Recently, seems like the automobile manufacturers compete each other, who will develop more sophisticated gearbox.

Back in 1980's, the cars with 5-speed manual gearboxes were very rare and the automatic transmission were with only 3 or 4 speeds.

In the 1990's, the premium brands – Audi, BMW, Mercedes, VW started to install 6-speed manual gearboxes and 5-speed automatics.

During the last 10 years, VW released DSG – 7-speed double clutch transmission, Mercedes came up with 7G-Tronic and nowadays BMW and Lexus put in their vehicles 8-speed automatic transmissions. The "pioneer" in creating transmissions with many speeds is Mercedes, they were the first to install 7G-Tronic in 2003 in their models.

Of course, it is turn to Mercedes to show their excellence and create a nine-speed automatic gearbox – 9G-Tronic. It will improve the fuel efficiency and reduce the CO2 emissions. The new automatic will probably debut on the 2012 Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

Mercedes-Benz 9G-Tronic 02