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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?

#241

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

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…

> and reasonably sized as in the 50s and 60s.

So, the original Mini Cooper?

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#242

Post by [deleted] »

PheonixPharts wrote: post #78
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…

If it's in your budget I highly recommend test driving the Porsche Macan. It has a screen but as far as I can tell it's not required for anything that doesn't implicitly require a screen (i.e. GPS). Overall the car is amazingly well designed. The tactile experience is there, you can feel your way around everything without moving your eyes from the road/immediate dash area. It still has an analog clock. I also feel li…

[deleted]

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#243

Post by Pxtl »

Judgmentality wrote: post #105
voldacar wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

As someone who hates how ugly modern cars have become, I can also acknowledge the extraordinary leap in safety they've achieved since then. Many of the rules are designed around safety. Although a counterpoint to this is the giant A pillars limit visibility so much as to be dangerous themselves.

Yeah but that's mostly a risk for the people outside of the vehicle so that's okay.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#244

Post by WalterBright »

sbaiddn wrote: post #234
WalterBright wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also heel-toe it, but that takes significant practice.

On the Ranger you learned to perfect the heel- toe within a few thousand miles . The funnest was uphill on snow from a dead stop with no weight on the bed. Luckily my truck had 4x4

I've burned my clutch so much doing that, now I put the 4x4 into "granny" low, and just quickly move from brake to gas and drop the clutch. It rolls back only a couple inches. But I really should put more effort into the heel-toe.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#245

Post by Salgat »

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,…

I ended up going back to automatic after 3 years of manual. Automatic is more fuel efficient, more convenient, and honestly I can't enjoy urban traffic either way, at least with automatic I don't have to think about it. If I truly want to enjoy a manual I'll do it on the race track.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#246

Post by sbaiddn »

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 had a 2011 3.0 V6 Ford Ranger with 4X4 with a 5 speed manual. $20 000 new.

Manual locks Manual windows.

In 2015, when my first kid was born, I traded it in for my SUV. Got my 20k back for it.

Every time I see a Ranger, my heart aches

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#247

Post by Retric »

Pxtl wrote: post #240
hinkley wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A great number of the cool designs from the 50's and 60's are illegal because the front of the car eats people. Swallows them, chews them up, and spits them out. The sloped design of new cars isn't just about aerodynamics. In a low-speed impact a pedestrian is lifted onto the hood. Forward leaning grills, such as on the Dodge Charger, some of the beefier Mustangs, and any number of other muscle cars or sedans, instea…

Okay but then why is the rolling brick wall of a modern pickup allowed?

It’s more than just about style. As much as modern pickup trucks have become a fashion statement, many large pickup trucks are providing real utility to construction, farming, etc.

And much like 18 wheelers they can’t scale down the front while maintaining utility because they need large engines and high ground clearance.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#248

Post by dinom »

samatman wrote: post #220
dinom wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I didn't make any of that up.... have you ever removed an onstar unit from a vehicle? Did you ever try to install linux on an xbox360?

Radios these days are software defined. They can sit on the same chip that uses a trusted bootloader and also provides an engine control module. Marketing departments can and will bend and pervert engineering specifications to highlight the consumer benefits and minimize the profit motive.

QED

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#249

Post by erisinger »

spindle wrote: post #230
mrcartmeneses wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I’m constantly leaning around in my Yaris trying to see what is in front of me. Great car to drive though!

I rented a Toyota recently. The A-pillars were so huge that I thought I'd better drive around near the rental company for a while to get used to it. So I did that, concentrating on driving safely instead of concentrating on navigating. I ended up on a hospital campus, in a lane intended only for ambulances. There was no visibility for cars shorter than ambulances, and I crashed on the way out. (At about 10 km/h, so n…

That was not anticlimactic.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#250

Post by [deleted] »

theluketaylor wrote: post #222
CamperBob2 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overall the car is amazingly well designed. The tactile experience is there, you can feel your way around everything without moving your eyes from the road/immediate dash area. Not anymore, unfortunately. In the current gen (2022+) Macan they got rid of the buttons in favor of a glossy touch panel. It looks cleaner, but it won't by the time you get home from the dealership.

And the EV Macan due out in 2024 will be even more screen. I'm sure it will have the same 3 screen setup as Taycan, with the curved instrument cluster, landscape main dash screen, and portrait lower screen for HVAC and charging controls.

[deleted]
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