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The end of the manual transmission is near?

popularmechanics.com

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Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#211

Post by ghaff »

gerdesj wrote: post #94
rad_gruchalski wrote: post #48

> 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…

It's unlikely it took you five minutes to get the hang of clutch control and shifting gears. OK, it is possible you managed to avoid kangerooing but only for a small range of circumstances. From rest (with a gear selected and clutch depressed), you have to unlatch the handbrake, whilst at the same time gradually engage the clutch and deploy power via the throttle pedal. You have to ensure you don't go backwards on a…

When I bought a manual about 25 years ago, I had tried out a stick a few times but had never seriously driven one. I definitely wasn't comfortable in anything like 5 minutes. Especially on non-flat roads; for the first month or so I planned my commute a bit around not being in stop and go traffic especially on any hills.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#212

Post by lobotryas »

analog31 wrote: post #203

I probably own my last manual car, a Scion XA. When I was a teenager, driving stick was fun. It conferred a feeling of skill and exclusiveness, and also a way to drive like a teenager despite an underpowered engine on my way to my cello lesson. Today, I've paid my dues. I've pushed the lever back and forth, and stepped on the pedal, probably millions of times. It makes me feel like I'm in one of those psychology expe…

Call me a teenager because, years later, I still enjoy the things you mention about driving stick.

The difference is that I own two cars: a boring and comfy automatic for DD and a manual Porsche for the weekends.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#214

Post by legitster »

bergenty wrote: post #150
blackfawn wrote: post #141

I doubt I'll never buy an automatic transmission vehicle. If that means never buying a new car after some point, then so be it. I've had quite a few manual transmission cars over the years and have driven them through all the things people complain about like steep hills in icy winters, stop and go traffic for an hour or two commute, etc. and I'd still go for a MT every time. Not only is it cheaper and less complex,…

Manual is stupid. Automatics have been better than manual for a while and who the hell wants to spend all that time changing gears for no reason. Boring is the silliest rationalization there is.

No post body was provided.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#215

Post by EvanAnderson »

wrigby wrote: post #58
rad_gruchalski wrote: post #48

> 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 it depends on the car you started in and how easy it is to stall. My Jeep Cherokee with an inline 6 would have been an incredibly easy car to learn on, but my RX-8 - with about the same amount of low-end torque as a sewing machine - was much less forgiving. If it had been my first manual car, it would have taken ages to feel comfortable. And to your question, the answer is actually yes. Because fewer folks in…

> I guess it depends on the car you started in and how easy it is to stall.

100% this. My 5-speed Jetta TDi was actually hard to stall w/ all its torque (even at idle). I learned on a 3-cyl. Geo Metro, though, and it was laughably easy to stall.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#216

Post by tomjakubowski »

voldacar wrote: post #96
recursivedoubts wrote: post #7

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…

The government has made it all but illegal to make a car that isn't ugly

No. If your new car is ugly, you can blame only yourself: for failing to purchase a Porsche 911 instead.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#217

Post by BFLpL0QNek »

pengaru wrote: post #208

Well so is the end of the ICE said transmission bolts up to, good riddance through that lens. Now where's my EV MX-5 without any self-driving and touchscreen/smartphone-on-wheels garbage?

There’s a bunch of EV kits appearing for classic vehicles.

It’s looking like if you want an electric vehicle without non of the other nonsense that comes with new vehicles the conversion kits will be the way to go.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#218

Post by katbyte »

quacked wrote: post #142

I would pay $25,000 cash for a new manual transmission '00s-style mid-sized pickup with hand-crank windows and knobs for the temperature and radio. Last time I drove a car from after 2018 it started automatically keeping pace with the car in front of me on the highway, and you couldn't manually close the trunk but instead had to push a button and wait for it to close. I hate modern cars.

i just got a 2022 MT tacoma and am really enjoying it, its new but still a toyota. i also couldn't imagine off roading with an automatic.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#219

Post by XorNot »

bityard wrote: post #145
KennyBlanken wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mechanical controls are safety-related - it's harder and more expensive to engineer a crash-safe interior with knobs and such. That's why with modern crash testing you saw a very rapid depreciation of pull-out knobs and the like. It's also harder to manufacture and repair. Electronic controls? You run power and a data bus to the unit, and you're done. I don't think people understand how much engineering goes into a d…

On the other hand, there will be fewer crashes due to the driver having to take his/her eyes of the road in order to squint at which identical button out of 25 turns the blower down one notch.

Were there fewer crashes when these cars were the norm? No. [1,2,3,4]

The number of crashes per year has remained remarkably stable year over year, despite the number of driven miles and number of cars rising enormously. Conversely the number of fatalities due to crashes has dropped considerably.

So despite driving many, many more miles then they did previously, people aren't dying in crashes at a greater rate (total crashes is harder to track due to intermittent and inconsistent reporting data).

[1] https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/yearl... [2] https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/historical-fatalit... [3] https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in...

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#220

Post by samatman »

dinom wrote: post #196
QuarterReptile wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like it should be straightforward to pull out any cell radios, no? I've removed them from cell phones with ease, and I have to think the larger size of a car would lend itself to this being easy.

You're making terrible assumptions here. The fact is you'll need special tools and then you'll need to follow a special procedure as if you're defusing a bomb. Otherwise... the radio will phone home and inform the mother-ship it's being tampered with. The prima facie reason is that in case of an accident the car should be able to request help even if everyone inside the car is unconscious. The other reason is, of cou…

You made all that up. Why?
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