Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How America lost its love for the stick shift

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 729 posts

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#61

Post by epx »

usaar333 wrote: post #38
epx wrote: post #11

Automatic gears are much better for parking, etc. in particular when you have to park in a gradient. I've always longed for an automatic, bought the first when I could, and convinced the rest of the family to do the same with "test drives".

Ya, I have no idea how someone parallel parks a manual (w/out hill assist) on a 15% grade; I personally have to keep one foot on the break and one foot on the accelerator!

It is possible, I've driven manual cars and trucks from 1995 to 2010, no accidents whatsoever, but sometimes you want it easy.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#62

Post by JoeAltmaier »

tyingq wrote: post #57
tough_cookies wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always had an easier time getting up snowy/ice hills (in Boston) than my friends did in their autos. I remember once driving up a hill in front of a friend so he could use my tire indentations to get up behind me.

Getting up was fine. Stopping at the precipice at a 4 way stop, then trying to start again was the tricky bit. With an auto you can hold the brake while you slowly press the accelerator, then release the brakes. Need a third foot to do that (or a hand brake) with a manual. Edit: Hill lock definitely sounds nice. Didn't exist when I was young, poor, and had crappy old American made manual shift cars...

Or a hill lock feature (?) that won't let it roll back until you accelerate. My Subara Forester has something like that

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#63

Post by nkantar »

rwbt wrote: post #42
nkantar wrote: post #32

> Take the Subaru BRZ. The popular sports car was once sold only with a manual transmission, but sales are now 90 percent automatic, Fiske estimated. I find this a bit difficult to believe. The automatic option has a reputation for being pretty good, but the manual is excellent. It was certainly never even a matter of choice for me, and for the growing number of (BRZ/(GT)86/FR-S) enthusiasts I know. Yes, I'm in a nic…

Yeah, it kinda took me by surprise too. One would think the Toyobaru twins along with the MX5 would have a lot higher manual transmission sales.

I would even understand a higher automatic take rate for the Miata, as it has a broader appeal (based on my guess that more people are willing to drive such a small car if it's also a convertible).

But the 86 siblings are really pretty focused. I love my car, but wonder how those who aren't _really_ into spiriting driving justify it over other excellent options (e.g., GTI) in its price range.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#64

Post by nzp »

OK, European here, maybe it's just the title wording, but the article left me somewhat confused. For as long as I can remember ('80s child) I was convinced that the US car market (and consumer preferences) were almost exclusively automatic. Even popular culture reinforced this (I don't remember ever seeing a manual transmission car in American movies and TV shows). Now this article suggests that even recently there was an actual competition between the two, that America even had love, no less, for stick shift. I don't know what to believe anymore, is there a reality even...

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#65

Post by taurath »

Ctrl-F "traffic" shows up nothing in the article - there's not much discussion of "why" other than the technology is better.

Truth is that when you are stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, stopping and starting, manuals are tedious and not a good experience.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#67

Post by newnewpdro »

This article completely misses what I have observed as a major factor in nearly everyone switching to automatics:

Drunk driving became illegal, then agressively enforced.

This created a powerful incentive for having a vehicle anyone can drive.

All my friends growing up were gearheads of some kind, and drove manual cars. Now they have automatics, so they can continue to get drunk when out and have someone sober (their wives, generally) drive them home.

Don't forget letting the female half of the population drive in the US is a relatively new development as well...

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#68

Post by peeters »

tyingq wrote: post #57
tough_cookies wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always had an easier time getting up snowy/ice hills (in Boston) than my friends did in their autos. I remember once driving up a hill in front of a friend so he could use my tire indentations to get up behind me.

Getting up was fine. Stopping at the precipice at a 4 way stop, then trying to start again was the tricky bit. With an auto you can hold the brake while you slowly press the accelerator, then release the brakes. Need a third foot to do that (or a hand brake) with a manual. Edit: Hill lock definitely sounds nice. Didn't exist when I was young, poor, and had crappy old American made manual shift cars...

Just a note on that, most premium manual models come with hill assist these days. Automatically applies the brake while you accelerate from a stop.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#69

Post by ataturk »

joeblau wrote: post #59

My brother has an R8, Viper, and Vantage (All Manual) and I would rather drive a Tesla over all 3 of them. Manual is fun and you get the feeling of control and I love driving them, but in reality, there is a reason they are on their way out. The main problem is that the replacement, automatic, make driving feel worse. The computers that manage automatic transmissions are so bad that they make automatics feel terrible…

Whatever, bro. I'll take a manual over anything else forever and always. Maybe change my mind when someone other than Tesla produces something mainstream.

The 8spd auto in my BMW is very decent, however. It's the first auto I've ever had that I would say that about and really it is too many gears.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#70

Post by MrMember »

tyingq wrote: post #57
tough_cookies wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always had an easier time getting up snowy/ice hills (in Boston) than my friends did in their autos. I remember once driving up a hill in front of a friend so he could use my tire indentations to get up behind me.

Getting up was fine. Stopping at the precipice at a 4 way stop, then trying to start again was the tricky bit. With an auto you can hold the brake while you slowly press the accelerator, then release the brakes. Need a third foot to do that (or a hand brake) with a manual. Edit: Hill lock definitely sounds nice. Didn't exist when I was young, poor, and had crappy old American made manual shift cars...

My WRX has hill start assist and I love it. If you're stopped on an incline and let off the brakes it will keep them applied automatically for a moment while you give it some gas.
Post reply on HN