Quote Originally Posted by Ares View Post
The idea is to keep the RPMs close to each other so its near the power/tq at all times.
I have to say, that I think that's true, but needs a bit more explaining. A vehicle with more gears does or should accelerate more quickly than that said vehicle with the same engine and less gears. Because it should be able to keep the engine rpm higher up in the peak hp / torque rpm by not dropping as far out of the peak hp / torque rpm range as those with few gears.

While simultaneously, those with higher gears should show an improvement in mpg by being able to keep the rpm lower across a greater amount of cruise speeds, than those with fewer gears.

Ultimately, the more gears a transmission has, the closer it comes to being a CVT. And ultimately, a CVT is the ultimate transmission. However, I don't believe they are as robust as a manual transmission, and they've been controlled to act like a X speed automatic transmission which is just pure stupidity IMO. The first Prius I drove (while an engineer at Toyota) seemed to have a CVT that worked exactly how a CVT should work. But admittedly, it was weird driving being so different than any other vehicle I've ever driven. Controls have been added to make them act somewhat like a traditional x-speed transmission. Because feedback to the OEMs was vast and mostly negative, with customers thinking something was wrong with the transmission (CVT) ... because like I said, they did seem very weird when they operate as they were initially intended. Clarification: The CVT seemed weird but it was actually the correct way to operate.