In late 90s, when I was young and beautiful :-), I was joking about americans being too unskilful to drive car with manual, so they need automatic. But honestly, now I thing we europeans were just too stubborn not accepting auto transmission and thinking we're kind of superior because of it. And nowadays automatic transmission is becoming so popular, my 65y old dad is willing to have it.
Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions
131–140 of 893 posts
Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions
#132I'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…
I just spent two hours this morning in bumper to bumper traffic. In a diesel. With a manual. Shifting and clutching the entire time. All that monstrous low end torque just made the diesel want to take off the entire time.
Still I wouldn't change that for anything in the world. I always hated the lag between stepping on the gas pedal and the car beginning to move in the automatic. No clutch. That's no life, sucking all the enjoyment out of operating machinery.
Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions
#133I 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…
>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.
Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions
#134I 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…
In Norway, too, we have the same restriction. I think I've driven a manual transmission car once or perhaps twice since my driver's test. As for eco-driving, I was told in no uncertain terms by the guy who examined me that if I tried to drive as eco-friendly as the official course material suggested, he'd fail me for being a hazard to other traffic.
That's because you'll prefer to run over pedestrians crossing the street so you don't have to break and waste kinetic energy.
Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions
#135Holy crap, I didn't realise it was quite like that. I knew it was rare for people to know manual transmissions but why such a preference for automatic?
In Australia pretty much everyone I know can drive manual, most cars come with the option and most cheaper cars are manual. It was somewhat of a masculinity thing too, and still is according to my younger siblings.
To be honest I'm surprised the most that America doesn't have that same psuedo masculinity requirement thing happening. I am not saying it's good to have, just that I am surprised it's not there.
As far as myself, I have always much preferred manual and find myself utterly disillusioned with automatics. No engine braking so you're constantly between pedals, gearbox never in the best gear because it can't predict your actions, and they make even the nicest motors sound like droning slugs.
Even if you don't intend to go racing, a manual is just a bit more interesting and keeps you paying attention the whole trip, in my experience at least.
Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions
#136I think anyone who drives off-road in the mountains knows how much better sticks are then automatics. It's extremely frustrating to take automatic trucks on steep off road terrain.
> how much better sticks are then automatics
How much better for what? You missed a qualifier there. For exact control over torque-vs-speed - Yes. For the comfort of driving - No.
Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions
#137In late 90s, when I was young and beautiful :-), I was joking about americans being too unskilful to drive car with manual, so they need automatic. But honestly, now I thing we europeans were just too stubborn not accepting auto transmission and thinking we're kind of superior because of it. And nowadays automatic transmission is becoming so popular, my 65y old dad is willing to have it.
Logic tells me that if I can do A and B because of A, whereas I can only do B because of B, I'm superior in the A, B data set compared to someone who is in just the B subset, where A, B set is driving.
Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions
#138I 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…
Also, recently even in Sweden we passed the point when more than 50% of all new cars have an automatic gearbox! Manual gearboxes are not here to stay.
Next car I'm getting, which is soon, is going to be an automatic if my plans turn out well. For some car models its very hard to find manual gearboxes, for example Kia Sorento manual is unusual. I assume its the more expensive car, the less likely it is to have a manual tranmission.
Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions
#139Earlier 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.
You're right, however those only work at higher speeds, hence the "especially with city driving" :)
From wikipedia : A Lock-up clutch is used in some automatic transmissions for motor vehicles. Above a certain speed (usually 60 km/h) it locks the torque converter to minimise power loss and improve fuel efficiency.
Re: Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions
#140I 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…
Automatics tend to be less fuel efficient, especially older cars. More recently, CVT style transmissions have been able to be more reasonable. But a typical automatic use much less direct ways to transfer the power, than a simple gear to gear linkage.