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Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions

latimes.com

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Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions

#231

Post by hrrsn »

henrikschroder wrote: post #46

I got my driver's license in Sweden, and the official driving handbook completely worships manual transmissions, and makes several untrue claims about how much better they are than automatics. You can choose to do your road test in an automatic, but that'll earn you a restriction on your license, barring you from driving a manual. It's probably fair, but almost everyone (myself included) chooses to practice in manual…

>You can choose to do your road test in an automatic, but that'll earn you a restriction on your license, barring you from driving a manual.

Interesting. Here in New Zealand, once you move from your learners license (fully supervised driving) to restricted (ability to drive by yourself with conditions), if you sit the test in an automatic you get a condition for automatic only on your license. Once you sit your full license in an auto, that restriction disappears.

Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions

#232

Post by hrrsn »

henrikschroder wrote: post #46

I got my driver's license in Sweden, and the official driving handbook completely worships manual transmissions, and makes several untrue claims about how much better they are than automatics. You can choose to do your road test in an automatic, but that'll earn you a restriction on your license, barring you from driving a manual. It's probably fair, but almost everyone (myself included) chooses to practice in manual…

>You can choose to do your road test in an automatic, but that'll earn you a restriction on your license, barring you from driving a manual.

Interesting. Here in New Zealand, once you move from your learners license (fully supervised driving) to restricted (ability to drive by yourself with conditions), if you sit the test in an automatic you get a condition for automatic only on your license. Once you sit your full license in an auto, that restriction disappears.

Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions

#233

Post by hrrsn »

henrikschroder wrote: post #46

I got my driver's license in Sweden, and the official driving handbook completely worships manual transmissions, and makes several untrue claims about how much better they are than automatics. You can choose to do your road test in an automatic, but that'll earn you a restriction on your license, barring you from driving a manual. It's probably fair, but almost everyone (myself included) chooses to practice in manual…

>You can choose to do your road test in an automatic, but that'll earn you a restriction on your license, barring you from driving a manual.

Interesting. Here in New Zealand, once you move from your learners license (fully supervised driving) to restricted (ability to drive by yourself with conditions), if you sit the test in an automatic you get a condition for automatic only on your license. Once you sit your full license in an auto, that restriction disappears.

Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions

#234

Post by ptaipale »

baq wrote: post #157
sshanky wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In modern cars, disengaging the clutch (or using neutral) when coasting (toward a stop or down a hill) is less efficient than staying in gear. This is because it takes some fuel to keep the engine idling, where staying in gear allows the computer to completely cut fuel flow, as long as the forward motion is keeping the engine turning.

can confirm with anecdata: in my car the computer reports 0.0 fuel consumption when coasting in gear but non-zero when in neutral/clutch depressed.

Of course it works that way, but just for the note: what the car computer reports in dash is manipulated by software and it can be anything. It's not necessarily completely true.

Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions

#235

Post by amelius »

Tomte wrote: post #175
rimantas wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when automatic transmissions are consistently > outperforming humans at fuel efficiency What? So far each data sheet has shown higher fuel consumption for automatic vehicles.

Sure, for professional racing drivers. The vast majority, certainly >90%, of people who claim to be driving more efficiently manually are simply mistaken. It's mostly observation bias. They recognize those two situations a day where they really have the upper hand. For a second or two. They don't realize that in most other driving situations they don't even come close.

> Sure, for professional racing drivers.

But note that the transmission in F1 cars is semi-automatic [1]

[1] https://www.formula1.com/en/championship/inside-f1/understan...

Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions

#236

Post by GrantSolar »

_nalply wrote: post #141
zippergz wrote: post #35

I'm a car enthusiast, and I was a manual transmission purist for many, many years. But then I had to be honest with myself, and admit that the VAST majority of my driving is commuting in traffic. And that driving is much less annoying with an automatic. My leisure driving is maybe 5% less fun without a manual, but that's far outweighed by how much better my daily commute is. At this point, I'd only buy a manual for a…

Manual transmission is incompatible with cruise control with proximity detection, because the automated system can't shift (or it would be an automatic transmission). I would buy a car which has both (like the Smart) and manual shift in difficult conditions (like driving over mountain passes in snow). However the Smart I rented didn't have a clutch. It's weird. I don't know.

While the use-cases for cruise control are more limited with a manual transmission, I wouldn't go as far as to say the two are incompatible.

I would never use it in heavy-traffic and rarely on a single-carriageway (i.e. anywhere that travelling at 60+ mph is a hazard), but if you're only switching between 4th and 5th, then it really is very useful

I don't know of anyone that uses ACC for city driving or non-motorway commute. This might be due to the nature of British roads, though

Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions

#237

Post by T-zex »

nepotism2016 wrote: post #229

I got to San Francisco last October and was due to pickup my "top class" rental car from AVIS. I got to the parked car and noticed it was automatic. I straight away thought this was a mistake and ran upstairs to ask for a manual transmission car. The two ladies before the counter looked all confused and said I would be very lucky to find such car...something like a sports car. So I spent the next 20 minutes inside th…

You mean right side of the road? (left side being wrong)

Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions

#239

Post by 3poundkilograms »

burfog wrote: post #133
vmarsy wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>when automatic transmissions are consistently outperforming humans at fuel efficiency Do you have data to back this up? Unless you're driving a dual clutch "dry" transmission or a CVT, because of Physics, an automatic transmission will always be less efficient. The Automatic transmission Torque converter [1] will waste some of the energy provided by the engine, especially with city driving. Also, most automatic cars…

Lock-up torque converters don't waste power. They started to become popular in the 1970s, and are pretty much universal now.

The lock-up only locks up in very limited conditions, especially older ones. There's basically a few specific speeds with a 10km/h margin that locks up.

Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions

#240

Post by GordonS »

micaksica wrote: post #113
yoodenvranx wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly! For commuting you should get an automatic and for the weekend you should get a manual. I was a fan of manual cars for a long time, but the more time I spent stuck in traffic, the more I love automatic transmissions.

Disagree. I have been stuck in SV traffic for over a decade, on and off, with a stick shift. Even with the traffic I still don't hate them. When I really hate the traffic, I jump on a shitty motorcycle I bought on Craigslist.

Depends on your car - especially how heavy the clutch is!
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