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How America lost its love for the stick shift

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Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#121

Post by martinald »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #30

In the UK most cars are still manual. Less so for the more expensive you go but I'd guess more than 90%. I have driven automatics a handful of times. The longest I spent was 2 weeks in a motor home touring the Rockies. While I can see the appeal for around town driving driving up and down grades was a bit of a pain. Basically I had to learn the behaviour of the transmission and use a combination of the exact amount o…

Seems to be really changing in the UK. I don't drive, but nearly all my friends/family members who used to have manual now have automatic. Also, most Ubers these days seem to have automatic transmission.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#122

Post by VBprogrammer »

babypuncher wrote: post #46
VBprogrammer wrote: post #30

In the UK most cars are still manual. Less so for the more expensive you go but I'd guess more than 90%. I have driven automatics a handful of times. The longest I spent was 2 weeks in a motor home touring the Rockies. While I can see the appeal for around town driving driving up and down grades was a bit of a pain. Basically I had to learn the behaviour of the transmission and use a combination of the exact amount o…

It sounds like your motor home just had a really crappy automatic transmission. I've spent a lot of time driving around the Rocky Mountains (since I live here) and have never really had this issue when towing trailers.

Probably somewhere between that and me not trusting it do it's own thing.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#123

Post by acuozzo »

ubernostrum wrote: post #81
arielweisberg wrote: post #26

I learned to drive stick at 34 just for fun. Now own a Mazda 3 and MX-5. Worth it. It's not about out performing an automatic transmission it's about engagement. For some people that's not going to have any value. For others there is no going back to numb econoboxes with automatic transmissions. It's a shame more people don't get over the hump and get to see what driving can be vs. what it is for most.

I have completely the opposite view. To me, all the "engagement" type arguments just feel like someone telling me that they still insist on using only rotary telephones, because it makes them feel more "engaged" with the telephone, "closer to the machine", etc. So I don't find anything magical or special about having to manually manage the gears when a computer could do it more efficiently and relieve me of the need…

> To me, all the "engagement" type arguments just feel like someone telling me

I don't drive stick, but I think it would help me considerably.

Even with 8+ hours of sleep, 3 cups of coffee, music blasting in my ears, and the windows open I often find that driving for longer than 30 minutes on the open road (i.e. no traffic) starts to put me to sleep.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#124

Post by InitialLastName »

mulmen wrote: post #55
sevensor wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have very mixed feelings about this -- I walk and bicycle quite a lot, so I'm not deeply engaged with driving being fun, nor do I think it's really a great thing if drivers are having fun driving. Fun means more people spending more time on the roads endangering my life. But on the other hand, I learned on a stick. It really is more fun and I miss it.

I don't think fun has to equal unsafe. Manuals provide an opportunity to have fun doing things like matching downshifts and thinking about what you are doing. Both can be done within the confines of safe, legal operation.

I think GP's point is that people who have fun driving drive more frequently, which is inherently unsafe.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#125

Post by arielweisberg »

peeters wrote: post #54

I love my stick shift, and echo others that it increases my engagement level, but I'm at the point of buying my next car and I know it'll be automatic. Too many companies don't try to push any advanced technology into their manuals; if you want any kind of active safety features you need to go automatic. Honda was probably the outlier; I test drove the Civic Hatch and it had everything except for low-speed follow ava…

Ouch... I ended up with Mazda for one of my cars because in the US market it had the full range of safety features, and was available with manual transmission. Automatic braking and collision detection at low and high speeds, pedestrian collision detection, rear cross traffic alerts, radar cruise control

I did notice that trend which is unfortunate. The tendency for sporty cars to forgo safety equipment. I hate it.

It looks like the Mazda 3 sedan is now available in CA with the same equipment.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#126

Post by olivermarks »

I think the average non car enthusiast driver would rather drive something as easy to operate as possible. The market for performance 6 speeds has never been better though, Richmond, Tremec and Getrag make superb gearboxes that really liven up the engine that is driving them, increasing performance and driving pleasure for people who are interested in that sort of thing.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#127

Post by csours »

nimbius wrote: post #117

I've been an engine mechanic for 12 years now and the automatic transmission is a mainstay. Most parents and commuter drivers aren't exactly feathering the clutch like Rossi on the way to band practice in their Hyundai. They just want a cheap easy car that works without a lot of expense, and the automatic transmission takes less maintenance over the life of the vehicle than a manual.

How long did it take to get that way? Automatics used to be more trouble prone for a long time.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#128

Post by jrbancel »

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…

"Automatic" is way to broad to be correct.

A DCT (Dual Clutch Transmission) like the Porsche PDK is not remotely comparable to a torque converter based transmission. Yet, both are categorized as "automatic".

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#129

Post by csours »

taurath wrote: post #65

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.

I'd love to have an electric drive for first gear, and manual for the other gears.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#130

Post by joeblau »

danans wrote: post #109
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…

Some years ago, Brammo developed, but never sold, a 6 speed electric motorcycle: https://www.wired.com/2011/05/brammo-six-speed-tranmission The idea was that you got the low speed torque of an electric motor and the high top speed of a ICE. It was probably a marginal improvement though, and really more of a manual transmission nostalgia play.

That is interesting. The one electric motorcycle that I heard of that was super fast was the KillaCycle[1]. I think it only had one gear though and a 0-60 mph of 0.97 seconds. The motorcycle nearly killed it's owner[2].

[1] - http://www.killacycle.com/

[2] - https://www.engadget.com/2007/09/13/all-electric-killacycle-...

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