111–120 of 875 posts
I ride a motorcycle most of the time, and I will always love manually pulling the clutch and clunking into the next gear; gives me more of a man and machine bond.
But I must admit, I struggled a little in a car. Car's required much finer movements than I was used to.
It's faster, it's more fuel economic and it reduces engine wear
If you read the article is says that dual clutch automatics are much faster than manual transmission and most modern automatics have 7 to 10 gears for better fuel efficiency but no one is willing to use a manual transmission with that many gears.
I grew up learning to drive a manual transmission car. Awesome. I loved the feeling of driving and shifting gears up the hilly, mountainous, twisty horrible roads in Jamaica. Exhilarating!
But cars got better. I got older, and now automatic transmissions are so much more efficient than manual transmissions * for ordinary people *.
We're not talking about people who love driving here. We are talking about people who drive an ordinary car. People who just want to commute and relax. We are not talking about Porsche or Konignsegg's (sp) latest car with a manual transmission.
These days I'm in a taxi in Thailand almost every day, and half of the drivers use a manual transmission and the other half use an automatic transmission. I think the reason is that cars with manual transmissions are older and cheaper.
But at the same time, the driving experience in those taxis with the manual transmission is horrible. Herky-jerky, and most of the drivers don't even know how to use the manual correctly.
The world changes. It is what it is.
I wouldn't jump to this conclusion just yet! Porsche, Ferrari, etc all commanded huge premiums this year for their manual versions. Specifically among younger buyers and first time buyers! You even see this effect downmarket - Toyota promised to never make a manual version of their Supra, then just this last year they put together a cobbled transmission to save their car. Manuals are also an order of magnitude less c…
> it’s not something you master overnight. I’m not ashamed to mention that it took me a few sessions in a parking lot to get the fundamentals down This kind of line always confuses me. I mean, I remember my first driving lesson in the UK. Guy arrived in a BMW 116, manual. He said to me: what is there to explain, you get in and drive. So I got in and drove. Did my first hour, took 5 minutes to get comfortable with the…
I reiterate my compromise proposal: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32397975 I will give up my manual transmission, if you will bring back pull-knobs, twist knobs and other tactile switches for the main controls of my vehicle, with the appropriate tactile feedback at set points so I can set them without looking. After thinking on it, I am going to raise my demands, however: you also need to produce cars that are…
I wouldn't jump to this conclusion just yet! Porsche, Ferrari, etc all commanded huge premiums this year for their manual versions. Specifically among younger buyers and first time buyers! You even see this effect downmarket - Toyota promised to never make a manual version of their Supra, then just this last year they put together a cobbled transmission to save their car. Manuals are also an order of magnitude less c…
But they've been putting a delicious 6 speed manual in their FRS/GT86/BRZ for 10 years, and continue to.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most modern automatic transmissions let you pick a gear if you really want to, either with paddle shifters on the wheel or a sideways +/- slot next to "D" on the gear lever. You don't get the sensation of letting the clutch go at juuust the right revs, but hey, there are always motorcycles.
Motorcycles are seeing some movement towards DCT too.
I wouldn't jump to this conclusion just yet! Porsche, Ferrari, etc all commanded huge premiums this year for their manual versions. Specifically among younger buyers and first time buyers! You even see this effect downmarket - Toyota promised to never make a manual version of their Supra, then just this last year they put together a cobbled transmission to save their car. Manuals are also an order of magnitude less c…
My VW GTI with 6 gear manual is such a joy. And what I fail to convey to my GenZ kids is the simplicity of it. Once I started the engine on a hill by engaging clutch. Kids were puzzled, but not so impressed. Oh well.
> it’s not something you master overnight. I’m not ashamed to mention that it took me a few sessions in a parking lot to get the fundamentals down This kind of line always confuses me. I mean, I remember my first driving lesson in the UK. Guy arrived in a BMW 116, manual. He said to me: what is there to explain, you get in and drive. So I got in and drove. Did my first hour, took 5 minutes to get comfortable with the…
I guess you are just better people across the pond. It took me more like an hour to get used to manual, and weeks before I could do it smoothly 100% of the time.