There’s no point for stick shift other than entertainment these days. When computers can synthesize porn they can definitely shift gears better than a human.
How America lost its love for the stick shift
241–250 of 729 posts
Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know what it means. And I've seen some folks do it fast enough to catch followers by surprise. Especially at night. To that point, I'm not trying to claim it is insurmountably dangerous. It is more dangerous that just using the brakes, though.
Yep, one of my favorite ways to mess with tailgaters was to drop a gear or two and drop the clutch. *of course not recommending anyone ever do this since it's dangerous as hell.
Idea: have the brakes come on when the car decelerates independent of whether or not the brakes are engaged. Simple a sensor that detects deceleration in excess of 'X' Gs will enable the brake lights.
Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
I found that having a stick in traffic was actually easier for me. I could keep it in one gear which meant not moving my foot from brake to gas (I could just use engine breaking and use just the gas).
Are you not still using the clutch when you come to a stop?
I did, but as long as traffic doesn't come to a complete stop it wasn't often necessary. Also, that's the other foot, so it doesn't have to move either. :)
Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift
#244I have a little 6-speed BMW right now that’s so fun to drive around, but I think my next car will probably be a Model 3.
Shifting is fun when the roads aren’t a disaster, but between traffic and the fact that ICEs are pretty much untenable in the long-term, it’s hard to justify buying another manual. Plus, the options for new stick shift cars seem to be dwindling every year anyway.
I’d like to be able to continue driving a standard, but it just makes less and less sense (for me, at least).
Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can still skip from 2-6 on a freeway onramp or 6-4 for passing faster than 8/10 speeds can go 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. There's no point revving out all my gears in real world driving, I just want to reach the speed limit as fast as possible then go into overdrive. DCTs are very fast at switching into what they think is your next gear. They're quite slow at switching if you want to switch more gears.
2-6? That never happens. You'd probably blow your engine before you did it. Not many people hitting 50 mph in 2nd gear.
Tell that to Porsche who thinks 85mph is a reasonable top end for 2nd gear. Even a Miata will hit ~60 in 2nd.
Given the low end for 6th is around 35mph, 2-6 is plenty doable without going anywhere near redline.
Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift
#246Speaking as someone who has owned a number of sports cars with manual transmissions, I can tell you why I finally made the switch to automatic: Adaptive cruise control in stop and go traffic. I used to have to deal with a six-speed manual transmission in stop and go traffic for an hour every day, and it was pure torture. I mean, sure, it was fun for a weekend drive in the mountains, but it sucked the rest of the time…
People always say this, but frankly I find stop-and-go traffic isn't that bad if you put the car into neutral instead of holding down the clutch the whole time. I haven't looked back since I bought my first manual car. I never use cruise control at all though, even when I had an automatic car.
The key word in the parent post is "adaptive". With adaptive CC, you don't do anything in stop and go traffic other than minor steering. The car just keeps about a car length distance with the car in front. It is very nice convenience feature.
Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
the opposite is true in the long run . In the finalized scenario, where public transport is cheap, functional, useful and maintainable, or modern cities have been totally rewritten to support pedestrian first, it makes more sense than cars. But between removing cars today, and the day public transport actually reaches such a state, is long and far, and you fuck the car-less over for the entire duration. You can't sud…
To be fair, the OP didn't suggest taking away cars from poor people, just from people who can't be bothered to learn to drive responsibly.
If you take cars away from every group equally, then the poor are the least capable of finding an alternative (because they usually cost). In fact, if you take anything from the entire population in equal measure, its bound to affect the poor the most (because they’re the least capable of finding alternatives to the status quo).
So in any such argument, they’d naturally become the front of the topic.
If anyone is going to get fucked by a broad policy, it’s the poor.
Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift
#248This 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…
> Don't forget letting the female half of the population drive in the US is a relatively new development as well... This is completely false, my understanding is there was never a prohibition against women driving in the USA, although maybe at one point in the past it was less common. Also I don't see what this has to do with your earlier point about drunk driving.
I'm not saying it was illegal.
It was largely disallowed. Men made all the money, automobiles were expensive and complicated, and it was still considered uncertain if women were capable of handling the complexity.
Our history is full of examples of activities effectively prevented en masse by society without being explicitly illegal.
Just because our past is embarrassing doesn't make it untrue.
Edit:
With regards to how it integrates into my comments about drunk driving and designated drivers; having women become generally accepted as peers in the operation of automobiles changed the parameters for purchasing the vehicle for the household.
If I'm going to continue drinking regularly, and I'm no longer allowed to drive drunk, and we collectively regard women as perfectly acceptable behind the wheel - I'm buying a car that I know my wife can drive as well as I can, not necessarily my preferred model.
Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift
#249My father bought me my first car, under the conditions that it had to be a stick, since he wanted me to learn in general, and since you have to pay attention more to the road, your likelihood of getting into an accident decreases significantly. Now I drive a manual Golf GTI and I'm firmly of the "cold dead hands" camp with having it. I always wonder why other people don't like driving, and then I drive their cars. Ha…
Note that 2018 Volkswagen cars come with 6 years / 72k miles warranty... something to consider if you're unsure if you should get a new one now or later (as I doubt they'll keep this high warranty term for long, it was introduced to win back customers after #dieselgate).
Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift
#250Except the article doesn't answer it at all. Why did America lose its love... when other countries (e.g. rich European countries) continue to buy majority stick? All of the reasons given for the US presumably apply to e.g. Germany too, no? Except no transformation there...
Cars are much more expensive in Europe due to taxes and various other reasons. Since manuals are cheaper there's a better chance that there are more manuals in your price range.