshift, Sporttronic, Sensodrive, Allshift, Speedshift, Multitronic (MMT) and others.
Manumatic is sometimes used to describe an electro-hydraulic manual transmission that is designed to behave somewhat like an automatic transmission, with electronics in the shift system depressing the clutch when necessary. Mercedes-Benz has a version called Sequentronic and BMW has SSG (Sports Sequential Gearbox) and SMG (as used in the BMW M3). Most implementations of this manual masquerading as an automatic have the side effect that the car is difficult to reverse, and jerky when changing gear. These effects are seen due to operational differences between torque converter (used by automatic transmissions) and clutch (used with manual transmissions) that many drivers not fully aware of. These are also referred to as clutchless manuals.
