Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The end of the manual transmission is near?

popularmechanics.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 875 posts

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#291

Post by tadfisher »

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?

Because they're not classified as passenger vehicles, so they don't have to meet the same standards.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#292

Post by akira2501 »

levismaina wrote: post #271

In the end when most vehicles are electric, I wonder if manufacturers will continue making niche "mechanical" cars for motoring enthusiasts, not unlike how mechanical watches survive to this day even with digital and more accurate ways to keep time.

Of course they will. These threads are all so car-centric. Motorcycles are still a popular option, for the very reason you ponder. And most of them are still manual.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#293

Post by schuke »

levismaina wrote: post #271

In the end when most vehicles are electric, I wonder if manufacturers will continue making niche "mechanical" cars for motoring enthusiasts, not unlike how mechanical watches survive to this day even with digital and more accurate ways to keep time.

I often think about it too. The car seems to be much more complex than a mechanical watch. The watch can perform very well without regular maintenance but car cannot. And the latter can be very dirty, with all the oil, gasoline, dirt, smell, etc. Cars run on much much more harsh conditions with lots of exposed parts , one of whose failure can lead to the car being useless. Whereas for the watch basically everything is in an enclosure. It can go for decades without the need of opening.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#294

Post by cancerhacker »

WalterBright wrote: post #236
sbaiddn wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aint it great when that heel toe the shifter slips in with no resistance and the de-clutching didnt affect the engine at all? Perfect engine speed match. Perfect syncro match. The apex of the curve behind you and full throttle ahead

Yup. It's magical being one with the machine on the perfect line in a curve, easing the wheel straight as you roll back on the gas.

Damn, looks like I picked the wrong millennium to quit smoking. That thread was

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#295

Post by schuke »

jreese wrote: post #83
falcolas wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Truckers have entered the thread. (I agree though, since I don’t drive a semi or dump truck.)

Trucks don't have 18 gears for efficiency. They have 18 gears because low-revving diesel engines have small power bands; mix that with heavy loads, and it pretty much necessitates having a lot of short, closely-spaced gear ratios, so that maximum torque can be achieved consistently, no matter what speed you're at. Also, FWIW, they don't just pick between 18 gears with a single shifter. They have multiple inputs that…

Sounds like they could really use a CVT. ;)

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#296

Post by ryandrake »

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,…

When he was alive, my ol grandpa once told me: "Nobody makes anything for me anymore--they've all just left me behind!" I thought to myself HA! I'll never get like that! I'm always going to be an early adopter, I'll always be optimistic for the new, I believe that technology always marches forward!

Now that I'm getting up there in age, despite swearing otherwise, I'm starting to feel like grandpa. I'm just not the target market anymore, for anything. New cars are boring identical bars of soap with dumb-dumb transmissions. New homes are ugly and made of cheap materials. Computers keep getting more and more locked down and are losing peripheral ports. Everything from appliances to clothing wears out after a few years. Media is made for 5 minute attention spans. Everyone leases and streams things instead of owning them. You can't even buy a lot of software anymore, you have to pay every month. Everything seems to be just getting worse, and only my age cohort seems to notice it. We're turning into those stereotypical cranky old people that we used to ridicule.

The boomers before me were a huge market, and for a long, long time, industry could profitably make things for their taste. Now everything is made for 18-38 year olds who are also a ginormous generation with similar taste. My generation was tiny, and no marketer really ended up caring what we like. I got skipped over, and indeed it's starting to feel like nobody makes anything for me anymore!

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#297

Post by [deleted] »

emp wrote: post #49

If I could afford a Porsche I would still get a manual option. Changing gears cleanly, heel-toe blipping the throttle when gearing down, getting the right gear at the right time - simple pleasures. It seems the more refined cars become the less character they have. Even the equivalent cars to my old dependable friend feel like lesser cars. Annoy CVTs, electric power steering, and finishes that feel cheap. And windows…

[deleted]

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#298

Post by vlan0 »

masklinn wrote: post #274
eric4smith wrote: post #113

Manual transmissions are dead. 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…

> I got older, and now automatic transmissions are so much more efficient than manual transmissions * for ordinary people *. It’s not just ordinary people. The opposite, if anything. F1 and rally cars haven’t been manual for decades. I don’t think any modern super is manual. Though with the ev-ification the point is moot as save for a few rare exceptions they’re single-gear.

While true, the motivating factors for F1 and mass production vehicles are not the same. F1 is pure min/max. Which of course means manual is gone.

But min/max on my GTI means I lose connection with the vehicle and my ability to drive matters less. For what? .4 faster 0-60 or 1/4? Eh

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#299

Post by AlexandrB »

Retric wrote: post #287
NonNefarious wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what? The question stands.

You asked why, and the answer is cost vs benefit. Car styling alone doesn’t justify the risk to pedestrians, large truck utility can. Yes, this tradeoff kills people, but so do all sorts of things like not physically preventing cars from driving 80+MPH.

This is a non answer. Australia has a vehicle style commonly referred to as a "ute"[1]. I think it stand for "utility". Which is basically a car with a truck bed in the back. This provides many of the advantages of a pickup without the increased danger to pedestrians. Why are car companies not marketing/selling these to the average consumer instead of the monster RAMs and F150s? I suspect the reason has everything to do with styling and little to do with utility.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ute_(vehicle)

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#300

Post by pcthrowaway »

kyleee wrote: post #17
tjr225 wrote: post #13

Manual transmission fetishism is perplexing to me. I’ve owned two manual transmission cars… an old Hyundai Elantra and an even older Toyota pickup. I can’t think of a single reason I would not rather have the automatic version of either. I also presume manual transmissions will continue to be available to the enthusiasts and professionals/sportspeople who have an actual reason to desire them.

neither of those cars sounds particularly fun to drive, so that's probably where your disconnect is. it's very fun to row through the gears of a moderately sporty car; that's where people's "fetishm" (more accurately "preference") comes from

Honestly, my manual 97 Civic was so much more fun to drive than my current car (a Prius V).

I'm on board with it being a hybrid (though it actually gets roughly the same fuel economy on the highway) and especially happy with gas prices what they are now. But I don't think you need a sporty car to appreciate the torque you generate in a manual

Post reply on HN